Paige Bueckers and Geno Auriemma share a special bond. Not many players bring out Geno’s goofy and fun side. Bueckers is one of the rare players who do. Coach Auriemma has exchanged banter with Diana Taurasi over the years. However, if there is one more player that matches Auriemma word for word, it’s Bueckers.
The coach-player duo’s exchanges are always hilarious. In her time at UConn, Bueckers had a reputation for messing with Auriemma, and the coach always gave it right back to Bueckers. He always makes jokes about Bueckers’s flaws. Ever since Bueckers’s draft, people have missed the hilarious banter between the two. In a recent UConn reunion, the duo linked up and things were back to their hilarious best.
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“It was just a full circle moment of the all the emotions and everything that we had been through. My entire five years here at school. And pardon my language but it was my last time in game where I could give him [Geno Auriemma] some sh*t.” Paige joked in front of a packed crowd as UConn celebrated the NCAA ring ceremony.
She continued to pull coach Auriemma’s leg, “So he told me he loved me and of course I told him I hated him.” The crowd erupted with laughter as Bueckers further said, getting a little emotional, “So to just put everything in a hug, and signify everything we’ve been through and how much we’ve grown together into one hug. It meant the world to me.”
Despite Bueckers’s emotional moment, Geno wasn’t one to back down. He made fun of Bueckers right after and said, “Sounds like she’s the first person that got a hug for winning the national championship. Did you get one?” Geno asked one of the other UConn players as the crowd laughed.
UConn’s National Championship Ring Designed by Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme
Bueckers gave everyone a tour of how the national championship ring came into existence. She shared how she is a huge “silver girlie”, and how the whole team wanted mostly silver.
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Bueckers showed how UConn’s national championship trophy was in gold inside the sparkling silver ring. UConn is written above the trophy as “national champions” is engraved around in beautiful blue and silver color, along with diamonds on the side.
Bueckers shared, “You got your last name and your number. The other side, we’ve got 2025, the year we wont it and the power of friendship, which is the reason that we did win it. And then the bottom, vibes was our vibe of the year. We just went off of straight vibes and we stuck together through it all.”
“And on the inside of the ring, where you put your finger, you have national championship score, the final four score, the elite eight score and the sweet sixteen score. So kind of the journey to get there.” Bueckers concluded. She also showed the part of the basketball engraved with which the Huskies won their record 12th NCAA title.
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Azzi Fudd Reveals 1 Thing She Learned from GF Paige Bueckers Ahead of Last Season with UConn
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