It’s been almost a year since Paige Bueckers left the UConn Huskies to join the WNBA. She had a great run in her college career, winning the NCAA trophy, Naismith College Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, and more.
Bueckers left UConn as one of the best players in the program’s history. She was the first overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, picked by the Dallas Wings. Bueckers has since established herself in the WNBA by winning Rookie of the Year.
Even though it’s been a year since Bueckers left the program, her teammates still miss her. UConn is in great hands as far as the roster is concerned, but the personal connection that Bueckers had with her teammates is what they all miss.
Jana El-Alfy, the Huskies center, recently talked about Bueckers and said that she misses her teammate. Born in Cairo, Egypt, the 20-year-old is observing the month of Ramadan, and those who observe it don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset.
When Bueckers was at UConn, she used to make breakfast for El-Alfy. She’d wake up before dawn for her teammate during the month of Ramadan. When the UConn center was asked about who’s cooking food for her now, she said:
“Just me. I’m missing Paige this year…It’s been fun, not as fun as last year.”
This year, Allie Ziebell was supposed to take over the cooking duties for her, but she’s been sick for a while, and El-Alfy doesn’t want her to prepare food in that condition. During their time together, Bueckers would make scrambled eggs for her teammate before waking her up for the meal.
Paige Bueckers on Her Off-Season Experience
The introduction of the Unrivaled league has brought a lot of positive changes for WNBA players. Earlier, players had to go to other countries to play in their leagues during the off-season. Now, they no longer have to do that.
During a recent conversation with ELLE, Bueckers was asked about her offseason and the experience of playing in the Unrivaled league.
“It’s been really great just to be able to have a league in the off-season where you can continue to get better, continue to compete against the best, build new relationships, and all be in one area, just learning so much from each other and growing in our friendships, too. That’s been fun,” she said.
Bueckers outlined that they’re still playing basketball at a high level and taking part in competitive games, but the overall experience is fun.
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