It’s the Wednesday morning after the University of Connecticut Huskies won the NCAA national championship, and Paige Bueckers has finally taken off the basketball net she’s been wearing like a necklace all week—for now, anyway. “I took a break from it,” she jokes to Women’s Health via Zoom. “I’m not wearing it today.”
To be fair, the fifth-year senior has been waiting a long time to cut down a net, a decades-long basketball tradition that happens after a big victory. College teams will often grab the scissors after winning their conference championship or making it to the Final Four. But not UConn. Head coach Geno Auriemma reserves that honor for national championship wins. He’s got 12 now, a college basketball record, but Sunday’s game in Tampa Bay was Bueckers’ first.
“The expectations and the standards are so high at UConn,” says Bueckers, a three-time All-American, the 2021 national player of the year, and the fastest player in Huskies history to reach 2,000 career points. “There’s many milestones that you celebrate throughout the season. But there's really one goal at UConn, and you celebrate that one.”
Bueckers has plenty to celebrate this week. While she and the rest of Storrs, Connecticut are still buzzing from the national championship, she’s also preparing for Monday’s WNBA Draft, where she’ll likely be the No. 1 overall pick. And today she’ll announce a brand new deal with Ally Financial, which is becoming the official bank partner of the WNBA.
“The WNBA is on a meteoric rise,” Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing and PR officer at Ally, tells WH of her nearly five-year quest to partner with the league. “They literally won every innovator award you could win last year—the historic new broadcast contract, the viewership is undeniable, the cultural currency of the players in the league is phenomenal.”
That roster will soon include Bueckers, whose 3.6 million TikTok followers and 2.3 million Instagram followers hang on her every word. And while she’s often posting on behalf of her many name, image, and likeness deals, she also speaks candidly about the importance of protecting her brand and being smart with the money she makes. “She's got a bigger footprint on social media than any player that played in March Madness, either male or female,” Brimmer says. “[She] can help really sort through some of the noise and the clutter and be somebody that is both an authentic but a reliable voice around this notion of financial wellness.”
During the busiest week of her life, Bueckers took some time with Women's Health to break down UConn’s big win, all the viral moments that followed, and the many ways she’s using her platform for good—while also protecting her mental health in the process.
Women's Health: Has everything sunk in for you yet?
Paige Bueckers: No. I can't even believe what just happened. We're still processing, and still celebrating it. It's just been surreal and I don't think it's sunk in for me.
I heard that you were on the court celebrating with your first Diet Coke in a really long time. What’s the story there?
I hadn't had a pop the entire season, to just convince myself that I was being disciplined. Pop is just not the healthiest thing for you. So I wanted to do something good for myself and see if I could hold myself accountable with something.
I was at your open practice in Tampa, and it seemed like you all were so locked in—from warmups to shootarounds, I didn't see anyone miss a shot. What's the key to maintaining that intense focus when it feels like all the pressure is on you to win?
Staying present was huge for our team—just enjoying the moment, embracing the moment. Obviously you can get caught up in the pressure of playing for a national championship, but when you're playing for the possession and playing to win that 40 minutes, you're not really even worried about the stakes. And then just the level of attention to detail that the coaches enforce, and the practices and the reps‚ it's just what we're trained to do is to be consistent every single day.
At the same time, the bonds between this team are so special. A lot of you have been together for a long time, and it seems like you're really tight on and off the court. How do you balance that fun with the seriousness and focus—or are they connected?
I think they can coexist. We’re much more unserious off the court, but we carry that fun, light vibe on the court. I think that's what makes it so much fun to play with each other. We just enjoy being around each other. And we're the same people on and off the court. Some people might show emotion, some people might not. Some people might be more animated. But we all love each other, and the fun that we have is definitely both on and off the court.
It's crazy to have to go from Final Four straight to the WNBA Draft in less than a week. What's on your agenda this week? How do you plan to flip that switch to WNBA mode?
There's a couple different modes I'm in—still in celebration mode, getting prepared for the draft mode, and just being present in between that. There's definitely pre-draft stuff that I'm doing. I'm also trying to go back and forth from New York to Storrs to continue to keep celebrating with the team on what we just accomplished. We'll have a parade soon. And then the brand stuff—some stuff with Nike, Gatorade and some other brands. So, busy times!
Speaking of brand stuff, let's talk about what you’re working on with Ally. Why does this partnership make sense for you?
They just put their money where their mouth is, and they actually move based on action. They’ve invested so much into women's sports, and that's what it's all about here—investing in women and investing into what we do as athletes. I think they've done a tremendous job of doing that and bringing about action and change.
How do you view financial wellness, especially as you're transitioning into a new phase of your career?
I partner with Intuit, and I'm partnering with Ally. I'm learning more about business—how to manage my money, investing, equity—and I have a financial advisor, so he keeps me very well in tune to all that stuff. But you don't want to lean on him too much. You want to have your own knowledge as well. So to continue to build that knowledge, continue to build these relationships with people that can help me do it—great people who share the same values as me—that's a huge thing for me.
How important is it to you to not only maintain a life outside of basketball, but also set yourself up for a future beyond basketball?
You always hear that at some point, the ball stops bouncing. So you want to continue to build for your future—build your wealth, build your brand, build your portfolio, your resume—and then these relationships and partnerships can help you create opportunities for the future, for you, for people around you, and for the next generation to come. I think it's really important to continue to network as long as I'm still playing, and use those opportunities for after.
I don't know if you've seen this going viral this week, but there’s an interview you did at the beginning of the season after all the events you went to this summer—you said, “Everybody saw the world tour. They didn't see the work tour.”
I know. Thank God that worked out, right?
Right! Do you feel like you proved all the people wrong who said you couldn't have fun and do the brand deals and also train hard?
Yeah. I think I've also changed so much. The old me would've had so many screenshots and old tweets pulled up, stuff people said on Instagram and the comments—but I'm just so far removed from that stuff to where I'm not doing it for those people anymore. I'm doing it to prove the people that believe in me right. It’s fun to be able to say that you did what you said you were going to do. Just to be able to share that with my teammates and share that experience, that's what means the most to me.
Is that something you were intentionally doing this season, staying offline and staying in the zone? That has to be hard while you're in college and have the social media presence that you have.
Yeah, it's a balance. I've also worked with a sports psychologist this year to help me better process all that stuff and organize my thoughts and organize my values and [learn] how to detach from some of these worldly things that you can get caught up in. And then at the same time, you’ve got to know how much social media is important to NIL, and how to use the platform for good and not let anything get in the way of that.
I love that you mentioned your sports psychologist. Is there anything else that you did this year mentally to really level up your game?
Definitely grow as a leader, and that was in so many ways. Connecting with my teammates off the court, being there for them, leading by example, leading by voice. Putting everything aside and just wanting to win. Being present was the main thing that I focused on—capturing every moment in front of me, not having too many expectations, and being so present in the moment that you're not really focused on the future or on the past.
What does strength mean to you?
Strength, for me, is giving everything you have to whatever you're doing—being resilient, being gritty, being determined, being motivated. Strength for me also is from God, leaning on godly strength, and knowing that you're never doing something by yourself. You always have God's guidance and God's strength to lean on. He makes perfect in your weakness. So you’re really never not strong. It’s fighting through everything and using everything in life as an obstacle, as a journey, as something to conquer and something to dominate.
At the Final Four, there were so many girls braiding their hair like you. I saw a group of them holding a huge U.S.A. flag that had your face on it. Do you notice that, and what does it all mean to you—especially as you're about to be on an even bigger stage in the W?
I definitely take it in. I never want to take it for granted—people that spend their hard-earned money to support me, to support the team, to fly to watch us play, just to support women's sports and women's basketball in general. But it is crazy. I was just a young girl who aspired to be [like] that whole Minnesota Lynx dynasty, at the time. [Editor's note: The Lynx won four WNBA championships between 2011-2017, led by Hall of Famers Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, and Lindsay Whalen.] So to be able to be somebody that other young girls can aspire to be, it's a crazy experience. Life has really come full circle and I thank God for it every day.
Amanda Lucci is the director of special projects at Women’s Health, where she works on multi-platform brand initiatives and social media strategy. She also leads the sports and athletes vertical, traveling to cover the Paris Olympics, Women’s World Cup, WNBA Finals, and NCAA Final Four for WH. She has nearly 15 years of experience writing, editing, and managing social media for national and international publications and is also a NASM-certified personal trainer. A proud native of Pittsburgh, PA, she is a graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Follow her on Instagram @alucci.
