The WNBA announced on Tuesday, Sept. 16 that Paige Bueckers was the recipient of the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award.
Bueckers has become the seventh former Husky to earn the honor. This also marks the fourth consecutive year that the first overall pick won the award.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert surprised Bueckers with the award on the Jennifer Hudson Show.
Bueckers received 70 of 72 votes for the award. The other two votes were for Washington’s Sonia Citron.
The Dallas Wings selected the UConn alum with their first overall pick back in April.
The Minnestoa native had no problem transitioning from college basketball to the WNBA and started all 36 games she participated in.
She averaged 19.2 points per game and scored double digits in 34 games. On top of that, the guard averaged 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals per contest and recorded two double doubles.
The UConn alum also was the only player ranked inside the top 10 in points, assists and steals per game and was the first rookie ever to average a minimum 15 points, five assists and shoot over 45 percent from the floor.
Bueckers scored 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks, the most ever by a rookie. In that game, she also became the first player in WNBA history to score 40 points while shooting 80 percent from the floor.
Her teammate, Arike Ogunbowale reposted the WNBA’s Instagram post celebrating Bueckers’s achievement with the caption “DUH!”
“Thank you God for an amazing rookie year,” Bueckers posted on Instagram. “Process over results. Unconditional joy and gratitude, so much to be thankful for. Love my squad, they all deserve Teammates of the Year in my book, nothing is possible without them. Now let’s keep on keeping on. Go wings!”
Stephon Castle, a UConn men’s basketball alum, won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award this year, making UConn the first ever school to produce a rookie of the year in both the WNBA and NBA in the same season.
