UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers named Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The UConn women’s basketball redshirt junior was named the 2023-24 Big East Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as announced by the conference Wednesday afternoon.
Bueckers is the first Husky to earn the honor since Maya Moore won it twice (2009-10 and in 2010-11). A Husky has been named Big East Scholar of the Year eight times.
Bueckers was chosen as this year’s honoree by the Conference’s Academic Awards Selection Committee and will receive a $2,000 scholarship as a reward.
The scholarship can be applied to graduate or professional studies as Bueckers will return to Storrs next year for a fifth season with UConn.
The Minnesota native is pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in human development and family studies and currently has a 3.497 grade point average.
She’s a three-time Big East All-Academic Team member, a four-time UConn Dean’s List honoree and a six-time member of the school’s Director of Athletics’ Honor Roll. She held a 3.930 GPA during the Fall 2023 semester.
Bueckers is also in the running for the conference’s Player of the Year award, which will be announced later this week.
She finished second in Big East games with 22.0 points per game, fifth with 4.3 assists per game and sixth in steals per game (2.0).
Bueckers helped lead UConn to its first undefeated Big East regular season title in three years and to the No. 1 seed in this weekend’s Big East Tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Most recently, Bueckers was named a top-five finalist for the 2024 Ann Meyers Drysdale award, which annually recognizes the nation’s best shooting guard.
After missing all last season due to an ACL injury and majority of the season prior due to a separate knee injury, Bueckers has picked up right where she left off following her National Player of the Year freshman season in 2020-21.
UConn begins the 2023-24 postseason on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament at noon in Uncasville.
