Paige Bueckers Named NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 Finalist

INDIANPOLIS – UConn ladies’s basketball alumna Paige Bueckers was chosen as certainly one of 30 finalists for the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year award, as introduced by the Woman of the Year Selection Committee Wednesday.

Graduating with a level in Human Development and Family Studies with a cumulative 3.49 GPA, Bueckers has made an influence each on and off the court docket as a Husky. During her time at UConn, she volunteered on the Connecticut Children’s Hospital the place she hung out with sufferers in-person and nearly whereas collaborating within the hospital’s social media based mostly fundraising campaigns.

Bueckers additionally supplied funding and assist without spending a dime grocery shops at Hopkins West Junior High School and UConn’s Storrs Campus from 2022-25 and had a downtown Minneapolis pop-up throughout ’22 NCAA Final Four Weekend. She was an lively member of UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma‘s charity occasions – Geno’s for the Kids Charity Dinner and Golf Tournament. Bueckers was the 2024 BIG EAST Scholar Athlete of the Year and a 2024 CSC First Team Academic All-American.

On the court docket, Bueckers, a part of the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Champion Team, was nothing shy of unbelievable for UConn. In 2025, she was the Wade Trophy recipient, Honda Sport Award winner, Nancy Lieberman National Point Guard of the Year. She was additionally a 2025 WBCA, AP, USBWA and Wooden Award First Team All-American. She is the primary ever three-time BIG EAST Tournament Most Outstanding Player and the fourth participant in league historical past to be named Player of the Year 3 times. 

Bueckers was chosen No. 1 within the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings and went on to win the league’s Rookie of the Year, WNBA All-Star and All-WNBA Second Team honors.

Established in 1991, the award is rooted in Title IX and acknowledges feminine student-athletes who’ve accomplished their undergraduate research and distinguished themselves of their neighborhood, in athletics and in teachers all through their school careers. 

Selected from a record-breaking 631 nominees submitted by member faculties — a bunch that was then narrowed to 167 nominees on the convention stage — the Top 30 honorees embody 10 from every of the three NCAA divisions. Each honoree has demonstrated excellence in teachers, athletics, neighborhood service and management. The honorees competed in a complete of 14 NCAA championship sports activities and two NCAA Emerging Sports for Women. 

The choice committee will decide three honorees from every NCAA division, for a complete of 9 finalists. From these finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year.

At the NCAA Convention in January, the NCAA Woman of the Year might be named, and the Top 30 might be celebrated.