Film Room: How Paige Bueckers Was Perfect In Overtime For UConn
Paige Bueckers lifted the UConn Huskies over the NC State Wolfpack in the Elite Eight of Women's March Madness with a nearly perfect clutch performance.
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“Literally I was thinking, we have Paige Bueckers and they don't.”~Christyn Williams
A lot of elite players, coaching decisions, and bad calls from refs played a role in UConn’s 91-87 double overtime victory over NC State. But many shared UConn senior guard Christyn Williams’s thoughts about the difference in the game: the Huskies had Paige Bueckers and the Wolfpack didn’t.
The sophomore (how?!?!) superstar had a magical night in Bridgeport. Bueckers finished the game with 27 points on 10 of 15 shooting. 17 of those points came after 2:10 mark in 4th quarter. From that point on, she went 5 of 5 from field (until her last attempt late in 2 OT) along with 6 of 6 from the line. She also didn’t foul or turn the ball over in that span. Bueckers was almost perfect and UConn is still dancing because of it.
Game Review
In the first half, Paige clearly wasn’t 100% healthy or, at least, not 100% back to her normal self. She had just 4 points and shot 2 for 6 from the field. All three of her turnovers came in the first three quarters. She sent a couple of long passes sailing over her teammates’ heads. Her pull-up was a bit slower than usual early on and she seemed tentative to dribble into shots, which she does so well.
When crunch time came, Bueckers shook off the rust and became much more decisive. She hit a couple of shots late in the third quarter (as you can see below). These shots got her going and showed NC State that she would play a bigger role as the game progressed.
After a ho-hum fourth quarter, Bueckers got her only bucket of the quarter with 2 minutes remaining over Diamond Johnson. It was enough to force NC State to adjust their coverage on Bueckers before overtime. Coach Wes Moore had his bigs hedge on pick-and-rolls in order to allow the guards more time to go under or trap if things went right. Moore said after the game that he wanted to get the ball out of Bueckers’s hands. This proved to be a miscalculation because the Wolfpack couldn’t pry the ball out of her hands with a crowbar.
Bueckers ate on those hedges. Often, she will come off screens deliberately with her eyes up to read the defense and look for an open pass. When NC State tried to hedge, she put her head down and ran full speed into pull-up jumpers. Wolfpack star Elissa Cunane was the primary target because she isn’t capable of staying with Paige on the perimeter.
On the first two plays below, Cunane came out too cautiously and a bit late to slow Bueckers down. Cunane’s helper, Jakia Brown-Turner, was also late to help off her assignment. Buckers had plenty of time and space to rip open mid-rangers. In the last play, Cunane just said “to hell with it” and ran right into Bueckers, picking up a foul.
By the second overtime, Moore adjusted again and Cunane stopped hedging. But it didn’t help. Bueckers was on fire. She put up the first 4 points in UConn’s 6-0 run to start the overtime period, which would put the Huskies ahead for good. She hit a deep three off a handoff on an identical play to a miss in the first quarter. Then, she got to the elbow again and hit despite better help from Brown-Turner.
It was a masterpiece from Bueckers. She finished off the game with a deep ball to Christyn Williams as NC State frantically pressed. Williams hit a layup that kept UConn up by 4, even though Bueckers didn’t get an assist.
Takeaways
Paige Bueckers is just fantastic. Against most college guards, her height (5’11”) and speed typically give her an advantage in one of those categories. She can make tough shots from anywhere, which makes her impossible to defend with just one player. Her knowledge of the game and quick decision-making provide defenses with only bad choices on pick-and-rolls. With Bueckers, South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, and Stanford’s Haley Jones, the Final Four features three generational talents who not only have great skill but have also honed their crafts. (No disrespect to Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith, but she isn’t a generational talent…yet.)
I’m not going to criticize Wes Moore too much for his decisions on Paige Bueckers. Perhaps, NC State should have tried going over screens and seeing if their defense could crash on Bueckers. But she was already killing them from the mid-range and probably would have had open looks from there if NC State’s bigs stayed low. They could have also tried straight up traps. But Bueckers is an incredible passer and would have likely found open looks over NC State’s smaller guards. Moore may have opted to switch, as well. But Bueckers would have continued attacking Cunane with likely more success if Cunane had to switch. The choices were hard and all of them had drawbacks. Now, I think we can safely criticize him for taking his last timeout when UConn was also trying to call a timeout…
Cunane has to have better feet on the perimeter to succeed at the next level. I think she’s fast enough and smart enough to develop into, at least, an average backup center defensively with the hope of her offense making her more than that. But her performance against UConn put that deficiency in stark relief right before the WNBA draft.
This game was absolutely amazing. It had everything you could ever want from an Elite Eight matchup. Bueckers was a big part of why it was great, but she was just one part of it! If you didn’t see this game, go watch some highlights and read some other articles about it please!