UConn’s Paige Bueckers brings ‘Minnesota nice’ to homecoming game - Just Women's Sports (2024)

Katie Manganelli

Nov 19, 2023

UConn’s Paige Bueckers grew up watching basketball in her home state of Minnesota. She has memories of Lynx and Golden Gophers games at Williams Arena — she attended those games starting when she was 10 or 12 years old.

Now, Bueckers will return to The Barn, but not as a spectator.

“It’s super surreal because I grew up going to games at The Barn and watching the Gophers and watching the Lynx play there,” Bueckers said to the Hartford Courant. “So to be playing there, where I grew up, my childhood, at my dream school wearing a UConn jersey in that arena, it’s like a surreal feeling for me.”

The Huskies are set to take on the Gophers in Minnesota at 5 p.m. ET Sunday in a homecoming game for Bueckers. Bueckers will be taking the same court her childhood idols took over a decade ago.

“I envisioned it when I was younger,” Bueckers said. “Just wanting to be the people who were playing on the court. As a young kid, that was where I wanted to be. You never knew what the future was going to hold, but it was something I aspired to do.”

UConn’s head coach Geno Auriemma goes out of his way to schedule homecoming games for his seniors, including two international matchups this season — one for Nika Mühl in Croatia during the Huskies’ preseason tour and one for Aaliyah Edwards in Toronto, which will be played in December.

Williams Arena is likely to be packed when the local star makes her return — more than 10,000 seats are expected to be filled when Bueckers takes the court at the 14,625-seat arena.

Among those 10,000 people will be Bueckers’ family, friends and other Minnesotans in the basketball community. And Bueckers credits these people with her upbringing.

“You often hear the phrase ‘Minnesota nice,’” Bueckers told CT Insider. “I think everything around here, just everybody knows everybody. Everybody’s nice to each other. Everybody’s like family once you meet them. So, I think that just is sort of why I love relationships, why I love people so much and why I love getting to know people so much and I think that has a lot to do with where I’m from.”

But for Bueckers, a homecoming game isn’t just about seeing family and friends. It’s about being who Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsey Whalen were to her for other young girls.

“I want to be an inspiration to kids,” Bueckers said. “I want people to see that injuries happen, adversity happens, but what do you do to come back from it? How hard do you attack that process? I want people to see passion when they see me play, fire and energy and that I love the game.”

Emma Hruby

Mar 18, 2024

Mallory Swanson made her NWSL return on Saturday, after having missed the majority of last season with a knee injury.

It was her first game with the Red Stars in 349 days, after she tore her patella tendon playing with the USWNT last April. She made her return to the USWNT earlier this year, coming in as a training camp player ahead of the Concacaf W Gold Cup. Interim head coach Twila Kilgore said that Swanson looked “phenomenal” in training.

On Saturday, Swanson got to showcase just how far she’s come in her recovery, being named to the Red Stars’ starting lineup.

Chicago got the 2-0 road win over Utah, and perhaps more importantly, Swanson looked like she hadn’t missed a beat. She wound up playing 80 minutes, which included two shots (one on target), passing accuracy of 81%, four crosses, four possession wins and two clearances.

All in a day's work for the USWNT and Chicago striker.

Lorne Donaldson, who coached Swanson during her time with youth club team Real Colorado, took over as the Red Stars coach in the offseason.

‘‘I haven’t seen the toughness in any player that I have seen in Mal,’’ Donaldson told the Chicago Sun-Times ahead of the match.

The fact that Swanson played 80 minutes means that she could be back to a full 90 sooner rather than later, which itself could lead to a full USWNT call-up and cap.

Emma Hruby

Mar 18, 2024

The Seattle Reign have officially been sold, with OL Groupe announcing on Monday the team has signed an agreement with a group that includes the Seattle Sounders ownership group.

The transaction still needs to be approved by the NWSL and MLS Board of Governors.Global investment firm Carlyle joins the Sounders ownership group in the purchasing of the club.

OL Groupe’s entire stake in the club will be sold, which amounts to 97% of the club’s share capital. They originally purchased the club in 2019 for approximately $3.5 million.

“The sale price is $58 million for 100% of the shares,” they said in a statement. Last October, Sportico had valued the club at $49 million.

According to OL Groupe, the sale is part of their strategy to refocus on men’s soccer. Recently, the group sold the women's side of Olympique Lyonnais to Washington Spirit owner Michele Kang.

"OL Groupe is delighted with this transaction as it ensures a locally-led group will continue OL Groupe's successful development of the Seattle franchise," the holding company said.

The Reign aren’t the first club to be sold this year, with the sale of the San Diego Wave for $113 million being announced last week. In August of last year, the Red Stars were sold to a group led by Laura Ricketts for $35.5 million and in January the Portland Thorns sold for $63 million, which was at the time the highest price ever paid for an NWSL team.

Angel City, the league’s most valuable team, is also reportedly exploring a sale of a controlling number of shares.

Emma Hruby

Mar 18, 2024

The Kansas City Current opened their new stadium on Saturday, which is believed to be the world’s first stadium purpose-built for a women’s professional team.

It was a full circle moment with the game being played against the Portland Thorns, 11 years after the two teams played the first-ever NWSL game at a high school football field in Overland Park, Kansas.

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The game was a sellout, with the Current putting on a show in front of 11,500 fans, taking down Portland 5-4 in a chaotic, back-and-forth match. For both the league and Kansas City, it was a monumental moment.

"I've only heard people talk about our game [Saturday] and not about Sporting [Kansas City, playing a MLS home game later that night],” Lo’eau LaBonta told ESPN. “Don't get me wrong, I love Sporting as well and I've been related to them [through marriage to Sporting player Roger Espinoza] for a while now, but that's what I'm hearing, and that's already different.

"Our faces are in the airport, on the streetcars. That would have never happened [before]. I bet you back in the day, not one person could name the team or when our game was gonna be on the weekend."

Members of the 1985 USWNT were in attendance, as the club celebrated the first-ever U.S. women’s national team. They also have a special spot in the stadium, recognizing their accomplishments.

MAHOMES LOVES IT#KCBABY pic.twitter.com/sKODjjlgux

— KC Current (@thekccurrent) March 16, 2024

It was a day of many firsts, as Vanessa DiBernardo had the first goal in the stadium’s history. Alex Pfeiffer also got on the scoresheet with what would turn out to be the game winner, becoming the youngest player to score in NWSL regular season history at just 16 years old.

“I think what this club is doing and setting the standard, and building this stadium, and people showing up and supporting it, and just women’s soccer growing in general, I think it’s just super special,” DiBernardo said. “Where we started with this league and where we are now, it just shows the growth and how much players have put into it and really pushed the standard, and how much we’ve kind of really had to fight for ourselves. And it’s just the start.”

Others celebrities were in attendance as well, including Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, who are also co-owners of the team. The duo kicked off the game with the stadium’s first “KC, baby!” chant.

"We've been saying if you build it they will come internally," NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told ESPN at halftime. "And then coming here and actually seeing what it means to actually invest in brick and mortar physical infrastructure, it's a game-changer."

Emma Hruby

Mar 18, 2024

The 68-team bracket for March Madness was revealed on Sunday, with Iowa facing a difficult road to the Final Four.

As expected, Iowa was named a 1-seed – the team’s first since 1992 – and will host the first two rounds of the tournament at home. But they’re joined by No. 2 seed UCLA and No. 3 seed LSU in their quadrant, setting up a number of possible blockbuster showdowns before they even reach the Final Four. That includes a possible national championship rematch with the Tigers in the Elite Eight.

They could also find themselves up against No. 4 seed Kansas State, a team that they played twice this season – and that beat them once.

"They’ve got the hardest road in my opinion. This is the hardest road," ESPN analyst Andraya Carter said during the selection show with Rebecca Lobo in agreement.

Other storylines in the region include a possible matchup between LSU guard Hailey Van Lith and her former team Louisville in the second round after the Cardinals were drawn in the Baton Rouge regional.

"Initially, I just thought, 'Oooh, this is a tough, tough region,'" LSU coach Kim Mulkey said of her first reaction to the bracket.

"You really have to go game to game. After you get out of the first round, every team is basically a top-25 team," Clark said. "You need a little luck, a good draw, need to be playing your best basketball, but I think the biggest thing for me is just enjoying every single second because this is the most fun basketball.”

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Other No. 1 seeds include South Carolina, who earned the No. 1 overall seed, USC and Texas. Stanford dropped to a 2-seed following their Pac-12 tournament final loss, and are joined by UCLA, Ohio State and Notre Dame. UConn, NC State and Oregon State join LSU as 3-seeds.

Columbia will be going dancing for the first time in school history, earning an at-large play-in bid against Vanderbilt. This is just the second time the Ivy League will have two teams in the NCAA tournament.