HARTFORD, Conn. — In a nearly-unanimous decision, former UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers was crowned the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year on Tuesday after a historic first season with the Dallas Wings.

Bueckers received her trophy from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert during an appearance on "The Jennifer Hudson Show." The superstar received 70 of a possible 72 votes from the media panel that decides the league’s end-of-season awards. She was also named Rookie of the Year and selected to the All-WNBA second team by the Associated Press last week.

Bueckers is the seventh UConn alum to win WNBA Rookie of the Year and the first since Crystal Dangerfield earned the honor with the Minnesota Lynx in 2020. She joins an elite group of former Huskies that also includes Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier. She is the first player since Stewart in 2016 to receive the award after winning an NCAA championship in the same year.

Bueckers led Dallas in every major stat category except rebounds, averaging 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals, 3.9 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game. She set franchise rookie records for points and assists and became the fastest player in WNBA history to surpass 500 career points and 100 assists in her 28th game. Bueckers had the highest field-goal percentage of any starting guard in the league this season, hitting 47.7%, and she finished ranked top 10 among all players in points, steals, assists and efficiency. She was named a starter for the WNBA All-Star Game, becoming just the eighth rookie ever to earn the recognition.

Bueckers was also the only player in the WNBA this season to record a 40-point game, tying the rookie scoring record set by Cynthia Cooper in 1997 with 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks on Aug. 20. At 23 years old, Bueckers is more than a decade younger than Cooper was when she originally set the record in the league’s inaugural season. Bueckers shot 80% from the field in her performance, marking the most efficient 40-point game in WNBA history.

Bueckers was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA draft after capping her final college season by leading UConn to its first national title since 2016. She graduated as one of the Huskies’ all-time greats, becoming the fastest player in program history to score 2,000 career points and earning unanimous first-team All-American honors in all three of her fully-healthy seasons. She was a three-time Naismith Trophy finalist, winning the award as a freshman in 2021, and she earned the Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation’s best point guard in both 2021 and 2025. Bueckers was also a three-time Big East Player of the Year and concluded her college career undefeated against conference opponents.

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