Connecticut guard Paige Bueckers is the first freshman to be named AP Player of the Year for women’s basketball. Kathy Willens/Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — Paige Bueckers is in a class all by herself.
UConn’s star guard became the first freshman ever to win The Associated Press women’s basketball player of the year award Wednesday.
Bueckers helped lead the Huskies to their 13th consecutive Final Four with 28 points in the regional final win over Baylor on Monday night, just the latest star turn for the phenomenal 19-year-old Minnesota native.
“It’s amazing, surreal for people to think of me that highly and to be in that position as a freshman,” Bueckers said. “To get this award, I’m extremely humbled and grateful.”
Bueckers was informed she won the award by Coach Geno Auriemma during a team video session on Monday. She broke down as she accepted it in front of her teammates.
“A lot has happened over the past year things that could bring people down,” Bueckers said. “To get a reward and find something positive in these times, you cherish them. I was there with my teammates and coaching staff and to get that award with them around me makes you be so grateful for the position I’m in.”
Bueckers was an overwhelming choice, receiving 21 votes from the 30-member national media panel that chooses the weekly AP Top 25. Dana Evans of Louisville was second with four votes. Former UConn greats Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart both won the award as sophomores. All other winners have been juniors or seniors since the AP started honoring players in 1995.
It’s the 12th time a UConn player has been honored.
Bueckers, who is from Edina, Minnesota, is averaging 20.1 points, 5.9 assists and 4.8 rebounds this season. She became the first UConn player ever to score 30 or more points in three consecutive games and also set the school record for points in her NCAA debut when she had 24 in the opener against High Point.
“Name one player that has taken a team this young to where we are today,” Auriemma said. “Who’s done more than her? And if you can give me a better argument, then I would say I’ll vote for them, too. But I don’t think you can.”
AP COACH OF THE YEAR: Maryland Coach Brenda Frese was honored as The Associated Press women’s basketball coach of the year Wednesday for the second time in her career.
Maryland Coach Brenda Frese was honored as The Associated Press women’s basketball coach of the year on Wednesday. Paul W. Gillespie/The Baltimore Sun via AP
Frese received eight votes from the 30-member national media panel that votes on the weekly AP Top 25. Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer and North Carolina State Coach Wes Moore each received seven votes.
Maryland lost five starters from last year’s Big Ten championship team, but didn’t miss a beat, winning the conference for the sixth time in seven years and going 26-3. The Terrapins lost in the Sweet 16 to Texas.
Geno Auriemma, Muffet McGraw and Kim Mulkey are the only other coaches to win the award multiple times. She won her 500th game at Maryland earlier this season, making her the winningest coach in program history, and has 569 total victories at Maryland, Minnesota and Ball State.
NCAA PRESIDENT Mark Emmert promised the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association he will work with coaches to fix the “stark difference” between the Division I men’s and women’s tournaments.
NCAA President Mark Emmert. Susan Walsh/Associated Press
While Emmert noted that a major hurdle was trying to hold both basketball tournaments in a kind of identical format required by the coronavirus pandemic, he added nobody liked the results and nobody wants to see similar issues crop up in other sports in coming months.
“I, too, believe that it’s exactly the right moment to do it,” Emmert said. “You got my commitment, my personal commitment to spend an enormous amount of time and energy on on this problem and and making sure that we don’t lose the chance.”
Emmert and the NCAA’s heads of basketball Dan Gavitt and Lynn Holzman discussed the conditions in San Antonio on Wednesday with members of the WBCA, including two of the Final Four coaches — UConn’s Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley of South Carolina.
Several differences surfaced over the past two weeks, starting with female players, coaches and staff in San Antonio criticizing the NCAA for not initially providing a full weight-training area to the women’s teams, noting the men’s teams in Indianapolis did not have the same problem.
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