PAIGE BUECKERS RETURNS TO UCONN WOMEN

Two months and a dozen days later, the two-word tweet as the sun set Thursday night in Stoors, Conn., was just seven welcome words. “She’s back,” it said.

Yes, the 5-foot-11 sophomore All-America Paige Bueckers is giving up her sideline cheering and funny stuff to finally taking the court Friday night at the XL Center in Hartford against Big East opponent St. John’s, and at the University of Connecticut, these were long-awaited words.

Last year’s freshmen season brought her multiples of honors that included National Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. In her first four games this year, she was on target again with a 22.1 scoring average, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists.

But with a minute to go in the blowout win over visiting Notre Dame, she stumbled onto the Huskies sidelines and crunched her left knee. To break it down, it required surgery for what was an anterior tibial plateau fracture and a lateral meniscus tear. Sounds bad, and it was just that.

And until now, she was always on the UConn sidelines with a brace on the injured knee. She provided cheers and more cheers, she put on a show for the fans, and when she was able to move around more, she bounced around more, and even began walking and smiling more.

After a visit from the media during practice Thursday, she was cleared to play by the doctors who attended to her since day one. She was happy running up and down the court, driving to the basket and tossing up outside shots and trying some defense as the team cheered.

The team? Well, as of now these Huskies are playing better than ever. They have come together in every way, with teamwork the main adjustment. There is not a weak player in Geno Auriemma’s lineup. He now has depth he hasn’t had in sometime.

He has size, a quartet of 6-foot-5 players, two seniors who start, and off the bench he can sent in freshman Amari DeBerry and sophomore Paith Gabriel, with both getting better with each game,

He has a pair of super freshmen in 5-11 national high school Player of the Year guard Azzi Fudd and 6-2 Caroline Ducharme, two-time Massachusetts Player of Year. He has the 6-5 graduate senior Dorka Juhasz, who was twice Big Ten while playing for Ohio State and who originates from Hungary.

They are all good, very good, team players who find each other. Fudd and Ducharme can toss in outside shots that include 3s, and so can Juhasz.

Geno the genius, now in his 37th year and who owns a record 11 national championships, can start different lineups and anyone can include 5-11 senior guard Christyn Williams, 5-10 junior guard Niki Muhl, 6-5 senior post Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and 6-3 sophomore forward Aaliyah Edwards.

Because of this talent and balance and experience, 6-foot senior red shirt Evina Westbrook now comes off the bench as the key reserve and she has a bundle of talent to fit right into any of the lineups. And sidelined now after foot surgery is 6-2 junior Aubrey Griffin, also a usual starter.

And it’s quite a story on how this group with Bueckers sidelined has soared to a remarkable 20-4 overall record, won its 11th Big East championship after Wednesday night‘s blowout win over visiting Marquette, and has found its way to seventh in the national polls after first falling to No. 11.

And it will probably not leave Connecticut until the Final Four as it will host the conference tournament at the XL Center.

And who steps right in? The next Paige down the stretch. She is bouncing around, laughing, enjoying her return.

“These guys have been just amazing,” Bueckers said Thursday. “They are playing like they’ve been together for awhile, they play with confidence, know what each one is capable of, and I just went batty watching them play.”

Of course, this is big, but not good news, for the women’s college basketball world.

These are tweets that have been heard. “A huge boost for them.” “Oh my, this just makes them that much better with her being back.” “Can’t wait to see how much she fits in, but wouldn’t want to play them.”  And on and on it goes.

Without Bueckers, the setbacks came at ranked Georgia Tech, against a taller  Big East foe in Villanova, at a sharpshooting Oregon, and with Bueckers, they were all even at 55-55 after three quarters when No. 1 South Carolina went on a 17-3 run in the final quarter.

Now the Huskies have won five in a row after the loss to Nova. And now she’s back to run the show.

Auriemma would like to see her play without the brace.

“She wore the brace while practicing,” he said, “but it may not be a permanent fixture because keeping the brace on while playing means it’s still an issue, so I’d rather see it off.”

But “She’s back” isn’t an issue at all, just happy days at UConn.