Paige Bueckers is close to being cleared for 5-on-5 play for UConn. (David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports)
UConn star Paige Bueckers is “very close” to a return from the ACL tear that kept her out of the 2022-23 college basketball season, though she has not crossed the finish line yet.
The 2021 player of the year tore the ACL in her left knee last July in a pickup game, an injury that came after she missed 19 games her sophomore year with an anterior tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear in the same knee.
Her ACL tear represented the first blow in an injury-laden season for UConn, which missed the Elite Eight and the Final Four. But with Bueckers set to return, the Huskies could be back and better than ever next season.
“I’m continuing my road to recovery,” Bueckers told Just Women’s Sports in early May. “I’m starting to see the finish line, and the light at the end of the tunnel. There has been a lot of hard work over the past nine months, and honestly I am just continuing that this summer. I’m hoping to get…
