UConn star Paige Bueckers, who will miss the 2022-23 season with a torn ACL, said she plans on returning to the program before leaving for the WNBA.
“I will be playing college basketball again,” the guard told a group of reporters Thursday in her first public comments since suffering the injury.
Bueckers hurt her left knee playing in a pickup basketball game in early August. She underwent successful ACL surgery and immediately began the rehab process. There is no timetable set for her return.
She cautioned that she would need to be “110 percent healthy to ever play basketball again.”
Bueckers, a 5-foot-11 guard, was the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the 2020 class. She led the Huskies to the Final Four as a freshman while claiming the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, AP Player of the Year, USBWA Player and Freshman of the Year and Big East Player of the Year honors.
She had a shortened sophomore season after suffering a tibial plateau fracture and later undergoing surgery for a previously undisclosed lateral meniscus tear. Bueckers averaged 14.6 points, 3.9 assists and four rebounds in limited time.
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