Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers was named the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, the league introduced Tuesday.
Bueckers is the seventh former UConn participant to win the award, receiving 70 of 72 first-place votes from a media panel, whereas Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron received the opposite two.
Bueckers was the No. 1 choice in April’s draft after serving to the Huskies win their twelfth nationwide championship earlier that month.
Editor’s Picks
1 Associated
A starter in all 36 appearances for the Wings, Bueckers averaged 19.2 factors, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals whereas taking pictures 47.4% from the ground and 88.8% from the free throw line. She led all WNBA rookies in whole factors (692), factors per sport, whole assists (194) and assists per sport. She was the one WNBA participant this season who completed ranked within the prime 10 in factors, assists and steals per sport.
Bueckers’ 44 factors in opposition to the Los Angeles Sparks on Aug. 20 set a WNBA single-game rookie document. She made 17 of 21 photographs from the sector (81%), turning into the primary participant in WNBA historical past to attain 40 or extra factors and shoot a minimum of 80% from the sector in a sport.
The Wings went 10-30 and missed the playoffs however shall be within the draft lottery once more subsequent season.
Bueckers joins Diana Taurasi (2004), Tina Charles (2010), Maya Moore (2011), Breanna Stewart (2016), Napheesa Collier (2019) and Crystal Dangerfield (2020) as UConn gamers who’ve earned this honor.
The rookie award has been given out since 1998, the second yr of the WNBA. Bueckers is the sixteenth participant drafted No. 1 who was voted Rookie of the Year.