By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) -UConn star Paige Bueckers entered the professional ranks amid sky-high expectations on Monday, as the Dallas Wings selected the versatile guard first overall in the WNBA Draft after a dream end to her collegiate career.
Bueckers drew comparisons to retired WNBA legend Diana Taurasi long before high school and her ascension to the first pick in the draft was almost a foregone conclusion after she hoisted the championship with her Huskies earlier this month.
“You don’t ever want to assume anything in life,” Bueckers told reporters after she lifted the Wings jersey on stage in front of cheering fans at the Manhattan ceremony.
“It’s a fresh start and we’re all ready to do something special.”
Bueckers and her UConn Huskies dismantled South Carolina 82-59 in the championship, giving her the fairytale sendoff she craved after overcoming multiple injuries in her college career.
She earned the Naismith Trophy in her freshman year but her collegiate career nearly derailed as she missed 19 games during her sophomore year due to a knee injury and sat out the entire 2022-23 season after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament.
“They mean everything to me, all that they’ve helped me get through,” Bueckers said of her UConn teammates. “All the ups and downs, the highs and lows, they’ve seen every side of me and the love there is unconditional.”
Dallas fans will hope that Bueckers, a famously efficient scorer with terrific defensive intuition, will give the Wings a lift as they seek to recover from a dismal 9-31 season.
She averaged 19.8 points per game with 4.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists across her college career.
The Minnesota born-and-raised Bueckers admitted on draft night that she had never even heard of the Lone Star State’s beloved Tex-Mex cuisine but Dallas fans were quick to embrace the new face of their franchise.
“From one first round overall pick to another, I just want to say congratulations, welcome to Dallas,” Mavericks power forward Anthony Davis said in a video message.
‘A LEVEL WE HAVE NEVER SEEN’
Towering center Dominique Malonga from France went second overall while Notre Dame standout Sonia Citron and USC forward Kiki Iriafen went third and fourth, respectively, to the Washington Mystics.
The 19-year-old Malonga, who won a silver medal at the Paris Games, said she was eager to show that Frenchwomen can make an impact in the WNBA, as her compatriot Victor Wembanyama dominates in the men’s game after going first in the 2023 NBA Draft.
“I’m so proud to show that today French basketball is at a level we have never seen,” said Malonga, the highest draft pick from France since Isabelle Fijalkowski went second overall in the inaugural edition in 1997.
Expansion franchise Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA’s first new team since 2008, selected Lithuanian Juste Jocyte fifth.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Christopher Cushing)
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