After No. 1 UConn’s first-round drubbing of No. 16 High Point, associate coach Chris Dailey was asked if freshman phenom Paige Bueckers—who’d just posted the best tournament debut in the history of the program and made it look easy—was capable of shifting her game into another gear.
Dailey smiled.
“Paige absolutely has another gear,” she said. “And the more physical the game—if she’s getting fouled—the higher that gear … When she gets to that spot, it’s tough to stop her.”
In the most punishingly physical game of the tournament so far—an instant classic down to its fraught final seconds—Bueckers tapped into that extra gear.