Inside Paige Bueckers’ offseason ‘work tour’: What UConn superstar focused on improving this summer

STORRS, Conn. — Chris Hyppa only had three days in July to work with UConn superstar guard Paige Bueckers during her brief stop at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., so the skills development coach reached out to Bueckers a few days in advance to find out what she wanted to prioritize during their time together.

Bueckers quickly texted back a list: Transition game, ball handling and shooting off the bounce.

But when Hyppa turned on the tape from the Huskies’ 2023-24 season, he found himself stumped.

“This is how special she is: I go to watch all of her transition stuff from the year before thinking that I’m going to see semifastbreaks, pull-up threes, stuff like that. Almost every damn clip that I watched was her getting in a passing lane and getting a fastbreak steal,” Hyppa said. “We kind of joked about that, because then when I came to the workout I was like look, I was trying to find flaws in what you did transition-wise, and all I saw was passing lane after passing lane, steal after steal. It gave me goosebumps because I’m a huge defensive guy.”

Hyppa jumped at the opportunity to train the UConn guard this summer, eight years after they first met. He was helping run an “Elite Is Earned” camp in Minneapolis when he was introduced to the then-eighth grade prodigy, and he remembers immediately feeling the star power that exuded from her even at 13 years old. Now entering her fifth and final season with the Huskies, Hyppa sees Bueckers’ spark burning brighter than ever as her national spotlight continues to grow.

“I’m a basketball junkie. I love the game, and that just kind of flows from her,” Hyppa said. “She just has this gift about her, this aura, and it’s all about her deep love for the game. … It was a very, very tight, detailed schedule that she had, and I would imagine she did that for two or three months in a row, and she never showed any sign of being tired or not wanting to be in the gym. She’s a professional right now.”

Bueckers’ summer was jam-packed with public appearances around the country, from arena T-shirt tosses to major ad campaigns. Dubbed her “world tour” by fans, Bueckers was determined to savor every opportunity and experience that came her way during her first healthy offseason since she began her UConn career in 2020-21. She underwent ankle surgery in 2021 and was rehabbing a lingering knee injury in 2022, then went through a yearlong recovery process after tearing her left ACL before the 2022-23 season.

“Everybody saw the world tour. They didn’t see the work tour, which is fine,” Bueckers said. “They see me three or four (hours in) a day and think they know my entire 24 hours, which is cool. The work will always show, I am a believer in that. … I can already see, if I don’t have a game up to other peoples’ standard it’s gonna be like, ‘Should have been in the gym, should’ve been doing this or that.’ But luckily I don’t play for their approval.”

The world tour itinerary began in Storrs in June when the Huskies were on campus for summer workouts, and Bueckers made the trip up to TD Garden to watch the Boston Celtics host the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on June 9. The team also appeared at Mohegan Sun Arena to watch former Husky Aaliyah Edwards and the Washington Mystics face the Connecticut Sun on June 4. Bueckers attended another Mystics game, this time in D.C., with best friend and teammate Azzi Fudd and younger brother Drew on June 29 while visiting her dad’s home in Maryland. Drew and Fudd also joined her later that day for an NWSL game between the Washington Spirit and North Carolina Courage.

In July, Bueckers made appearances at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles and the WNBA All-Star game in Phoenix, then spent most of August back home in Minnesota. She grew up outside of Minneapolis and threw out the first pitch at the Minnesota Twins game on Aug. 13, then attended the Minnesota Lynx’s Aug. 15 game against the Mystics at Target Center. She made a quick trip to Atlanta to coach the Overtime Select game before returning to UConn for the fall semester, but even back on campus the tour continued. Bueckers and Fudd were guests of Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe for multiple days of the U.S. Open, and the pair also attended several shows during New York Fashion Week in early September.

But at every stop along the way, basketball remained the center of Bueckers’ universe. It didn’t matter where she was or for how long; the UConn superstar always found herself a gym.

Minnesota-based skills coach Reid Ouse has worked with Bueckers during school breaks since the summer before her freshman year and spent most of August training the local legend. Her emphasis in their sessions was ball screen work and developing scenarios to push her playmaking creativity.

“The best players are problem solvers, and she’s a really good problem solver,” Ouse said. “Her IQ is just off the charts, so we play a little bit to that like, here’s your situation. We’ll play to five, and we’ll say your last three have to be three in a row so she has to play within that. You’ll see some kids that will go, ‘Okay, I have to make three in a row so I’m going to take three pretty easy shots. She’s getting to step-backs. She’s getting to stuff she wants to get to in a game, and that’s fun to see.”

Fudd, whose grandparents live in Minnesota, trained alongside Bueckers for most of August while visiting her family. Fudd couldn’t practice at the same level as Bueckers as she went through the recovery process from an ACL and medial meniscus tear suffered last November, but Ouse said that didn’t stop the Huskies’ backcourt duo from pushing each other in the gym.

“It’s fascinating to me how close they are, and yet they’re both super competitive,” Ouse laughed. “They’re both two of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around, and they show it in what could not be more opposite ways. Paige likes to get a little chatty during workouts with Azzi and Azzi just kind of rolls her eyes. There were one or two days where Paige wasn’t there and it was just Azzi, and I joked like, ‘The gym feels kind of quiet because P’s not here’ — but it’s all fun obviously.”

Even when the pair were vacationing at Fudd’s family cabin or bouncing between events, Ouse said they never missed a workout.

“I know a lot of the coaches in the state so they were able to get into a weight room at a small school in the middle of nowhere (near the cabin), and one of the coaches said it was interesting the way they lifted and it was strictly business, and the moment the workout got done, they were two college girls and giggling. Paige is very much that way,” Ouse said. “When she’s in the gym, there is no outside noise.”

Ouse and Maryland-based skills coach Darren McLinton spent the most consistent time with Bueckers this summer, but the superstar guard found time for sessions with more than half a dozen trainers around the country.

She worked out in New York with popular NBA trainer Chris Brickley, with Los Angeles-based coach Olin Simplis, known as ‘The Guard Whisperer’, with coach Jay Moore and LSU star Flau’jae Johnson in Atlanta.

“It was really cool to work out with a lot of different people, pick a lot of people’s brains and see a different way of doing things,” Bueckers said. “I had people who watched my game, watched my film and saw things they wanted me to work on in specific workouts, but it was just trying to hone in … and just work on my skills, because I haven’t had a lot of time to do that in college.

Fans got a first glimpse of the new and improved Bueckers at Sunday’s exhibition game against Fort Hays State, where the Huskies star dropped 27 points shooting 12 for 14 from the field in UConn’s 89-49 win. Her performance, which included an 8 for 8 field goal percentage at halftime, was no surprise to Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, who has noticed the growth in his superstar’s mindset since she returned to campus.

“This is kind of what Paige wants to do. Exactly what she did today, that’s how she wants to play,” Auriemma said postgame. “It’s going to be difficult in the beginning because we we’re going to rely so much on those young guys for so many things … but Paige can do a lot to help fix that whenever it goes sideways, especially with the frame of mind she’s in right now and where she’s been in practice all preseason.”