UConn Star Paige Bueckers Receives Strong Backing in Rookie of the Year Chase

Former UConn star Paige Bueckers has had a somewhat rocky start to her WNBA career, having missed four games due to a concussion. Nonetheless, a quarter of the way through her rookie campaign, she’s still at the top of the league’s Rookie of the Year conversation.

CBS Sports handed out quarter-season awards for the W’s top stars and still sees Bueckers as the leader in the ROTY race, just ahead of Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron with the Washington Mystics.

Bueckers Drawing Praise for Rookie Path Resembling Rising WNBA Icon

A big reason the 2026 No. 1 overall pick is still at the top is that her numbers are matching last year’s award winner, Caitlin Clark. Bueckers is averaging 17.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1 block per game, which puts her on pace to match Clark’s unprecedented mark of 15 points and five assists average as a rookie.

As for her current competition for the award, Iriafen is nearly averaging a double-double with 13.3 points and nine rebounds per game, while Citron is shooting 46% from the field and 34% from three to average 13.3 points herself. All the while, the Mystics are third in the East at 5-7, while Bueckers and the Wings are dead last in the league with a 2-11 record. Bueckers can’t afford too many more hiccups to preserve her advantage.

"There's a lot of people that have been in my shoes before, and as a rookie, you kind of know, especially if you're one of the top picks, that you're going to a team that was at the bottom of the league before," Bueckers said recently, via ESPN. "You're trying to make it be better, and you're not going to do it by yourself, but how can you best make your imprint and leave your impact on that?"

Well, a bounce-back performance dropping an early career-high 35 points in her return from the concussion is one way to go about that impact, even if it did come in a loss.

Even by comparison, Clark and the Fever struggled early on before catching stride late in the season to crack the playoff bracket last year. They started 3-10 before finishing the regular season at 20-20. It’s not totally out of the question for Bueckers to spark a similar comeback given her production so far. And if she does, the Rookie of the Year Award will be given to her without a second thought.