Paige Bueckers becomes historic first, named to Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Watch List

UConn star Paige Bueckers had one of the better Mondays of anyone in the world on October 28.

Within 20 minutes, it was announced that Bueckers was named to the Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Watch List – and then she made history as the first collegiate athlete of any gender to get a signature NIKE shoe release.

“The Paige Bueckers x Nike GT Hustle 3 will make the the senior guard the first college basketball player to ever get a Nike sneaker release,” Footwear News’s Ian Servantes wrote. “Light blue, white and multiple shades of purple decorate the sneaker, which debuted over the summer with a female-focused design.

“Details for Bueckers include the numbers ‘860’ and ‘612’ on the left tongue, the area codes for the University of Connecticut and her hometown of Edina, Minnesota. The right tongue then features a mark that could very well be Bueckers’ first Nike logo, and its corresponding heel features a graphic of her last name with edits to make it read, ‘Buckets.’ Mismatching continues on the left heel with a ‘Be You, Be Great’ message inside a text bubble.”

Meanwhile, she joined USC’s JuJu Watkins, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, and LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson as some of the most well-known names on the Naismith Women’s Player of the Year Watch List front.

Paige Bueckers projected to go No. 1 overall in 2025 WNBA draftESPN’s Michael Voepel projected Bueckers to go No. 1 overall in the 2025 WNBA draft to the Los Angeles Sparks in a September write-up. Evidently, Bueckers isn’t just anyone. Getting her own shoe makes sense if she can generate even a fraction of the interest the 2024 No. 1 pick, Caitlin Clark, did.

Bueckers may have even more mainstream appeal; even if her game isn’t quite as flashy as the Indiana Fever star’s.