Paige Bueckers got her first break from basketball in nearly a year when her WNBA season with the Dallas Wings ended on Sept. 11, but just a few months later, the former UConn women’s basketball star is already back on the court in Miami preparing to make her debut in Unrivaled.
Bueckers could have opted not to play during the offseason after making the grueling transition from winning a national title with the Huskies straight into her rookie of the year run as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. But Bueckers has long been invested in Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league founded by fellow UConn greats Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier to provide players a stateside option to compete in between WNBA seasons. She was the first college athlete to sign an NIL deal with Unrivaled in 2024, and her agreement came with an equity stake as well as the expectation that she would join the league upon beginning her professional career.
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“With ‘Phee and Stewie being the founders, you just want to support the women who came before you, and they continue to pave the way,” Bueckers said during Unrivaled’s Media Day. “I started in college in an ambassador role, just being a fan and appreciating what this means for women’s basketball. The WNBA season isn’t quite as long, so the fans and people that are supporting us don’t get to see us and what we’re doing in the offseason.
“So to have that visibility for people to continue to watch and support us in a different lens, in a different landscape, it’s really important. That’s just something that I wanted to be a part of.”
Bueckers will be one of five UConn alumni competing in Unrivaled this year after the league exceeded expectations in 2025. The inaugural season averaged 221,000 viewers on TNT and truTV with its championship game peaking at 385,000, and it sold out every game played it its Miami arena. Collier and Stewart have attracted a star-studded portfolio of investors, including Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, and the league’s valuation jumped to $340 million after its latest round of investment closed in September.
Unrivaled expanded its roster from 36 to 48 players across eight clubs for its second season, and the league will also have a pool of six development players on site in Miami to serve as replacements in case of injuries or absences. Bueckers was named the captain of Breeze BC, one of the two new teams introduced for 2026. Her squad is by far the least veteran in the league, featuring five of six players with less than three years of WNBA experience. The only member of Breeze’s roster that played in Unrivaled last year was Golden State Valkyries guard Kate Martin, who appeared in six games for Laces BC.
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“There’s really no vet on our team, so we’re all going to have to collectively be the voice on the team and lead each other, help each other and grow and learn through mistakes,” Bueckers said. “So I think that’ll be a lot of fun in terms of challenging each other and finding our voices and how we want to use that as a team, because it’s going to be a real group effort.”
UConn great Paige Bueckers ready for senior national team debut at USA Basketball training camp
Bueckers hasn’t played competitive 3-on-3 basketball in years, but she excelled in the format playing with USA Basketball in high school. She won a gold medal in 3-on-3 at the 2018 Youth Olympic games two tournament titles, competing alongside fellow Unrivaled participants Aliyah Boston and Hailey Van Lith, and the trio also won the Spokane Hoopfest and USA U18 National Championships together in 2018.
Bueckers finished runner-up playing with Boston and Unrivaled development player Haley Jones at the 2019 3-on-3 U18 National Championship, and she represented Team USA on the senior 3-on-3 squad for the 2019 World Beach Games.
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“It’s obviously different than 5-on-5. It just provides a different aspect, but it’s the same game that we all know and love,” Bueckers said. “Basketball is played a lot in threes … and it’s basically 1-on-1 magnified, so it really shows if you can guard. That’s the biggest challenge is sitting down and guarding, being able to not always need help and be in a constant rotation.”
On the World Beach Games team Bueckers played alongside Collier, who had then just completed her rookie year in the WNBA after graduating from UConn. Collier won Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament in 2025 and will captain Lunar Owls BC for the second year fresh off her MVP runner-up season with the Minnesota Lynx.
Collier’s WNBA season ended abruptly when she tore three ligaments in her ankle and a muscle in her shin during Game 3 of the semifinals against the Phoenix Mercury. The star forward said the injury did not require surgery, and her goal to play when the Unrivaled season tips off on Jan. 5.
“I’m still working to get back to 100%, but I’ve been doing my rehab every day and it’s gotten way, way better,” Collier said. “I’m just taking one day at a time, and I’m excited to get back out there.”
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Stewart is also back to captain Mist BC after leading the club in points, rebounds and assists last year. The 31-year-old was plagued by minor injuries during the WNBA season, but she was still the New York Liberty’s leading scorer and earned second-team All-WNBA honors. After New York’s surprising first-round exit from the playoffs, Stewart said she took some much-needed recovery time and intends to return to the court at full strength in Unrivaled.
“I’m really happy with where I’m at,” Stewart said. “It gave me time to be off the court and really work on my body. I think just really getting the fluidity and the flow back. … I just feel back to myself, which I’m happy about. Everything is working together in tangent to just give me the rhythm that I need.”
Aaliyah Edwards, who played four seasons with Bueckers at UConn, was on Stewart’s Mist team last season but was selected by Collier’s Lunar Owls in this year’s draft. The Connecticut Sun forward impressed in Unrivaled last season, particularly during the 1-on-1 tournament when she shut out Stewart in the first round and advanced all the way to face Collier in the championship matchup.
“I’m super excited, because I feel like I’ve been playing against ‘Phee for so long,” Edwards said. “To actually learn alongside her, I feel like practice is gonna be super fun and light but also super competitive … I’m loving this new team, I love the vibe, and I feel like we’re gonna be dominant this season.”
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Rounding out the former Huskies is center Azura Stevens, who returns looking to help Rose BC defend its 2025 Unrivaled championship. Stevens was a standout in the league last year and scored 19 points to help power Rose in the title game, then went on to have a career season in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks.
“I want to win again, first and foremost,” Stevens said. “And then just continue to work on my game, maybe do a little more off the dribble. Obviously everybody knows I can shoot and I can score in the paint, but I want to go off the bounce a little bit more.”
