UConn’s Paige Bueckers is eyed to be the next star of ESPN’s Full Court Press, according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
The docuseries was produced by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions. Bueckers, along with USC’s Juju Watkins and LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson could also be a part of the second season.
The first edition took viewers behind the scenes featuring Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso and UCLA’s Kiki Rice.
Manning told the Pat McAfee Show he was excited to put forth a documentary about women’s basketball following Quarterback for Netflix. Bueckers appears to be the latest star to be at the forefront of the coverage.
“We found these things are better when you have multiple players. Not just focused on one single player,” Manning said, via FOS. “Caitlin actually wanted to have other players in it—as opposed to just focusing on her.”
Bueckers, who broke out as a women’s basketball star as a freshman before injuries put her career on hold, would be a logical choice for the upcoming season.
“ESPN debuted Full Court Press just before the annual ‘upfront’ selling season, where the big TV networks stage splashy dog-and-pony shots for ad buyers in New York,” McCarthy wrote. “In previous years, women’s sports would have been a footnote. Now they’re front and center.
“During Fox’s upfront presentation Monday, Erin Andrews announced the network would televise the regular-season matchup between Bueckers’s UConn and Watkins’s USC on Saturday, Dec. 21. Even better for the game’s TV ratings, it will have an NFL game as a lead-in. ESPN and Omaha declined comment.”
So it seems like Bueckers, as well as Watkins, could be the hot commodity in women’s college basketball in the post-Clark era.
Paige Bueckers reflects on UConn’s 2023-24 season
Husky star Paige Bueckers — who didn’t take long to decide to return to school next season — scored 17 points in the loss in the Final Four to Iowa and Clark. She reflected on the journey it took to get here and to battle back after many counted UConn out this season.
“The only thing you can really feel right now is the sting of the loss,” Bueckers said postgame. “There’s going to be tears regardless at the end of the season just because it’s my last time playing with these guys. It takes a while to process after the season, win or loss, the whole journey of it all. But you just, for this year especially, from my perspective, you just appreciate it as it goes along, just being on this team.
“Everybody saw the heart, the joy, the passion that we played with. We just love each other and we enjoy being around each other. And this season meant everything to us, against all odds. Nobody thought we would be here. All people posted about us was the worst ranking in 20 years, the worst start in 20 years, the worst seeding in the tournament in 20 years. And here we are at the Final Four.”
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