Paige Bueckers got her first break from basketball in nearly a year when her WNBA season with the Dallas Wings ended on September 11, but a few months later, the former UConn women’s basketball The star is already back on the court in Miami and preparing to make his debut in Unrivaled.
The Bueckers could have opted not to play in the offseason after making the grueling transition from win a national title with the Huskies right in his rrookie of the year race as the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. But Bueckers has long invested in Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league founded by other UConn greats. Breanna Stewart And Napheesa Collier to provide players with an option in the United States to compete between WNBA seasons. She was the first college athlete to sign an NIL deal with Unrivaled in 2024, and her deal came with an equity stake as well as the expectation that she would join the league early in her professional career.
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“With ‘Phee and Stewie as founders, you just want to support the women who came before you, and they continue to lead the way,” Bueckers said at Unrivaled’s media day. “I started in college as an ambassador, just being a fan and appreciating what it means for women’s basketball. The WNBA season is not as long, so fans and people who support us don’t get to see us and what we do in the offseason.
“So having that visibility so people can continue to look at us and support us from a different perspective, in a different landscape, it’s really important. It’s just something I wanted to be a part of.”
Bueckers will be one of five UConn alumni participating 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 each game played to a sold-out crowd at its Miami arena. Collier and Stewart attracted a portfolio of high-profile investors, including Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, and the league’s valuation jumped to $340 million after closing its latest investment round 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 the event of injuries or absences. Bueckers was named captain of Breeze BC, one of two new teams introduced for 2026. His team 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 squad who played in Unrivaled last year was Golden State Valkyries goalie Kate Martin, who appeared in six games for Laces BC.
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“There really isn’t a veteran on our team, so we’re all going to have to collectively be the voice of the team and lead each other, help each other, grow and learn from our mistakes,” Bueckers said. “So I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to challenge each other and find our voices and figure out how we want to use that as a team because it’s going to be a real group effort.”
UConn great Paige Bueckers set 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 American basketball in high school. She won a 3-on-3 gold medal at both tournament titles at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, competing alongside fellow Unrivaled participants Aliyah Boston and Hailey Van Lith, and the trio also won the Spokane Hoopfest and the 2018 USA U18 National Championships together.
Bueckers finished second playing with Boston and All-Star Development Player Haley Jones at the 2019 U18 3-on-3 National Championship, and she represented Team USA on the Senior 3-on-3 Team for the 2019 World Beach Games.
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“It’s obviously different than 5-on-5. It just brings a different aspect, but it’s the same game that we all know and love,” Bueckers said. “Basketball is played a lot of threes…and it’s basically a amped-up 1-on-1, so it really shows if you can guard. That’s the biggest challenge, is sitting back and guarding, not always needing help and being 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. Coal won the Unrivaled 1v1 tournament in 2025 and will captain the Lunar Owls BC for the second year after his second MVP season with the Minnesota Lynx.
Collier’s WNBA season ended abruptly when she tore three ankle ligaments and a shin muscle in Game 3 of the semifinals against the Phoenix Mercury. The star forward said her injury did not require surgery and her goal was to play when the unrivaled season begins Jan. 5.
“I’m still working to get back to 100 percent, but I’ve been doing my rehab every day and it’s gotten a lot better,” Collier said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time and I can’t wait to get back out there.”
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Stewart also returns as captain of 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 elimination in the first round of the playoffs, Stewart said she took some much-needed recovery time and intended to return to the court with full force in Unrivaled.
“I’m really happy with where I’m at,” Stewart said. “It’s given me time to be off the field and really work on my body. I think I’m just getting the fluidity and flow back. … I just feel like I’m back to myself, which I’m happy about. Everything is working in tangent to give me the rhythm that I need.”
Aaliyah Edwardswho 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 during Unrivaled last season, particularly during the 1v1 tournament where she excluded Stewart in the first round and advanced to face Collier in the championship match.
“I’m super excited, because I feel like I’ve been playing against ‘Phee for so long,” Edwards said. “To actually learn from him, I feel like training is going to be super fun and light but also super competitive…I love this new team, I love the atmosphere and I feel like we’re going to be dominant this season.”
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To complete the former Huskies, this is the center Azura Stevenswho returns to seek to help Rose BC defend its Unrivaled Championship 2025. Stevens was a standout in the league last year and scored 19 points to help propel Rose into the title game, then got a career season in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks.
“I want to win again, first and foremost,” Stevens said. “And then continue to work on my game, maybe dribbling a little more. Obviously, everyone knows I can shoot and I can score in the paint, but I want to get off the rebound a little bit more.”
