Sports
UConn’s Paige Bueckers has 40 minutes of college basketball left. Will it end in a title?
TAMPA, Fla. — They don’t talk about legacy at UConn. There’s no point. Why acknowledge the obvious? Because at UConn, talking about the importance of national championships isn’t pointing out the elephant in the room; the room is the elephant. It is the standard bearer, whether or not you say it out loud. And anyone who walks through those doors at UConn goes there for that exact reason.
In Storrs, the minimal expectation is excellence, perfection is the goal. There is no shortage of reminders. The gym is bordered in chairs from each of the Huskies’ Final Fours (they’ll soon add their 24th chair, a brightly adorned teal and yellow one from Tampa). When visitors enter the gym, they can choose the chair from the 1995 Minneapolis Final Four or the 2009 St. Louis Final Four or the 2016 Indianapolis version. It’s like the most subtle flex of a musical chairs game for a basketball fan. Higher on the walls hang the banners for All-Americans and national championships. The names that look down on players from those banners aren’t just well-known, they’re some of the most decorated and famous basketball players of all time at any level.
And this is the practice gym.
There’s an intention to that. These relics and honors aren’t saved for Gampel Pavilion, where the Huskies play their home games, or for a museum on campus. Instead, these reminders are housed in the same place where UConn players toil for endless hours during their careers, where they sweat, where they’re screamed at by Geno Auriemma for mistakes.
Somewhere, along the far sideline, Auriemma has etched a rut far into the hardwood from his pacing as he cursed the turnovers and bad passes and every other mistake that has ever stood between the Huskies and their next win.
Because he knows that it was not actually in Minneapolis or St. Louis or Indianapolis where the Huskies won their national championships, even if that’s where they lifted the trophies. It was here, in this practice gym, surrounded by those expectations, where they fixed mistakes and earned those titles.
This is why Paige Bueckers came to UConn. To add her name to that wall with Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart, to bring more national championships to Storrs. As a three-time All-American and 2021 national player of the year, her banners will be added once she leaves campus this spring. She’ll be part of the group that retrieves a chair from Tampa.
But she has not won a national title. She has come close. In her three previous trips to the Final Four, Bueckers has advanced once to the title game. The Huskies lost to South Carolina.
On Sunday, in what will be Bueckers’ final 40 minutes of her college career, she gets a final go at the Gamecocks and one last opportunity to bring home a national championship to UConn.
“Anything less than a national championship is really a disappointment…the pressure is a privilege”
Paige Bueckers with her thoughts on playing for UConn: pic.twitter.com/tzLMEHOfZV
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) April 3, 2025
But she and Auriemma don’t talk about that. They haven’t since she set foot on campus back in 2020 as the nation’s top recruit and the player who many assumed would be the first to lead the Huskies back to the promised land, considering their national title “drought” that had existed since 2016. Now, nine years since the Huskies’ last title, they’ve essentially been in the Sahara as Auriemma has tinkered with lineups that were never quite deep enough to win a championship, even though they were nearly all still good enough to get within striking distance.
The only time Auriemma brings up Bueckers’ championships (or lack thereof) is from his rut on the sideline in the practice gym, when he’s too fed up with her mistakes and stubborn decisions.
“That’s why you’ve never won a national championship, and you never will!” he’ll scream.
“Every day in practice when she does the dumb things she did as a freshman, that’s the only time I bring it up,” Auriemma said. “As a reminder that each and every day and year, you need to put away the things you did as a freshman and sophomore.”
Auriemma has won 11 national titles, but Bueckers has won none. His next national title?
“I don’t know that it has any impact on my life whatsoever other than it makes me feel that I’m still able to have an impact at my age and for how long I’ve been doing it,” Auriemma said. “But it certainly impacts her life and what she wants and what she’s been dreaming about since she picked up a basketball.”
This fall before the season, Auriemma sat in his office detailing the problems in Bueckers’ game. For him, it’s both therapeutic and productive to go through these because, in his own way, it’s the only way forward.
The best way to get to No. 1 for Bueckers is not to talk about it, but instead, to talk about what’s holding her back and let her work through those issues under the shadows of the banners in their practice gym.
“I think it scares her to leave here and be the best player ever to play UConn without winning a national championship,” Auriemma said from his office this fall, looking out over the practice gym. “That it affects your legacy a little bit. I’ve never said that, and I don’t believe that, but I’ve gotta believe she thinks that. That she needs that to validate who she is. … But I don’t believe that that’s the ultimate identifier of what true success is.”
Bueckers played in her fourth straight Final Four. Can she bring a trophy back to Storrs?
For Auriemma, Bueckers’ legacy is cemented regardless of what happens Sunday — in how she has shouldered responsibility for her team and its growth, for becoming one of the faces of the sport at a time of constant flux and change, for who she has become and been for her teammates, both on and off the court.
Even as one of the most recognizable basketball players in the country, Bueckers has risen before dawn to make breakfast for her teammate Jana El Alfy during Ramadan. While the Huskies were in Spokane last week for regionals, she celebrated with El Alfy by bringing her an iced vanilla latte and scone on Eid Al-Fitr, as El Alfy broke her month-long fast. Auriemma saw how Bueckers went out of her way this fall to write out a list of five priorities for sophomore Qadence Samuels, who plays less than six minutes a game, to improve. He saw how, after the Big East tournament, Bueckers pulled Ice Brady aside to breathe confidence into her as the Huskies prepared for their postseason run. When Brady’s confidence was low, Bueckers texted her and offered support, and then showed up at Brady’s apartment to make sure she understood how instrumental she was for the team’s success.
In their own ways, even away from the practice gym, these are all the signs that the years of Auriemma’s frustrations and shouts (“That’s why you’ve never won a national championship, and you never will!”) are working. Slowly, even Bueckers — who Auriemma will cite as one of his most stubborn people he has coached (ahem, takes one to know one) — has understood why they don’t talk about championships and legacies.
“Every single day you walk into the gym, you’re trying to live up to the standard of playing UConn basketball, but you’re not comparing yourself to other teams, to players before,” Bueckers said. “We are trying to be the best team, we are in the present on any given night.”
On Friday night, in a vintage UConn performance as the Huskies beat UCLA 85-51 in the Final Four, Bueckers had a quiet night by her recent standards: 16 points, five rebounds, two assists, zero turnovers. After putting up the largest win margin in Final Four history (UConn holds the next top three, too), Auriemma said, “I don’t think we made a mistake the entire evening, especially on the defensive end.”
As Friday night crept into Saturday morning and the Huskies got further from the UCLA win and closer to the South Carolina game, Auriemma reflected on a conversation he had with Svetlana Abrosimova. Her name hangs on the wall as an All-American and her impact on the 2000 national championship — the Huskies’ second — is obvious. Back then, Auriemma used to talk about national championships to his best players every week.
“Finally, she said to me,” Auriemma said, “as only a Russian can, ‘Why do we talk about championships? Everybody knows why we were here. Stop it.’ ”
So, he did. Then they went on to win another 10. On Sunday against South Carolina, the Huskies will have a chance to add one more.
Bueckers will have 40 final minutes to stamp her legacy and lift a trophy in Tampa that, for her, will have ultimately been won over the last five years in a practice gym in Storrs.
(Photos of Paige Bueckers: C. Morgan Engel / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
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Shedeur Sanders made his regular-season debut for the Cleveland Browns during the team’s 23-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, and it wasn’t the outing he would’ve hoped for in his first real action in the NFL.
Sanders went 4-of-16 for 47 yards, was sacked twice and threw an interception. The Ravens ultimately saw tight end Mark Andrews score a rushing touchdown in the 23-17 victory.
Sanders was critical of himself after the game, but former NFL quarterback Cam Newton said this game backed up an opinion he’s had for quite a while.
Shedeur Sanders of the Cleveland Browns warms up before the game against the Baltimore Ravens at Huntington Bank Field on Nov. 16, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I do not think Kevin Stefanski wants Shedeur Sanders to succeed in Cleveland,” Newton said on ESPN’s “First Take”. “The reason being is, don’t tell me what he said, don’t tell me what he’s saying. I’m going off of actions – alright? Let’s go off actions.
“The actions is, if I’m Shedeur, or if I’m a Shedeur Sanders fan, I would not want him to take the field because that’s going to consistently be the display we’re going to see. It doesn’t matter if it’s Deshaun Watson, it doesn’t matter if it’s Shedeur Sanders, it doesn’t matter if it’s Dillon Gabriel, it doesn’t matter if it’s Dan Orlovsky, it doesn’t matter if it’s Cam Newton. You need help in Cleveland. When you have a quarterback that’s still making $46 million on your roster, and he’s not healthy, that impacts the talent that’s around him. They are not a good team.”
The Browns are 2-8 this season, and Sanders marks the third quarterback change since the regular season began. At first, 41-year-old journeyman Joe Flacco was leading the way in Stefanski’s offense, but he was benched, leading to rookie Dillon Gabriel taking over.
BROWNS’ SHEDEUR SANDERS OFFERS BLUNT CRITIQUE OF PERFORMANCE IN NFL DEBUT
After Flacco was traded to the Cincinnati Bengals, Gabriel became the full-time starter with Sanders backing him up. It’s been a struggle for Gabriel, who went 7-of-10 passing for 68 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions Sunday before Stefanski turned to Sanders after Gabriel suffered a concussion.
Newton believes Sanders is being set up to fail, saying the Colorado product and son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders isn’t being given a fair chance to make his mark in Cleveland.
“But this is the thing that really irks me the most… because [Sanders] doesn’t get any reps,” Newton said. “Circa 2015, circa when Cam Newton was the MVP, circa when, hey, my backup for [the] majority of my career was probably the biggest blessing of my career, to have a veteran in Derek Anderson. Ron Rivera still knew, ‘We’re one play away, kid, from you not being available.’”
Cam Newton attends the BET Awards Media House on June 29, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Robin L Marshall/Getty Images for BET)
Sanders was blunt in his postgame press conference while discussing his performance in his first regular-season action.
“I don’t think I played good,” Sanders said. I think there’s a lot of things we need to look at during the week and go and just get comfortable with even throwing routes with Jerry [Jeudy] and throwing routes with all those guys.
“I think that was my first ball to him all year,” he continued. “But other than that, I just think overall, we just got to go next week and understand, so that we have a week to prepare stuff I like to do.”
To Newton’s point, Sanders hadn’t received any first-team reps in practice before this game. He started the season as the team’s third-string quarterback before moving to Gabriel’s backup after the Flacco trade.
Despite the poor outing, Sanders’ confidence isn’t wavering as the Browns move on to next week’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders on the road.
Shedeur Sanders of the Cleveland Browns walks off the field after losing to the Baltimore Ravens 23-16 at Huntington Bank Field on Nov. 16, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
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“I still have the same confidence. I’m still me,” he said. “I’ll never go anywhere. You know, just going out there, seeing daylight, that’s all I needed to see how they move out there. Playing against a great defense. You got guys from the Pro Bowl out there, so it’s exciting to see. Okay, this is what it’s like? Alright. This is what it’s like? I’m excited for it. So, you know, I just got to take this one and build on it.”
Stefanski has not named a starting quarterback for the Raiders matchup, though an announcement is expected later this week.
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Nahshon Wright had just made a huge play for the Chicago Bears, and in spectacular fashion.
The fifth-year cornerback leaped high in full sprint with his hand stretched over his head to intercept a pass by Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the end zone to preserve a 10-3 Bears lead late in the second quarter.
No wild celebration followed. Instead, Wright jogged to the back of the end zone and took a knee in memory of Oakland football legend John Beam, the former football coach at Laney College who died Friday after being shot on campus a day earlier.
“He was watching over me,” Wright, who played for Beam at Laney in 2018, said after the Bears’ 19-17 victory on Sunday . “It’s crazy. He called me the night before he passed and he told me that every game he watched, I just seemed to get a pick. So I just know he was behind me today.”
Just before noon Thursday, the Oakland Police Department responded to reports of gunshots at Laney and found Beam suffering from gunshot wounds. He was transported to an area hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. At approximately 10 a.m. the next day, Beam was pronounced dead.
Oakland police arrested 27-year-old Oakland resident Cedric Irving Jr. as a suspect in the case early Friday morning at the San Leandro BART station. Irving is a former football player at Skyline High School where Beam once coached, but police said he did not play under Beam.
Former Laney College football coach John Beam holds the trophy after the Eagles won the California Community College Athletic Assn. championship in 2018.
(Peralta Community College District via Associated Press)
Irving and Beam knew each other but were not close, acting Oakland Police Chief James Beere said Friday at a news conference. Beere added that Irving isn’t a student at Laney but “was on campus for a specific reason” on Thursday.
“This was a very targeted incident,” Beere said.
On Monday, Irving was charged with murder and 10 other felonies related to Beam’s death. Alameda County Dist. Atty. Ursula Jones Dickson said during an afternoon news conference that Irving faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted.
Irving is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday, Jones Dickson said.
Beam coached football in Oakland for more than 40 years. He came to Laney as running backs coach in 2004, was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2005 and was head coach from 2012 to 2024. Upon retirement from coaching, Beam continued to serve as Laney’s athletic director, a post he had held since 2006.
For many of his players and members of the community, Beam was much more than a coach, as seen by viewers of Season 5 of the Netflix documentary series “Last Chance U,” which focused on Beam and the Eagles during the 2019 football season.
“Filming with him at Laney College gave us a firsthand look at his passion, his integrity, and his unwavering commitment to the young men he coached — and to the city of Oakland,” the show’s creator, Greg Whiteley, wrote Friday on X.
Wright told reporters that Beam was “someone I could confide in, someone that I love dearly.” He added that the coach filled a huge void for him and his brother — New Orleans Saints cornerback Rejzohn Wright, who played at Laney in 2018 and 2019 — after the death of their father in 2017.
“Beam stepped in, stepped in as a father figure, a father role,” Nahshon Wright said. “He did a lot for me and my brother, my family. He’s been there. He’s been there every step of the way, and it won’t stop. I gained an angel, for sure.”
In a scene from “Last Chance U,” Laney coach John Beam talks to player Rejzohn Wright.
(Netflix)
Rejzohn Wright reposted a video clip of his brother’s interception and its aftermath on X and wrote: “Long live Coach beam forever with us!”
In an Oct. 19 Instagram post, Beam wrote that he was “in Chicago to watch the brothers battle” as the Bears hosted the Saints. The pride and love Beam felt toward his former players was more than evident in the photos he posted and the words he wrote.
“The Wright Way — always believe and keep grinding, never give up and believe the path will open up,” Beam wrote.
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NFL fans may not have any nails left to bite as several games came down to the wire in Week 11.
Six games came within three points while eight games came within seven points. The Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers each won their respective games in overtime. The Dolphins did it while playing the first-ever regular-season NFL game in Madrid, Spain.
Meanwhile, Josh Allen led the Buffalo Bills to a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a slugfest. He scored three touchdowns through the air and three touchdowns on the ground.
As of now, the Kansas City Chiefs are out of the playoff picture. The Chiefs lost to the Denver Broncos in the closing moments and dropped to 5-5 on the season.
Read below for the rest of the scores this week.
Nov. 13, 2025
- New England Patriots 27, New York Jets 14
Nov. 16, 2025
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, in Orchard Park, New York. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo)
- Miami Dolphins 16, Washington Commanders 13 (OT)
- Carolina Panthers 30, Atlanta Falcons 27 (OT)
- Buffalo Bills 44, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32
- Houston Texans 16, Tennessee Titans 13
- Chicago Bears 19, Minnesota Vikings 17
- Green Bay Packers 27, New York Giants 20
- Pittsburgh Steelers 34, Cincinnati Bengals 12
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) walks the field after his team’s win over the Minnesota Vikings in an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (Matt Krohn/AP Photo)
- Jacksonville Jaguars 35, Los Angeles Chargers 6
- Los Angeles Rams 21, Seattle Seahawks 19
- San Francisco 49ers 41, Arizona Cardinals 22
- Baltimore Ravens 23, Cleveland Browns 16
- Denver Broncos 22, Kansas City Chiefs 19
- Philadelphia Eagles 16, Detroit Lions 9
Denver Broncos place kicker Wil Lutz (3) after celebrates after making a 35-yard field goal to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, in Denver. (Jack Dempsey/AP Photo)
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Nov. 17, 2025
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