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)
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
Thousand-dollar tickets and hundreds of dollars in fees shocked some hopeful Olympic fans this month, but they did not keep LA28 from boasting strong sales in the committee’s first ticket drop.
LA28 announced Thursday that it sold more than 4 million Olympic tickets during the first ticket drop. The private organizing committee will have a second ticket drop in August with “refreshed inventory across all Olympic sports at a range of price points.”
But after the popularity of the first purchasing period, many of the lower-priced tickets have already been scooped up.
LA28 said roughly half of the total 1 million $28 tickets were sold during the locals presale, which was limited to people living near venue cities in Southern California and Oklahoma City.
The average price per Olympic ticket is less than $200, which includes a mandatory 24% service fee, and LA28 said about 75% of all tickets, including final events, will be under $400. The premier seats at high-demand events command more than $1,000 per ticket, but the highest priced categories make up about 5% of the total ticket inventory.
Artistic gymnastics sold out the quickest in Drop 1. Four new Olympic sports — flag football, lacrosse, softball and squash — sold all their available inventory for the first drop. After five days of local presale, global ticket sales opened and drew fans from 85 countries and all 50 states and U.S. territories. The largest international sales came from the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
For the first female-majority Olympic Games, LA28 reported that women’s Olympic sessions outsold men’s 93% to 88% during the first drop.
“The response to our initial on-sale was nothing short of historic. Fans from near and far have spoken: the world wants to be part of the LA28 Games,” LA28 chief executive officer Reynold Hoover said in a statement. “The success of Drop 1 is about more than momentum — it reflects LA28’s commitment to delivering a fiscally responsible Games that create a lasting legacy for Los Angeles and its communities.”
Drop 2, which will begin in August, will have additional tickets across all Olympic sports, including those that may have sold out during the first purchasing windows. The registration period for Drop 2 opened Thursday and will continue until July 22. Fans who registered for the first drop of tickets but did not receive a time slot and fans who did not buy their maximum 12 general ticket allotment will automatically be entered into the random lottery Drop 2. The new registration period is only required for anybody who did not sign up for the initial drop.
Fans are still limited to 12 Olympic tickets and up to 12 soccer tickets that don’t count toward the general maximum. There is a four ticket per ceremony limit for the opening and closing ceremony that count toward the 12-ticket maximum, which is cumulative across all LA28 presales and ticket drops.
LA28 will have multiple ticket drops with assigned purchasing time slots before ticket sales move to a first-come, first-served format closer to the Games, which open on July 14, 2028. LA28 began its ticketing process earlier than most other Olympic Games with tickets going on sale more than two years in advance of the opening ceremony. The early timeline has created excitement for the first Summer Olympics in the United States since Atlanta 1996, but also prompted concerns about scheduling. Fans clamored for tickets with little information about which teams or athletes would be competing in most sessions.
Tickets are not refundable, but fans can opt for verified resale when LA28 launches its official resale system in 2027. AXS and Eventim is the official secondary ticket marketplace of the LA28 Games and Ticketmaster and Sports Illustrated Tickets have also signed on as additional verified resale platforms.
LA28 will have 14 million tickets available for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which would eclipse the record of 12 million tickets sold for the Paris Games. Paris 2024 sold an about 9.5 million tickets for the Olympics, but used a different ticket system than LA28. For Paris, 3.5 million tickets were sold during the first phase, during which fans were required to buy tickets to at least three different sports instead of the option for single-event tickets available during LA28’s Drop 1 process.
Tickets for the 2028 Paralympics, which will be the first in L.A.’s history, will go on sale in 2027. Ticket sales and hospitality are expected to cover about $2.5 billion of LA28’s expected $7.1 billion budget for the first Games in L.A. in more than 40 years.
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An envoy for President Donald Trump has reportedly asked FIFA to replace Iran with Italy in the 2026 World Cup this summer.
The Financial Times reported the plan is an effort to repair the relationship between Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which soured after the former’s comments against Pope Leo XIV regarding the war with Iran.
United States special envoy Paolo Zampolli suggested the idea to FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
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President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025. (Emilee Chinn/FIFA)
“I confirm I have suggested to Trump and Infantino that Italy replace Iran at the World Cup. I’m an Italian native, and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a U.S.-hosted tournament,” Zampolli told the outlet. “With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Italy had a chance to be in the World Cup already, but it lost in a penalty shootout to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a qualifying playoff final.
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Italy became the first World Cup-winning team to miss three consecutive tournaments after the 4-1 penalty shootout loss earlier this month.
“We still don’t believe it that we’re out and that it happened in this manner,” Italy’s Leonardo Spinazzola told reporters at the time, according to the New York Post.
“It’s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.”
While Zampolli told Infantino about his proposed plan, FIFA’s president said Iran “for sure” will play in the World Cup despite the conflict involving the U.S.
Mehdi Taremi of Iran celebrates after scoring a goal during a 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Group A game against Uzbekistan at Azadi Stadium in Tehran March 25, 2025. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu)
“The Iranian team is coming, for sure,” Infantino said during the CNBC Invest in America Forum earlier this month in Washington, D.C.
“We hope that, by then, of course, the situation will be a peaceful situation. That would definitely help. But Iran has to come, of course. They represent their people. They have qualified. The players want to play.”
Infantino visited the Iranian national team in Turkey, which is where it has its training camp.
All three of Iran’s group stage games are scheduled to be played in the U.S. That remains the case after Iranian government officials suggested to FIFA that their games be moved to Mexico because they could not travel to the U.S.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed FIFA’s rejection of Iran’s request, and it is insisting Iran play where it’s scheduled — SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and Lumen Field in Seattle. Iran said earlier this month it would only decide on its team’s participation once it heard from FIFA regarding its relocation request.
Iran is scheduled to play at SoFi Stadium against New Zealand June 16 to begin its tournament. It will also play Belgium at the stadium before finishing group play against Mo Salah and Egypt in Seattle June 26.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends an international friendly between Mexico and Portugal at Banorte Stadium in Mexico City March 28, 2026. (Antonio Torres/FIFA/Getty Images)
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Trump wrote in a Truth Social post last month that Iran would be welcome to compete in the World Cup as scheduled, though it might not be “appropriate” considering the conflict.
“The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to The World Cup, but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety,” he wrote.
Trump also told Politico, “I really don’t care,” when asked about Iran’s participation in the tournament. Infantino, who has a strong relationship with Trump, said Trump has “reiterated” to him that the U.S. welcomes Iran’s team to compete.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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