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)
Sports
Jon Jones requests UFC release after Dana White says legend was ‘never’ considered him for White House card
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Mixed martial arts legend Jon Jones ended his retirement from UFC simply because he wanted a spot on the “Freedom 250” fight card at the White House in June.
But, when UFC CEO Dana White announced the card during UFC 326 this past weekend, Jones wasn’t among the fighters. As a result, he has requested a release from his UFC contract.
White was candid when asked about Jones following the UFC 326 card.
Jon Jones of the United States of America reacts after his TKO victory against Stipe Miocic of the United States of America in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 2024 in New York City. ((Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images))
“Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousands times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White explained, per CBS Sports. “Some guy with Meta Glasses filmed him talking about his hips – that his hips are so bad. And I don’t know if you guys saw that flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”
White added that “the Jon Jones thing is bulls—,” saying that he texted the fighter’s lawyer saying he would never be on the White House card despite Jones saying he was in negotiations for it.
UFC ANNOUNCES CARD FOR WHITE HOUSE EVENT
The Meta Glasses incident White is referring to came from a viral video, where Jones, unaware he was being filmed, discussed issues with his hips to a fan.
On Monday, Jones composed a thorough response to White’s comments about him and the White House Card. He previously posted and deleted social media explanations, but Monday’s appeared to be his final statement on the matter.
UFC President Dana White speaks after UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center on Feb. 21, 2026. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)
“Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones, who retired a heavyweight champion in 2025, said. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense. I even received stem cell treatment last week to get ready for the White House card, and training camp was scheduled to start today. I was preparing to be ready.
“I understand business deals fall through sometimes, but going out publicly and saying things that aren’t true isn’t right. After everything I’ve given to the UFC, the years, the title defenses, the fights, hearing that I’m ‘done’ is disappointing. Especially when as recently as Friday UFC was calling me trying to get me on that White House card for a much lower number.”
Jones finished his statement by saying he “respectfully” asks to be released from his UFC contract.
Jon Jones enters the ring before facing Stipe Miocic in the UFC heavyweight championship fight during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City, New York. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
“No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know what’s up,” he wrote.
The UFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News Digital.
Jones is considered one of the best UFC fighters of all time, owning a 28-1-1 record, which includes his last bout with Stipe Miocic, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title belt. He is also a two-time light heavyweight champion.
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Twelve days ago the U.S., a World Cup host country, launched a full-scale bombing campaign against Iran, a country that has qualified to play in the tournament. That’s never happened before.
Five days later, that same World Cup host began military operations inside the borders of Ecuador, another World Cup qualifier, half a world away. That’s never happened before either.
With the tournament scheduled to kick off in three months, those events have soccer scholar Jonathan Wilson questioning whether it’s wise for the World Cup to go on at all.
“It seems to me, for each passing day, it’s less and less likely that the World Cup can happen,” he said.
That take seems unduly alarmist said David Goldblatt, a British sportswriter and sociologist who is a visiting professor at Pitzer College in Claremont. Anything short of a full-scale war inside the U.S. would not be enough to pull the plug on the tournament now, he said. Especially with FIFA expecting revenues of as much as $11 billion.
“I mean, it’s not a good look,” Goldblatt conceded. “And certainly when set against FIFA’s official pronouncements on its role in encouraging world peace and cosmopolitan celebrations of a universal humanity, none of that sits terribly easily.
“But in terms of actually running the World Cup, I don’t think it’s going to make very much difference at all.”
However, with the Trump administration open to engaging in more international conflicts, there’s little doubt this World Cup, the largest and most complex in history, will also be the most political in history as well.
Complicating things further is the fact the current conflict in the Middle East hasn’t been limited to just the U.S. and Iran. Iranian missiles have hit both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among other countries, and Jordan has fired on U.S. assets.
Those three countries are World Cup qualifiers as well.
The fate of a soccer tournament pales in importance to the death and destruction the conflagration in the Middle East has produced, of course. But the need for unity is the very reason there’s a World Cup in the first place.
When French soccer administrator Jules Rimet founded the tournament 96 years ago, he believed soccer could be a tool for international peace. And in the early years of the tournament, Rimet, FIFA’s longest-serving president and a talented diplomat, was able to limit the impact of geopolitics on the World Cup, watering down Mussolini’s influence on the 1934 World Cup, for example, and steering the 1938 tournament away from Hitler’s Germany.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has taken a far different approach, courting President Donald Trump’s support despite his growing number of global conflicts.
A week before bombs began falling on Iran, Infantino appeared at the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace wearing a red cap with ‘USA’ on the front and the numbers ‘45-47’ — a reference to Trump’s non-consecutive presidencies. That act was so blatantly partisan, IOC president Kirsty Coventry said her organization would investigate whether Infantino, an IOC member, breached the terms of the group’s charter, which requires members to act independent of political interests.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino holds up a USA hat as he attends the inaugural meeting for the Board of Peace at the Institute of Peace in Washington on Feb. 19.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
“Infantino has absolutely breached every FIFA protocol on neutrality,” said Wilson, author of “The Power and Glory: The History of the World Cup.”
“Absolute neutrality is always impossible and not desirable, but it has clearly gone way, way, way beyond. The peace prize looked grotesque at the time. It looks even worse now. And I can’t see how the future will look kindly on Infantino. I think Infantino has to some extent legitimized Trump.”
This is hardly new behavior from Infantino, who had close relationships with Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2018 tournament played in Russia and Qatar’s leaders ahead of the 2022 tournament despite their well-known human rights violations.
The list of countries Infantino is asking to overlook poor relations with the country hosting the majority of World Cup games this summer is growing.
Consider that Denmark, which administers Greenland, an autonomous territory Trump has also threatened to invade, can qualify for the tournament in a European playoff that will take place later this month. Then there’s World Cup qualifiers Haiti, Ivory Coast and Senegal, who aren’t at war with the U.S. but whose citizens have been banned from entering the country to cheer for their teams. That completely contradicts a promise from Infantino, who said “everybody will be welcome” at the 2026 World Cup.
“If I had a crystal ball I could tell you now what is going to happen,” Heimo Schirgi, the World Cup chief operating officer for FIFA, said Monday. “But obviously the situation is developing. It’s changing day by day and we are monitoring closely. [But] the World Cup will go on right? The World Cup is too big and we hope that everyone can participate that has qualified.”
Goldblatt, the Pitzer professor, said Infantino’s action are understandable since he has few cards to play against Trump.
President Trump speaks as he receives the FIFA Peace Prize as FIFA president Gianni Infantino applauds on Dec. 5 the Kennedy Center in Washington.
(Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
“What’s Infantino going to do? What levers can you pull?” he asked. “You can threaten to take it away. That’s not happening. Moral admonishment? Who’s going to take that from FIFA? It is a farcical idea that anybody thinks that the president of FIFA has any kind of collective moral authority or any role as a spokesperson for the progressive part of the world.
“They may fantasize that this is the case. But it is morally and politically absurd that any of us should expect that of these people. So if you are Infantino and that is the case, you know what works with Trump? What works is flattery. So of course he’s gone down that path.”
The games, Goldblatt said, will go on even if bombs are still falling. And that may not be an entirely bad thing.
“Football’s a great distraction. That’s partly why it’s so popular,” he said. “It will be virtually impossible, if the war continues, for that not to be a central element of like, the meaning and the purpose of what we’re all doing here.
“How we’ll feel and what it will look like, I don’t know. It will be very strange. Football is unpredictable and extraordinary. Something will happen that will warm our souls.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
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Australia granted asylum to five players from the Iranian women’s soccer team who were visiting for a tournament when the U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran began.
Australian federal police officers on Tuesday transported the five women from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, to a “safe location” after they made asylum requests to meet with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and to finalize the processing of their humanitarian visas.
“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian Women’s Soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Burke said on X.
The move comes after the team refused to sing the Iranian anthem before their first Women’s Asian Cup match early last week against South Korea, although they later sang and saluted the anthem in two subsequent matches, including ahead of their final match, when they were eliminated by the Philippines.
IRANIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER FANS SHOW SUPPORT FOR TRUMP AS TEAM APPEARS TO PIVOT ON NATIONAL ANTHEM STANCE
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke poses with five Iranian women soccer players who have been granted asylum in Australia, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Australia Ministry of Home Affairs)
“I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night it was joy, it was relief,” Burke told reporters after signing the documents. “People were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.”
The five women said they were happy for their names and pictures to be published, according to Burke, who emphasized that the players wanted to make clear that they were not political activists.
The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the tournament before the war against Iran began on Feb. 28.
After the team was eliminated from the tournament over the weekend, they faced potentially returning to a country still under bombardment. The team’s head coach, Marziyeh Jafari, said on Sunday the players “want to come back to Iran as soon as we can.”
An official squad list named 26 players, as well as Jafari and other coaches.
While only five players were granted asylum, Burke said the offer was given to everyone on the team.
IRAN FLAG REMOVED FROM PARALYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY AFTER SOLE ATHLETE WITHDRAWS OVER TRAVEL SAFETY CONCERNS
Iran players during their national anthem ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup soccer match between Iran and the Philippines in Robina, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP)
“These women are tremendously popular in Australia, but we realize they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making,” Burke said. “The opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”
It remains unclear when the remaining players will leave Australia.
“Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “They’re safe here and they should feel at home here.”
“They then had to consider that and do it in a way that did not present any danger to them or to their families and friends back home in Iran,” he continued.
The asylum offer came after U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday called on Australia to grant asylum to any team member who wanted it.
Trump had blasted Australia on social media, saying Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the team to be “forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”
Supporters react towards a bus transporting Iranian woman players following their Women’s Asian Cup soccer match against the Philippines on the Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAP Image via AP)
“The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump said, despite his administration’s efforts to limit the number of immigrants in the U.S. who can receive asylum for political purposes.
Just hours later, Trump praised Albanese in another post.
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“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way,” Trump wrote.
Albanese said Trump had called him for “a very positive conversation,” about the issue. The prime minister said he explained “the action that we’d undertaken over the previous 48 hours” to support the women.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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