UConn star Paige Bueckers named first-team AP All-American; freshman Sarah Strong makes second team

UConn womens basketball star Paige Bueckers earned her third career first-team All-America honors from the Associated Press on Wednesday, and Sarah Strong joined the redshirt senior as a second-team selection amid her historic freshman season.Bueckers and Strong are the first pair of UConn teammates to achieve AP All-American status in the same season since Napheesa Collier (first team) and Katie Lou Samuelson (third team) were both selected as seniors in 2019, and they are the first freshman-senior duo to earn the honor in program history.

Strong is UConns first freshman All-American since Bueckers in 2021 and just the third all-time alongside future Hall of Famer Maya Moore.Bueckers was also named a first-team All-American by the U.S.

Basketball Writers Association, and Strong earned third-team honors.Bueckers is the 12th player to make the APs first team three times in her college career and the third from UConn joining Moore and four-time NCAA champion Breanna Stewart.

In her redshirt senior season, the superstar point guard has cemented herself as one of the Huskies all-time greats becoming the fastest player in program history to surpass 2,000 career points and climbing to No.

6 on the all-time scoring list.Bueckers is averaging 19 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and two steals per game in 2025, and she is one of the most efficient players in college basketball hitting 53.6% from the field, 40.6% from 3-point range and 89.9% at the free throw line.

She has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country and is the only Division I guard averaging more than 18 points per game shooting better than 53%.UConns Paige Bueckers, center, holds the Most Outstanding Player trophy after the school defeated Creighton in an NCAA college basketball finals game of the Big East Conference tournament, Monday, March 10, 2025, in Uncasville, Conn.

(AP Photo/Jessica Hill)Bueckers was named Big East Player of the Year for the third time this season and made history as the first three-time Most Outstanding Player in the Big East Tournament.

She led the Huskies to a 12th consecutive conference tournament championship and will conclude her college career having never lost a game to a Big East opponent.Strong was the Big East Freshman of the Year and is the favorite to win the same award nationally.

She signed with UConn as the No.

1 recruit in the class of 2024 and has immediately lived up to the hype, averaging 16 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.6 blocks.

She has put up nine double-doubles with five against top-25 opponents and three straight her first Big East Tournament, and she joined Moore as the second UConn freshman to log 500-plus points and 200-plus rebounds in a season.Strong was the only freshman named a second-team All-American by the AP, and she was joined by Vanderbilt freshman Mikayla Blakes on the third team.

The rookie stars swapped places on the USBWA teams with Blakes taking the second-team spot.UConn forward Sarah Strong, left, is guarded by St.

Johns guard BerNyah Mayo during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Big East Conference tournament, Saturday, March 8, 2025, in Uncasville, Conn.

(AP Photo/Jessica Hill)Bueckers, USC sophomore JuJu Watkins and UCLA center Lauren Betts were all unanimous first-team selections by the AP.

UConn enters March Madness on a collision course with Watkinss 1-seed Trojans as the No.

2 seed in their Spokane 4 region, but first the Huskies will open their tournament against 15-seed Arkansas State at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday (1 p.m., ABC).Breaking down the UConn womens basketball teams bracket, Final Four path in 2025 NCAA Tournament.

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