Although UConn women's basketball star Paige Bueckers is not fully cleared from her ACL injury that kept her out of the 2022-2023 season, but head coach Geno Auriemma said she is 90% recovered, and is expected to be fully ready by the start of the regular season, according to D'Arcy Maine of ESPN.

“If she's not ready to go [by then] then I'm not ready to go,” Geno Auriemma said, via Maine. “Let's put it that way.”

Paige Bueckers won the national player of the year as a freshman in the 2020-2021 season. She missed significant time with a knee injury as a sophomore in the 2021-2022 season. Then, she tore her ACL in August of 2022, causing to miss the entirety of her junior year.

The UConn women's basketball team is expected to contend for a national title after missing out on the Final Four for the first time since 2007. With Bueckers back in the fold, along with sharpshooter Azzi Fudd and other talented players like Nika Muhl, Caroline Ducharme and Aliyah Edwards, the Huskies have the talent to do it. A big component will be health. The luck has not been on UConn's side when it comes to that part over the last two seasons.

The good news is that Auriemma had more encouraging words regarding Bueckers.

“This is the best she's ever been, the strongest she's ever been,” Auriemma said, via Maine. “This is the most time she has spent working on her body, her mind [and] just taking care of herself… [The injury layoff] showed her, if you want a long career, this is how you're gonna have to go about it from here on in injuries, no injuries, it doesn't matter. This is what you're gonna have to do. And she's embraced it.”

Auriemma said that he has never seen Bueckers better at one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, and in the weight room. Bueckers is still waiting to be cleared for five-on-five. The hope is she can return to full strength, and the Huskies win their first national title since 2016.