Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers’ run this season has been impeccable in the WNBA. She crossed 1,000 career points in the Wings’ overtime win over the Seattle Storm on Monday, becoming the fastest player in the WNBA to reach 1,000 points and 250 assists. This was a milestone built on years of deliberate work. Sarah Strong, Bueckers’ former UConn teammate and one of the direct beneficiaries of her mentorship, offered a clear-eyed account this week of what that looked like up close.

“I think I would say Paige and Azzi, I think,” Strong said when asked of her mentors at UConn, as per CBS Sports’ Isabel Gonzalez. “Especially Paige, coming in my freshman year, they were pretty much like the leaders of the team, and everyone looked up to them, the way they held everything together just really impacted me and made me be better on the court and made me want to do more for the team to just give my all every time on the court.”

That impact had a specific origin. When Strong joined UConn for the 2024-25 season, she was walking into a program built around Bueckers and Fudd. Both understood that Strong’s growth required more than exposure to talent; it required the right environment. And Bueckers made a deliberate choice about how to create it.

“Usually, as a freshman, you come in, you want to gain everybody’s respect,” Bueckers said, as per ESPN. “You don’t want to step on toes…I wanted her to think that it was her team, to where she felt confident enough to take over a game and didn’t have to be, like, defer to Paige, defer to Azzi.”

The result was visible from the start. Strong averaged 16.4 points and 8.9 rebounds in her freshman season and delivered a 24 point, 15-rebound double-double in the national championship game. She became the first freshman in history to post at least 20 points, 15 rebounds, and five assists in a title game. Bueckers led the Huskies that year with 19.9 PPG while Fudd averaged 13.6 alongside her. It was the only season the three of them shared the court, and it ended with a championship.

Even now, when Fudd and Bueckers aren’t on the team anymore, Strong can look up to the Wings guard. A closer look will give Strong a blueprint for understanding how easily Bueckers has made the transition from college basketball to the WNBA, a journey that Strong herself will make in the next few years.

A testament to Bueckers’ effortless transition was also on display in the Dallas Wings’ overtime win over the Seattle Storm. Through her 27-point performance, Bueckers became the fourth-fastest player to reach 1000 points in the league. She achieved this tally in just 52 games with veteran players like Arike Ogunbowale, Seimone Augustus, and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke ahead of her.

Bueckers’ veteran leadership at UConn helped freshman Sarah Strong in realizing her potential and becoming a force to be reckoned with. Now, the Dallas guard is trying to apply that same formula for the Wings’ 2026 season.

Paige Bueckers Is Considering Herself a Vet Already in the 2026 Season

Paige Bueckers is not just producing for the Wings. She is doing so with the same leadership mindset she once used to bring Strong along at UConn. One year into her professional career, that mindset seems to have already formed.

“I think it’s just confidence and just having a year under your belt,” Bueckers said, as per ESPN. “I kind of consider myself a vet already, just being one year in, having that experience learning the game, learning and growing a relationship with my teammates, getting under a new coaching staff, and just building that way.

“But I think just the confidence, the ability to use my voice, try to be a leader, and impact winning in all ways has been like the main focal point.”

Paige Bueckers’ leadership on the court has been one of the foremost reasons behind Dallas’ comfortable 11-6 record this season. Bueckers’ vision of leadership also underscores that leadership isn’t just about experience. Instead, it’s about the mentality.

Strong enters the 2026-27 season as UConn’s central figure. The lessons Bueckers and Fudd gave her are no longer a template to absorb. She would now herself have to take up the mantle and carry the torch forward.