UConn star Paige Bueckers and former Huskies star Evina Westbrook

UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers is enjoying her offseason after leading her team to the Final Four of the Big Dance. She has attended the WNBA Draft and several NBA playoff games and made a series of dancing videos alongside her Huskies teammates.

Recently, Bueckers sent a heartwarming message to former UConn teammate Evina Westbrook, who is a free agent in the WNBA.

“Te Extraño 🤍,” Westbrook captioned her post (meaning I miss you in Spanish).

The Huskies star posted the comment under the Instagram post by Westbrook.

“I miss you too,” Bueckers wrote.

Westbrook’s IG comments
During an interview with CT Post when they were UConn teammates, Paige Bueckers revealed the special position Evina Westbrook occupied in the Huskies dressing room and what made her such a special player.

“She does everything for this team. She’s our glue person,” Bueckers said. “On and off the court, she does anything in order for this team to win, in order for this team to be happy, in order for this team to feel like a family. She’s a leader.

“She’s very selfless,” Bueckers said. “She doesn’t care about individual stats. She’ll sacrifice anything for us, really. That’s all we can ask for a teammate.”

Westbrook helped Bueckers through her ACL injuries, having undergone her own struggles with two separate knee injuries that kept her off of the court for a significant period in 2021.

How Paige Bueckers and co were nurtured by Evina Westbrook

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented period for college sports, with several games canceled and seasons shortened by team absences, and the UConn Huskies were not spared.

During the peak of the pandemic, Evina Westbrook took the mantle of the team’s protector and insisted that her teammates called her ‘mom’ as she helped nurture the freshers, including the popular Paige Bueckers.

She hosted team get-togethers during Christmas, even organizing for the seniors to dress up like The Grinch and Santa Claus to keep the team morale high.

Westbrook also helped the freshers deal with the loneliness and pressures of the pandemic. She explained the leadership role she took on for the team during that period, in an interview with CT Insider.

“I don’t know if we needed it … or maybe they needed it. I don’t know,” Westbrook said. “It was something that just happened, just developed into what it is now.”

As a senior now, Paige Bueckers has also taken on more of a leadership role within the Huskies team. perhaps Evina Westbrook can be credited for laying the groundwork for the UConn star’s leadership abilities.