CHICAGO —Nika Muhl was headed towards a massive crowd of fans waiting to greet the UConn women’s basketball team at their tunnel after a 104-67 win at DePaul on Sunday, but the Huskies senior noticed a group of teenage girls hanging over the railing behind the team’s bench opposite the mob.
Clutching a UConn jersey and a poster plastered with images of Paige Bueckers, 19-year-old Saylor Steward’s jaw dropped when she saw Muhl break away from the gaggle and jog directly towards her. Immediately there were tears in Steward’s eyes, and she let out a breathless, “Oh my God … I’m gonna cry,” as a smiling Muhl signed the bottom right corner of her sign.
Steward lives more than 1,500 miles from Storrs in Roland, Oklahoma, and she can pinpoint the exact moment that she fell in love with UConn. She was 15 years old and struggling to cope with the death of her grandmother in April 2021, spending mindless hours on TikTok looking for an escape. Amid her grief, she discovered an unexpected spark of joy: A highlight clip of Paige Bueckers hitting a 3-pointer appeared in her feed, and Steward felt the instant rush of fandom.
The young UConn superfan drove more than 10 hours to Chicago to see the Huskies as a birthday present from her mother Brandie Price, who made the long trip with her. Though Bueckers never made it out of the throng at the tunnel to greet fans in other areas of the arena, just getting to see the UConn star in person was good enough for Steward.
“I’m in a dark place, scrolling on TikTok, and all of a sudden I see Paige shooting a freaking three. I’m like, that is the coolest thing ever,” Steward said. “I just started watching games and fell in love with it … Watching them pulled me out of it, so to be able to come is just awesome. I’ve been a big fan of Paige and a big fan of Nika, so it was so surreal. I still can’t even believe I’m here.”
Nika Muhl and Aaliyah Edwards getting all the love too, highly recommend sound on for the Nika video! pic.twitter.com/kHPaHYi9F6
— Emily Adams (@eaadams6) February 26, 2024
The last time UConn won a national championship in 2016, Steward was just 11 years old. Growing up in Van Buren, Arkansas, she wasn’t watching the Huskies on TV and witnessing the dynasty that established so much of the program’s foundational supporters. But a new generation of fans didn’t discover the Huskies until well after the pinnacle of their dominance. Through the eyes of social media, UConn can feel like a longtime underdog up against the ever-growing legend of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese’s social media empire at LSU.
It’s easy to root for the little guy, especially a ‘little guy’ ranked No. 10 in the country after securing its 23rd Big East regular-season title out of 32 seasons in the conference under coach Geno Auriemma.
“When you think of women’s sports you’re going to think of Caitlin Clark right now, but I knew Paige’s name before I knew Caitlin’s,” Steward said. “I knew Nika’s before I knew Caitlin’s because I watched her and her sister play. I think that they’re the reason college basketball is the way that it is along with Caitlin … It’s probably the most televised thing right now. Everyone is talking about it, everyone is always posting and making edits (on social media), and it’s because of people like Paige, Caitlin — and you have to throw Angel Reese in there with LSU.”
Though Bueckers is UConn’s centerpiece, the whole team is capturing the attention of new fans around the country. Aaliyah Edwards found space for her signature inside the white letter O in UConn on a fan’s navy crewneck and above the elbow on a long-sleeve t-shirt for a group of fans. A young girl waited at the Huskies’ tunnel before warmups collecting autographs on her official WNBA basketball from anyone who would stop.
Crowds on the road like the one in Chicago still surprise Bueckers. Sunday’s game set an all-time revenue record for DePaul women’s basketball, and hundreds of fans stayed for all 40 minutes of UConn’s rout of the Blue Demons just for the chance to see Bueckers afterwards. Steward had never met the other young girls who congregated with her at the bottom of the bleachers before Sunday afternoon, but that didn’t stop them from squealing and grabbing each other’s arms any time a player came in their direction.
New Where’s Waldo: Spot Paige in the mob of fans that want her autograph pic.twitter.com/dmLBFbeXnI
— Emily Adams (@eaadams6) February 26, 2024
“After the game today was pretty crazy,” Bueckers said with a laugh. “I’m just so blessed and grateful that God has put me in this position to be a role model and have this sort of love and support — and not just me. UConn obviously has a long-standing tradition of the support and fans traveling wherever we go. But yeah, it’s just amazing to see.”
The postgame mob at DePaul was larger than usual but certainly not an unusual experience for Bueckers and the Huskies, who also sold out seven home games this season. Auriemma wants his team to embrace the posters and selfies and autographs, pointing out that COVID-19 restrictions meant the senior class didn’t get the opportunity to experience this level of fan engagement during their most successful season in 2020-21. With Bueckers finally healthy for the first time in two years, Auriemma is just thrilled to see his star back in front of her fans on the court.
“At heart, they’re still college kids. They’re still not that far removed from being in high school and going to games trying to get an autograph themselves from somebody,” Auriemma said after UConn’s first win over DePaul at a sold-out Gampel Pavilion on Jan. 20. “They would stay out there for an hour and 45 minutes if nobody stopped them, if you just let them be kids and do kid stuff … It’s a reminder to them that it’s going to come a time when I’m not going to do this anymore.”
Missing all of the the 2022-23 season with a torn ACL gave Bueckers a new appreciation for basketball and everything that comes with it. Though she knows she’ll have another season at UConn after announcing plans to use her redshirt year of eligibility in 2024-25, the Huskies senior has made it a priority to savor every joyful moment as it comes.
“I haven’t had this experience really since high school when the crowds were crazy and I’d be signing stuff for a long time,” Bueckers said. “I was that little kid once, so I just want to enjoy it and be a great role model and try to sign as much as I can and take as many picture as I can, because I know it’s something that they’re going to cherish for a long time.”
