By Olivia Hillestad
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn was electric Dec. 7, with the lower bowl packed and buzzing with excitement. Fans erupted in cheers and chants, laughter echoed through the arena, and the stands trembled under the rhythmic stomping of feet.
The occasion was the inaugural Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic, featuring two matchups between some of the nation’s top women’s college basketball teams. The night capped off a busy week for one of college athletics’ brightest stars, No. 2 University of Connecticut (UConn) standout Paige Bueckers.
Earlier in the week, Bueckers became the first Name Image and Likness (NIL) athlete to design and launch a Nike Player Edition sneaker. During the game, UConn players and staff wore the design.
“It’s very cool, very surreal,” Bueckers said about her teammates wearing the sneakers. “You don’t really have time to process it in live action because you’re so focused on the game plan and winning and executing that. So, I’m sure it’ll be something that I look back on, but it was very cool and very humbling. I’m glad we got to do it as a team.”
Bueckers, a redshirt senior from Hopkins, Minn., is one of the top NIL earners among women’s college basketball and has deals with major companies. With Gatorade, she became the first collegiate athlete in the NIL era to ink an agreement with the drink manufacturer in 2021.
Bueckers has been notable since the start of her college career: She was the first freshman to win major national women’s college player of the year awards, including the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, AP Player of the Year and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Player of the Year. Injuries, including an ACL tear, sidelined her for the 2022-23 season, but she returned the next season, improving in almost every statistical category to her freshman year. She has continued to lead UConn in her final season.
Bueckers’ shoes may have given the Huskies a boost during game two in which they routed No. 22 University of Louisville 85-52.
UConn was undefeated through eight games in early December.
Sarah Strong led the Huskies with 21 points with Azzi Fudd, adding 18 to help. Despite finishing with just eight points on the night, Bueckers notched 10 rebounds and six assists. On the season, the All-American leads the team in points with 151, averaging 18.9 per game.
During the first game of the night, the University of Tennessee beat the No. 17 University of Iowa 78-68.
Louisville head coach Jeff Walz and Iowa head coach Jan Jensen both had only positive remarks about the event despite their teams’ results.
“It was just a great event, everything: halftime, the first game, the timeouts,” Walz said. “It was a big time produced two games, and we’re really fortunate because you don’t get that all the time with women’s events. And they absolutely blew it out of the water and did a fantastic job.”
“There’s very few times in life that you get to be first, first at something,” Jensen said. “I’m really grateful when I get to be a part of firsts, and I told these young women, I said, ‘Man, this is a moment. Win or lose, you get to be a part of something, something really special.’ And I think you have to take time to celebrate that, win or lose.”
College women’s basketball has seen massive growth over the last two seasons, with the 2024 NCAA championship game between Iowa and the University of South Carolina garnering nearly 19 million average viewers, becoming the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever.
The growth has coincided with the explosion of NIL money and deals; the total projected NIL market has exploded from $917 million in 2021-22 to an expected $1.67 billion in 2024-25, according to a report by Opendorse.
Also, according to the report, the top 25 earners in women’s basketball average $88,975 annually, compared to $349,492 for men’s basketball players. For comparison, on the pro side, for the 2023-24 season, the median salary in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was $78,000, while in the National Basketball Association (NBA), it was $4.6 million.
Legendary UConn head coach Geno Auriemma played a large role in organizing the event, along with partners Shark Beauty, Barclays Center and FOX Sports.
The beauty company had a salon set up on the main concourse for fans to have their hair styled.
Several young fans had Bueckers’ signature braided ponytail done. “It’s pretty surreal just to have that, to have younger kids look up to me,” Bueckers said. “I really love it, it’s very humbling; it motivates me to continue to keep working and being a great role model, and I’m very thankful for that.”
