In early April, three days after winning a national title for the University of Connecticut Huskies and closing out one of the most decorated careers in college-basketball history, Paige Bueckers is chilling out in a dressing room at The Tonight Show, where she’s scheduled to make a cameo with the championship trophy. Host Jimmy Fallon pops by, assuring her this is the “first of many” appearances. Captain Kirk Douglas, guitarist for house band the Roots, offers his congratulations as Bueckers saunters down the hallway in her college jersey and shorts to tape a bit. “This is the last time I’ll ever wear the UConn uniform,” she says, not entirely ruefully.
She then puts on a rhinestone-adorned flannel shirt and baggy camo pants and appears on the stage to screams of approval. Bueckers (pronounced Beck-ers) is beaming when she returns backstage, having climbed the stairs through the audience, letting a lucky few tap the hefty hardware. “It was a little workout,” she says. “More than I’ve had the last couple of days.”
Read more (via Time.com)