{"id":38210,"date":"2025-07-26T07:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T07:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/38210\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T07:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T07:18:11","slug":"uconns-kaitlyn-chen-paige-bueckers-play-in-valkyries-vs-wings-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/38210\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn’s Kaitlyn Chen, Paige Bueckers play in Valkyries vs. Wings game"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Rookie guard Kaitlyn Chen<\/a> usually keeps her answers short and to the point when fielding questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How was the Valkyrie\u2019s first All-Star break?<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first-year player<\/a>, hesitantly, divulged that \u201cI spent it here.\u201d When pressed for further details, she revealed \u2026 \u201cIt was nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when asked about her team\u2019s first opponent since that \u201crelaxing\u201d break, Chen opened up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After all, former UConn teammate, current Dallas Wings point guard and overwhelming Rookie of the Year frontrunner Paige Buckers has that effect on people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPaige is someone who is very selfless,\u201d Chen told the Bay Area News Group. \u201cYou can see that with everything she does, on and off the court, and you can tell by the way she speaks so highly of her teammates and her coaches. She\u2019s definitely someone you want to surround yourself with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bueckers was similarly effusive when describing Chen during a pregame interview on Friday night, who started alongside her in the Huskies\u2019 run to the program\u2019s 12th NCAA title in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of my sisters, so it\u2019s great to see her thrive and compete on the other end,\u201d said Bueckers, who was able to catch up with Chen at dinner on Thursday night.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After graduating from Princeton in 2024 with a degree in medical anthropology, Chen used her final year of eligibility to play for coach Geno Auriemma and his legendary Huskies dynasty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UConn was \u201csuffering\u201d through an eight-year championship drought, a once-unthinkable dry spell for a program that piled up six trophies from 2009-16 and enjoyed winning streaks of 111, 90 and 70 games since the year 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chen was not on campus long before it was clear Bueckers was just as integral as Auriemma when it came to setting the tone for her one season in Storrs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a big part of getting everyone on board and understanding how important this was, and what we had to do in order to achieve it,\u201d Chen said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After winning that championship, the starting backcourt began their professional journeys. But while Bueckers has been tasked with resurrecting the Wings as the top pick, Chen\u2019s journey has gotten off to a rockier start.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was selected No. 30 overall in April<\/a> \u2013 a moment that saw Bueckers and her UConn teammates celebrate with Chen in the stands \u2013 but was cut in training camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries’ Kaitlyn Chen (2) celebrates a basket and foul on Golden State Valkyries’ Stephanie Talbot (7) against the Connecticut Sun in the second quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chen was out of the WNBA for a few weeks, but returned after EuroBasket cleared out the Valkyries roster.<\/p>\n

\u00a0She played so well that the team decided to roll with the SoCal native as the team\u2019s final guard and controversially cutting fan favorite Julie Vanloo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like just feeling more comfortable being here, and sort of finding my role within the team (is the biggest difference),\u201d Chen said. \u201cObviously that\u2019s hard when I\u2019m in training camp, but being back here the second time, I\u2019m just sort of figuring that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, Chen and Bueckers are three months and a world away from that joyous night at the national championship game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLife was very different than it is now,\u201d Chen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But now professionals, the two are still buoyed by their time at UConn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ten of the WNBA\u2019s 13 teams have at least one Huskie alum on their roster as UConn sports 16 current players and several more in the coaching ranks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They count retired legends such as Diana Taurasi and Rebecca Lobo as alumni.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That forms the bedrock of a network more comparable to what UConn alum Tiffany Hayes also called a \u201csisterhood\u201d than a colleague.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery team in college says it, but we actually are a family,\u201d said Hayes, now Chen\u2019s teammate on the Valkyries. \u201cEven if we don\u2019t talk everyday, we check in on each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TiffanyTiffany Hayes #15 of the Golden State Valkyries drives to the basket during the game against the Seattle Storm on June 29, 2025 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Noah Graham\/NBAE via Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bueckers agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you went to UConn \u2026 you\u2019re connected not by choice, but by a bond of shared experiences and shared love for where we came from and what we\u2019ve been through,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cIt\u2019s really awesome to have that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen\u2019s role with the Valkyries has been more understated than the one played by many of her UConn \u201cfamily,\u201d but that could be set to change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With All-Star Kayla Thornton<\/a> lost for the season with a knee injury, other players will need to step up if Golden State is to remain in the playoff race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chen is ready to do whatever is required of her, and even before Thornton\u2019s injury, was primed to take a second-half leap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been looking to be more aggressive and take advantage of opportunities that I\u2019m given,\u201d Chen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 25, 2025 at 1:03 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Rookie guard Kaitlyn Chen usually keeps her answers short and to the point when fielding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[402,3805,2356,4804,10831,2558,10836,5284,10838,99,434],"class_list":["post-38210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}