NEW YORK -- UConn star and newly minted NCAA champion Paige Bueckers was selected No. 1 by the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA draft on Monday night.

Bueckers, a three-time first-team All-American from Hopkins, Minnesota, becomes the sixth player, and first since Breanna Stewart in 2016, to be drafted first overall and win a national championship in the same year. Bueckers led the Huskies to their first NCAA title in nine years last Sunday in her final collegiate game.

The 2021 national player of the year, Bueckers is also the sixth UConn player to be drafted No. 1, joining a distinguished group of WNBA superstars that includes Sue Bird (2002), Diana Taurasi (2004), Tina Charles (2010), Maya Moore (2011) and Stewart (2016).

The selection marks a hopeful change of fortune for the Wings, who went 9-31 last season, missed the playoffs and changed coaches. Dallas was rewarded the top pick in November when it won the draft lottery for the first time in franchise history.

The Wings organization, which previously played in Detroit and Tulsa when it was known as the Shock, has made the postseason in five of its nine seasons since relocating to Dallas in 2016, but advanced past the first round only once, in 2023.

Even before the addition of Bueckers, the 2025 Wings -- headlined by four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale -- were already set to feature a slew of newcomers. Stars Satou Sabally and Natasha Howard moved on to different teams, while new coach Chris Koclanes and general manager Curt Miller brought in DiJonai Carrington, Tyasha Harris, NaLyssa Smith and Myisha Hines-Allen during free agency.

Now the Wings will look to channel the momentum of drafting Bueckers into supercharging their franchise on and off the court. The team had already announced a move in 2026 from Arlington to Dallas, where it will have a standalone practice facility and play in a larger and newly renovated arena.

Bueckers enters the pros boasting the top career scoring average in UConn history (19.8 PPG) on remarkable efficiency (53% from the field, 42% from 3, 85% from free throw line), while also shining as a facilitator. The 6-foot guard overcame a pair of knee injuries, including an ACL tear that sidelined her the entire 2022-23 campaign, to play the best basketball of her career over the past two seasons with the Huskies.

While she can play both on and off the ball, multiple WNBA talent evaluators told ESPN they see her as a point guard long-term in the league. Her pairing with Ogunbowale in the backcourt could soon emerge as one of the best guard duos in the league.