Freshman sensation Paige Bueckers proved she was UConn's best player in first 2 weeks with the team

• Geno Auriemma knew Paige Bueckers was the Huskies' best player within two weeks of her arrival.
• He considered benching the freshman early on, but "it went out the window" once practices started.
• Not even UConn greats like Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Breanna Stewart proved themselves so fast.

Paige Bueckers wasted no time proving her worth upon joining the UConn Huskies on campus.

After his superstar point guard became the first freshman in NCAA women's basketball history to win AP Player of the Year honors, Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said he knew Bueckers was "the best player on our team" within two weeks of her arrival in Storrs.

"I didn't expect this to happen this soon - I knew it would happen at some point, but I just didn't expect it to be that quickly and that evident," Auriemma said on a media call Wednesday. "Nothing that's happened has surprised me. How quickly it happened and how consistent it's been throughout the year, that's been quite surprising and quite rewarding, to be honest with you."

The 11-time national champion and Naismith Hall of Famer has had countless top-touted high school players-turned-women's basketball icons come through his program on their way to greatness in the pros. Auriemma knows better than anyone that managing the excitement surrounding those athletes is a tricky balance, as it typically takes even the most talented players time to adjust to the college game.

So last summer, when his latest incredibly hyped No. 1 overall recruit and Gatorade Athlete of the Year was first preparing to join the Huskies in Connecticut, Auriemma took time to quell his own expectations. He recalled how some of the titans of UConn women's basketball - WNBA superstars Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and Breanna Stewart among them - acclimated to the next level.

"I thought back to when Maya [Moore] was a freshman. I thought back to when [Diana Taurasi] came in as a freshman. [Breanna Stewart] when she came in as a freshman," Auriemma said. "I tried to think back to some of the most hyped players that have ever come to Connecticut, and I tried to think of what their freshman year was like."

"People didn't remember, Diana [Taurasi] wasn't even Rookie of the Year in the Big East, much less national player of the year, and she was a pretty good player," he added. "She was MVP of the Big East tournament and MVP of the Eastern Regional by the end of the year as a freshman."

Taurasi led the Huskies to three consecutive national championships and went on to become the WNBA GOAT as the league's all-time leading scorer, but even she didn't start early on in her UConn tenure. Same with Moore, who later led the Huskies to back-to-back undefeated seasons.

Stewart - who boasts the most impressive resume of any player in college basketball history with four NCAA championships, four Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors, and three player of the year awards - only earned 14 starting nods in her first season at UConn. With that in mind, Auriemma seriously considered bringing in Bueckers off the bench to kick off her Huskies career.

"I thought, 'sometimes it's not bad for a kid in that situation to come off the bench,'" he said. "It gives them a sense of, hey, let me see the game and me a chance to diffuse some of the pressure, let the air out a little bit. So I was all prepared for whatever, but that was in the back of my mind because we had done it so many times."

But Bueckers had other ideas. The then-18-year-old was sensational from her first moments with the team, Auriemma said, prompting the legendary head coach to swiftly abandon any plans to keep his new star off the court in any capacity.

"Once practice started, and once we were together for about a week, I saw the way she handled herself, the way she handled the things that were being thrown at her, how she managed being in that situation among players that she just barely knew," Auriemma said. "Once I saw that, both in drills and in playing and pick up - whatever the case may be - that's when it went out the window."

"It was, we've only been here two weeks, but she's the best player on our team," he added.

Check out Auriemma's full comments below: