UNCASVILLE, Conn. — With practice wrapping up, Paige Bueckers was having a little fun, with a purpose. From the wing, she was lofting 3-point shots with an exaggerated arc. None touched the rafters, but most went through the rim.

Was she just having fun, or was there a muscle-memory point to it? Always hard to tell with Bueckers, who is not one to show all her cards. But it could be read that, four games into her WNBA career, she’s as comfortable in her own skin as she has always been.

There is no doubt that the “UConn Experience” — and Bueckers had a longer, stronger dose of it than almost anyone before her — can send a young player to The W believing she has already seen it all.

“Everything about UConn is professionalism,” said Bueckers, who will be back on familiar hardwood when the Wings play the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena on Tuesday night. “On the court, off the court, the way you carry yourself, the way behave, your habits. What they’ve built at UConn is an extension of professionalism, so you get here and you’re definitely prepared for it.

“There are some differences, things you’ve got to get used to, but I feel as well prepared as I could’ve been, making that decision to go to UConn. The coaching staff has prepared me really well.”

Two things a player doesn’t necessarily experience at UConn are the grueling schedule and the losing that comes with entry into the pros. As if the college season, the Final Four and the whirlwind surrounding the draft, in which the Dallas Wings took Bueckers with the first overall pick, weren’t enough, she has already played four games in three different cities since the season opener on May 16. The Wings had the No.1 pick for a reason, and they are 0-4 as a new coaching staff figures out how to align players around their rookie star.

The Huskies lost only three games on the way to the national championship, which is about par for Geno Auriemma’s program. In five years, four seasons played at UConn, which plays the Big East Tournament and occasional regular-season games at Mohegan Sun, Bueckers has never lost a game here.

“Feel like Mohegan’s my second home to Gampel in Connecticut,” she said.

The 40-game schedule, though, is just beginning.

“The turnarounds and the travel and how the next day you have a game or your scouting for a game,” Bueckers said. “You know the schedule and how rough it is and how much you’re on the go. It’s a lot. Obviously you take it in stride, and you don’t take it for granted, what we’re able to do, but that’s been a little surprising, to actually be in it and see the WNBA schedule first hand.”

Though the Wings are winless, Bueckers is averaging 13 points, 6.3 assists and 4.5 rebounds, with a double-double, 12 points and 10 assists, in her second game. With 25 assists to eight turnovers in four games, with seven steals, she has yet to have a rookie deer-in-headlights look in the league.

“Staying in the present moment has been my motto for the last year or so,” she said. “It’s so easy to get caught up in the past and what you just accomplished, and what you did yesterday that you forget about where you are now and taking advantage of this moment. So being in the moment, being here, being present, recognizing everything that’s going in around you, build relationships. Enjoying each other’s company, talking, communicating, building relationships that way has been sort of the focal point.”

Bueckers’ entry into the league is bound to be compared to Caitlin Clark’s a year ago, which was part carnival, part minefield. The Wings have designated Bueckers as exempt from talking to media at morning shootarounds, where Clark, in her early games with Indiana, would talk at shootaround, pregame and postgame. It naturally got a little tedious and exhausting for her, so this move takes some of the burden and pressure off Bueckers. At UConn, the media coverage in and out of Connecticut was relentless, but individual players are not required to speak after every game, or every practice.

At UConn, Bueckers carried the expectation to lift the program back to the top, and whatever the extenuating circumstances, her injuries and those of her teammates, she did not put that to rest until her very last game. Now there is a new, different set of expectations, comparisons, pressures, scrutiny, but she has looked unaffected by it, still able to walk that tricky line of being the breakout star and just one of the players, a player’s player, at the same time.

“I can do a better job of getting our team organized,” she said. “We’re all learning at this point. Looking at it as an opportunity to grow, this year is all about growth, maturity, adversity, handling the good, handling the bad, going with the flow, owning the flow.”

Bueckers is living alone for the first time, and she is currently immersed in the 21st season of “Grey’s Anatomy.” She is contemplating buying a dog. Her surroundings are new, but there is a certain level of comfort about her, and so far the transition has been comfortable to watch.

She has been in a fishbowl since high school, after all, and a walking cottage industry of name, image and likeness since she arrived at UConn in 2020. What is new is not overwhelmingly so; she handles fame and all that goes with it with Derek Jeter’s joy, Derek Jeter’s shrug, smirk and instinct for keeping the guard up. It’s still serving her well.

“I’m blessed to live this life,” Bueckers said. “It’s a lot, but I wouldn’t trade any of it.”

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