NCAAW: Darianna Littlepage-Buggs announces NIL deal with Raid

Darianna Littlepage-Buggs has been a key to Baylor’s success this season. She has averaged 10.5 points and 7.2 rebounds in her 27.7 minutes of play per game for the Bears, helping them finish with a 24-7 record, good for fourth in the Big 12.

Baylor lost to the Iowa State Cyclones in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament, 67-62, but performed well enough across the season to earn a No. 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Their tourney run begins Friday, Mar. 22 against No. 12-seed Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. ET (ESPNU).

With Littlepage-Buggs looking to continue to take a sophomore leap and help carry Baylor back to national title glory, I interviewed her to discuss how, compared to last year, she is more prepared for the March Madness moment, as well as how she ended up partnering with Raid for her first-ever NIL deal.

“Confidence is my biggest thing that I needed to work on from last year,” Littlepage-Buggs said. She clarified:

I know I was kind of starstruck and like, “Oh my gosh, I’m actually in March Madness.” I don’t think I really was focused in as much as I should have been, but I think that this year, because I do have experience now, playing a year and then getting used to the system at my school, I think that I just have to go here with confidence and just be aggressive every game.

That aggression and confidence was on full display earlier this year when Littlepage-Buggs led Baylor with 14 points, helping beat then-No. 22 West Virginia, 65-58. Performances like that could help Baylor make a deep run this spring. Last year, they were done dancing in the second round. What must the Lady Bears do to make it further this year?

According to Littlepage-Buggs:

Obviously, the end goal is to win and take it one game at a time for sure. But I just have to stay aggressive and my team keeps me afloat with that. But I think that we have a really good chance of winning a lot of games and we don’t want to stop at the second round like we did last year. So we’ve made a lot of improvements. We’ve got a lot of new pieces. And I have a lot of teammates that have never played in March Madness. So I’m excited for them.

One of those new players is Dre’Una Edwards. She was a Kentucky Wildcat last season, but now, as a Baylor Bear, she’s one of the focal points of the offense, scoring 12 points per game. She is a big reason why Baylor will be a hard team to knock out this season. As an older player, Edwards is aware of how precious these moments can be and certainly will be playing with the kind of aggression, urgency and energy that Littlepage-Buggs also brings to the floor.

Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images

As a freshman last year, Littlepage-Buggs experienced many growing pains, particularly when it came to the mental aspect of the game and playing at this high of a level. She shared:

My biggest thing was reading defense. I had it a little bit, but just advancing at a higher level. It was kind of difficult. She (head coach Nicki Collen) wanted me to, maybe for instance, I always share this, but basically a hammer screen on the backside. I didn’t get that quite last year a lot because I didn’t understand what she meant. I was missing it a lot. She was like, “Hammer screen.” And I’m like, “I don’t know what that is.” But I know, personally, that was a big thing. Now, I see it more and a lot of times on that backside I get that the little flare screen for my teammates. So that’s definitely an example of something that I’ve grown in, but just reading more of the defense and just flowing into it.

For the uninitiated, a Hammer screen is essentially a weakside flare screen designed for a shooter to cut from the wing to the corner while the ball handler is driving baseline. Due to the misdirection and swinging of the ball, this was a play Littlepage-Buggs struggled with and had to work on to get better at defending. There are many alterations and iterations, but here’s a video example of a few different ways it can be run.

This is part of the growing pains of a player transitioning from high school to D1; it’s good to see that Littlepage-Buggs has put in the film hours and sweat equity to understand it and, more importantly, defend it better.

With Littlepage-Buggs announcing her first NIL deal with Raid this past week, the basketball world has been a buzz (pun intended) with the news. Here’s what she had to say about the partnership:

It’s been a great experience so far, especially using my name. I would never think that in a million years I’d be partnering with Raid, like Bugs, Littlepage-Bugs, but that’s awesome. I get to put my name out there in a big way. And for me, this is my first NIL deal, so it’s a great opportunity for me to get my name out there more and I’m just excited.

The Buggs/Raid collaboration was marketing genius from Raid, for sure. The names match and the branding is just perfect. Add the fact that Littlepage-Buggs plays for Baylor, which is in Texas, a southern state known for its intense heat and enormous insects, makes the match even better. I’m sure plenty of Baylor fans are used to keeping Raid handy to get rid of those annoying pests.

Raid also partnered with Duke’s Jeremy Roach, and Buggs loved the concept of using their last names to match the product. She said:

It was just great to hear that. Obviously, I’m Buggs and his name is Roach, and just, at the moment, I’m like, “What a great way to put our names out there.’ It’s funny, but it’s also informational. So I thought it was just fun to hear. And especially his name being Jeremy Roach, we’re using our name to help us in the long run for bigger opportunities.

The biggest opportunity, for now, is in the NCAA Tournament. Let’s see if Roach with Duke and Buggs with Baylor can help their teams crush the competition on their way to the Final Four.