MINNEAPOLIS — When Paige Bueckers walked into the family ballroom at the UConn hotel in Minneapolis, she headed straight for Tara Starks. Bueckers’ former AAU coach knew what was coming, and turned just as she leapt toward her, colliding with her side. It’s a traditional greeting for the two, even if Starks sometimes wished it wasn’t.
“I always tell her, ‘My knees are bad. My back is bad. What’s wrong with you?'” Starks said. “But it’s almost like the same kid I would sit and talk to in 11th grade. She’s not any different.”
Bueckers grew up in St. Louis Park, a suburb east of Minneapolis, 10 minutes from Target Center, where the women’s Final Four will be played Friday. She played at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka. She has won a state championship at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena — known in the Twin Cities as The Barn — and lost at Target Center. There’s even a…
