Nice story in the Athletic
Bueckers took Hopkins basketball to a state championship every year, and all four opposing coaches remember her as a one-of-a-kind talent.
theathletic.com
When former Edina High School coach Matt Nilsen heard Paige Bueckers would be going to UConn and the Huskies would be returning to the Big East, he had a conversation with his wife. Maybe they’d consider driving the five hours to see Bueckers play at Marquette or Creighton?
“There’s not a lot of kids I’ve coached against that I would probably ever go do that for,” Nilsen said with a laugh.
But Bueckers wasn’t like most high school players in Minnesota, and Nilsen had known that for a long time. He first saw Bueckers play when she was in fourth grade at a girls basketball tournament with his daughter, who’s a year older. Nilsen was immediately struck by Bueckers’ ball handling, passing and body control, years before she would join Hopkins High School’s varsity team as an eighth-grader.