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Message: [QUOTE="oldude, post: 5244743, member: 7511"] Basketball has always come easy for Paige Bueckers. She is one of those gifted athletes that we all grew up with who are good at any sport they try. We first started hearing about her in 8th grade when people began to take notice of a skinny kid from Hopkins, MN who could really play ball. She and the various teams she played on won numerous State HS championships, AAU tournaments and FIBA World Championships. In 2021, Paige arrived at UConn as one of the most heralded recruits in the history of the program. One of Geno’s first comments about his prized freshman was, “She’s better than I thought.” That first season in Storrs, Paige played with an almost effortless ability, displaying a joy and freedom in her game that made UConn fans fondly recall DT’s 4 years at UConn…..and her 3 national championships. Paige won every NPOY in sight as a freshman, while leading the young Huskies to the final four. The level of expectation by UConn fans for the following season was off the charts. But fate intervened. Injuries to Paige and her teammates along with some tough losses to good teams derailed UConn’s efforts to secure a championship in the first 4 seasons that Paige was in Storrs, Paige is back for one last attempt to add a national championship to her amazing resume. While she still displays an obvious joy on the court, frequently punctuated by primal yells in support of her teammates, there is an intense focus and seriousness of purpose in Paige’s demeanor that most of us have not observed in previous seasons. You can see it in her face when she competes. You can see it in the way she runs team huddles or in the way she barks out instructions to her teammates at both ends of the court, directing their efforts and movement like a traffic cop at rush hour. You can even see Paige’s intensity and seriousness of purpose in her interviews with the press, as she provides thoughtful responses to questions about herself and her teammates. [B]This is a young lady on a mission.[/B] I observed Paige’s new, more intense disposition up close during the BE Tournament at the Mohegan Sun, after a feisty Villanova team took a surprising lead over UConn in the semifinal. At that point, Paige took over the game, scoring seemingly at will as the Huskies retook the lead, eventually pulling away from the Wildcats. It happened again in the 2nd round of the Big Dance when Paige once again took over the game against a tough SD St team, putting up 34 points. She followed that with a 40-point masterpiece to overcome a halftime deficit against a very good Oklahoma team in the Sweet 16, and yet again in a thrilling Elite 8 game vs USC, when she put up 31 points. While basketball has always come easy to Paige, her goal of winning a national championship, or championships, at UConn has been anything but easy. I am reminded of the movie [I]A League of their Own[/I] when Tom Hanks Character tells Geena Davis’s character, [B]“It’s supposed to be hard. It’s the hard that makes it great.”[/B] If Paige and her teammates finally win that elusive national championship this season, it will be a wonderful ending to a story of a remarkable young lady’s perseverance, her love of her teammates and her belief in herself. [/QUOTE]

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