Hotbed for women's hoops in Minnesota goes beyond Bueckers

MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) — Cheryl Reeve was once in between weightlifting sets at a Twin Cities area fitness center when she spotted a scrawny youngster working on her game on an otherwise-empty basketball court.

This sixth-grader had the moves, determination and moxie to catch the eye of a WNBA head coach, and Reeve was so impressed she initiated an impromptu shooting drill for the girl to run through over the course of the next half-hour.

When Paige Bueckers became a star on the local high school scene a few years later, Reeve — who is beginning her 13th season with the Minnesota Lynx — had a revelation.

“I know her!” Reeve said to herself that day she made the connection.

This weekend, Bueckers will be back home, leading the Connecticut Huskies into their 14th straight Final Four. Minneapolis is the too-good-to-be-true host city for Bueckers, the smooth-shooting sophomore guard who has been working her way back from a serious midseason knee injury.

“She's a generational talent,” Reeve said Tuesday as she reflected on that chance first encounter with Bueckers, who in 2021 became the first freshman to win the AP women's national player of the year award. “You can spot those at a very young age. I was really glad to see that it was a young girl, and I needed to acknowledge that. I didn’t know what it was going to turn into, but I was happy she was there hooping and I wanted to let her know that."

As the northernmost state in the union with a long history of turning out top-level talent on the ice, Minnesota naturally gets labeled as the land of hockey. This is a basketball-avid area, too, from the four-time WNBA champion Lynx on down to the little girls learning to pass and dribble.

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