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Hopkins' Starks feeling healed as basketball tourney time looms

By Star Tribune, 02/04/14, 6:39PM CST

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T.T. Starks missed the team’s first eight games while recovering from shoulder surgery but should play a key role.

Hopkins junior T’Aire (T.T.) Starks scored 15 points as the No. 2 Royals won their Lake Conference opener on Jan. 28, defeating then-No. 4 Minnetonka 74-45.

“I think that might have been our best game,” Starks said.

The victory extended Hopkins’ winning streak to 10. The streak now sits at 12 after wins over Edina and Wayzata.

Starks missed the team’s first eight games while recovering from shoulder surgery but should play a key role as Hopkins (17-2, 3-0 Lake Conference) tries for a fourth consecutive Class 4A state title.

University of Minnesota student reporter Nate Gotlieb talked with Starks last week about the team’s progress, her plans for after graduation and more.

 

Q: Why do you think the Minnetonka game might have been the team’s best?

A: Tonka’s always a rivalry. They’re always going to come out hard and play real hard against us, so we always want to come out and play our hardest against them.

 

Q: How do you think the season is going so far?

A: We’re making progress, getting better each day, so it’s all we really can do.

 

Q: Are you excited about another chance at the state tournament?

A: Very excited. It’s always around my birthday [March 12], so that would be a great birthday present.

 

Q: Does the team feel confident it can get there and win another title?

A: I think we always have that thought in the back of our minds. Everyone knows we’d have to work really hard to get it. We have to put in the extra time, the extra hours, all that to achieve our goal.

 

Q: How is your shoulder feeling?

A: It feels real good. Intact. Tight. Strong. It feels like normal.

 

Q: How tough were those early-season losses to Eastview and Lakeville North?

A: Sitting on the bench is hard enough by itself, and then just being out there and wanting to play and help your team and stuff like that, that’s really hard for me.

 

Q: How has the team responded to those losses?

A: Really well, actually. I guess it kind of motivated us that we don’t want that feeling anymore. We’ll do what it takes to not have that feeling anymore.

 

Q: Have you thought about your plans for after high school?

A: Not much. I mean, it’s a big topic that me and my mom, we haven’t really got into it yet, but just a little bit here and there.

 

Q: Any truth to the rumor you committed to Minnesota?

A: No. That is not true.

 

Q: How’d you get into basketball?

A: My mom is a coach, and she’s coached at [Minneapolis] North High for plenty of years, and I was always in the gym with her and doing stuff with her team. And then I just, one day, I told her that I wanted to play basketball, and she got me on a team, and then I’ve been playing ever since second grade.

 

Q: How come you chose number 22?

A: My grandpa, he passed away. I think it’s going on four years now. His birthday is April 22. That’s why I’m number 4 on AAU, too.

 

Q: Have a pregame routine?

A: I always listen to my music, I read the scouting report and I always put all my left stuff on first, like my left knee pad, my left ankle brace, my left shoe, my left sock.

 

NATE GOTLIEB

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