"I'd played in a couple games and he was like, 'I think we need a basketball,' " Maren said. "I think he was like, 'Oh she's tall. She must be good at something.' "

But it wasn't just height that gave Dan a clue as to the immensity of his daughter's potential. He said Maren's affinity for basketball was something determined long before he bought that basketball at the local Target.

It began during bouts of colic during many late Friday and Saturday nights. When Maren was a baby, Dan spent the time holding his daughter as she suffered through fits of colic. To make the task more bearable, Dan tuned the television to West Coast NBA games. It was there that Maren received her first dose of the sport that would later be her ticket to notoriety.

While basketball was imprinted upon Maren during those weary nights, it didn't rule her life until much later. As a child, she took part in everything from softball to soccer to dolls.

But even if Dan had never bought his daughter a basketball, Maren was still a basketball star in the eyes of her peers. After all, she was the tallest of all her classmates — both girls and boys.

It wasn't the easiest role for Maren. After all, elementary school is a time when being unique is about as acceptable as taking a bath every day.

Fortunately, there were other girls her age who didn't spend all their time dressing up in their mothers' high heels and playing with Barbie dolls. Maren and her friends, who included Wisconsin guard Judy Ebeling, played baseball at recess and played in the mud after school.

"We were always into sports like basketball, or racing boys or playing hopscotch," Ebeling said.

But basketball and other sports weren't always popular among Maren's other classmates. In fact, some were blatantly rude to the tall, budding athlete.

And Maren found it difficult to ignore the snide glances and remarks.

"There was a point where it wasn't cool to go play sports," Maren said. "I was like the big dork that all I could do was play basketball. There were certain people, and I can certainly remember who they are, looked at me funny, gave me a hard time, called me names."

Maren, however, learned to accept and distinguish herself on the basketball court. Many years after the late nights with her father her first basketball, she had not grown weary of the sport.

"The time I knew Maren loved basketball was one March when she was in sixth or seventh grade," Dan said. "She was home from school because of bad weather and she went out and shoveled snow away from the net so she could practice."

Maren carried that love from year to year, and also from state to state. When the Walseths briefly moved to Connecticut during her sophomore year, basketball was her ticket to recognition and friends.

It was also the ticket to a college scholarship. After twice winning AAU All-American and Parade All-American honors, Maren had the full attention of numerous Div. I coaches.

Until April of 1996, that is, when Maren tore the anterior cruciate ligament of her right knee.

At first, Maren didn't know the extent of the damage. All it took was one visit to the doctor, and she realized her career might be in jeopardy.

And so did her mother, Kris. She was at the game when her daughter was injured and was there until the very end of the painful rehabilitation process. She was there to shuttle her daughter to doctors' appointments, physical therapy and to help with the

exercises at home.

"We looked at it as a long process, but not as an option that we wouldn't bother with," Kris said.

With both her parents in her corner, Maren found herself back on the recruiting scene, looking for the perfect school. What she found is that some coaches were no longer looking for the perfect forward in her.

Several coaches told Maren they didn't think she would be the same player with the same potential as before the injury. That prospect was something Maren refused to contemplate, so she kept talking to coaches who would accept and understand the situation.

One of those coaches was Penn State's Rene Portland. She took an educated gamble and saw past Walseth's injured knee to the player she thought she could mature into.

"She was like, 'My dog just did that too and she'll be fine in a couple days,' " Maren said. "I was like, 'Great, but your dog doesn't play basketball.' But she was very understanding.

"That was a very vulnerable time in my life because basketball meant so much to me."

Portland's gamble paid off, and she now has a dominant scorer and potential All-Big Ten selection in Maren. She also has a mature player, thanks to the events that shaped her life.

Many years removed from her days in elementary school and her first basketball from Target, her peers or teammates no longer consider Maren a "dork." She is comfortable with the player and person she has become. She's also comfortable standing out in the crowd.

"Basketball is just one of the gifts God gave her," Dan said. "I'm proud of Maren for more reasons than just basketball."

But Maren is grateful for those skills and how far she's come because of them, she doesn't forget the trials of childhood and high school. After all, Maren Walseth wouldn't be who she is today without them.

Or without that trip to the Target department store to buy a basketball.