Crawford facing possible Tommy John surgery
The enormous expectations and anticipation surrounding UConn baseball star Reggie Crawford will have to be put on hold.
Crawford, the rare slugger-pitcher combination who was projected to be a high Major League Baseball draft pick next summer, injured his left elbow last Sunday and will likely need
Tommy John surgery.
“He’s still consulting with doctors, and we’re getting second and third opinions,” UConn baseball coach Jim Penders said. “There is no real course laid out, but it’s probable that he’s going to miss the spring.”
Crawford, 20, has played mostly at first base in his two seasons at UConn, pitching only eight innings in seven games and striking out 17. In the Cape Cod League and with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team last summer, he showed off a fastball touching 101 mph. Baseball scouts and draft analysts began projecting him as a top-10 pick in the 2022 MLB draft.
UConn’s plan was for Crawford
to be a starting pitcher on Sundays, and DH or play first base on other days. He began ramping up for that role during the fall baseball scrimmages, for which dozens of scouts and MLB executives were showing up at Storrs for his appearances.
Last Sunday, in the final scrimmage with about 30 scouts at Elliot Ballpark, Crawford felt
dawg,” said fellow sophomore Paige Bueckers. “It was fun to see her out there doing her thing.
“I mean, she’s an Olympian. To be teammates with an Olympian is a blessing.”
Auriemma said on the first day of preseason practice Oct. 8 that, with limited practice time for teams in Tokyo, Edwards’ conditioning had to catch back up to UConn standards.
“But obviously there are things that Aaliyah can do that nobody else in our team can do, and those things haven’t gone away,” he said.
Last year that was a physicality and intensity that seemed well beyond her years, plus an ability to rebound, play defense and run the floor. Herplay earned her Big East Sixth Woman of the Year honors, and last week she was named to
the preseason All-Big East team.
Aside from averaging 10.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in 21.8 minutes, Edwards’ 68.9 field-goal percentage was best in the country among players attempting at least six shots per game. She blossomed during the beginning of the NCAA Tournament, when she stepped up in the starting lineup in place of an injured Nika Mühl.
The biggest thing Auriemma wants to see from Edwards this season is something he says he wants all his posts to improve upon: hit shots outside of the paint. According to CBB Analytics, nearly 88% of Edwards’ fieldgoal attempts last season were taken at the rim or in the paint. She took two shots from the right baseline and a combined 21 from the elbows, shooting 39% from those three areas. She didn’t attempt a shot from anywhere else on the court.
“What she didn’t show us was,
can she make enough shots from the perimeter to make people not stand there and not let us get to the basket or be easy for them to trap our ballhandler because they don’t have to respect her ability to shoot the ball?” Auriemma said. “That goes for all our big guys too, not just Aaliyah. But I think that’s the next step for her.”
Edwards feels like she was able to work on that with Team Canada, where she said she played more out on the perimeter and had to defend guards more frequently.
“I definitely [learned to] be more versatile, and just my basketball IQ heightened a lot being among people who play overseas and in the WNBA,” Edwards said. “It just really helped me soak in all the information and add that to my game.”
But Edwards doesn’t just see her needed growth in pure X’s and O’s terms.
“I think just my confidence would be what I’ve really been working on in whatever I do — my outside shot, being inside, finishing, and-ones, all that type of stuff,” Edwards said. “I think just knowing how far I’ve grown over the summer and just bring that into the season [is important].”
One thing’s for sure: You can count on Edwards to bring the same aggression that set her apart as a freshman last year. Maybe even more so this season.
“Being with the national team, you’re playing with older girls, so they’re obviously going to be stronger than you,” Edwards said. “They’re going to be bigger than you, so you really have to go and battle out with them. I probably got aggressive from being in that experience with them, but I feel great.”