The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
How Griffin’s injury impacts Huskies
OMAHA, Neb. — UConn women’s basketball is currently on a seven-game win streak.
After having to restart from scratch following Azzi Fudd’s season-ending knee injury in early November and managing without Caroline Ducharme (who has missed the last 10 games with neck/back issues), the team was just starting to thrive in its new identity out on the court.
It was as if the team was over the hump and back to playing UConn basketball.
Another injury, especially another potentially season-ending one, was the last thing the No. 12 Huskies expected.
Graduate student Aubrey Griffin, UConn’s top reserve, suffered a knee injury late in the third quarter of UConn’s 94-50 win at No. 21 Creighton in Omaha Wednesday night. While the program will know more about her status later this week after testing, initial examination showed her knee was unstable — likely leading UConn head coach Geno Auriemma to again re-create his team’s identity for the second time this season.
The Huskies will need everyone to step up in Griffin’s presumed absence. There will be no making up for her incomparable aggressiveness and physicality — Griffin is arguably the Huskies most athletic player — but players will be asked to give even more to keep the team afloat as it reaches the halfway point of the season this weekend.
“We’re in this bubble, where it’s (injuries) all around us. All around us every day,” Auriemma said Wednesday night. “You pick up the paper every day you see a news story; some somebody on some team has something that puts them out for the year, any sport. I don’t know what it is (or) what’s going on. But right now, we’re in a bad cycle and I think the kids are, I think, they’re just kind of gutted out by all this.”
Back in June, 14 healthy Huskies reported to preseason summer conditioning ahead of 2023-24 season. Star guard Paige Bueckers was back. Fudd was healthy and redshirt freshmen Jana El Alfy and Ice Brady were primed to have standout collegiate debuts.
Yet 14 games into the season, UConn could very likely be down to just nine available players. El Alfy suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in July. Ayanna Patterson underwent season-ending knee surgery after recovery from a previous surgery didn’t go as planned. Fudd tore her ACL and her meniscus during practice after UConn’s second game of the season. And due to neck/back spasms Ducharme has not been with the team since its trip to the Cayman Islands Thanksgiving weekend.
On Wednesday, another Husky suffered another injury.
Griffin jumped up for a block under the Creighton basket Wednesday night — a normal move from the combo guard/ forward — and immediately grabbed for her left knee in mid-air. There was no contact as she then took a hard fall to the floor and needed assistance getting up and
walking off the court.
It’s the third-straight season UConn’s roster was decimated by injuries. In each of the last two seasons, every player but two missed at least one game or more due to injuries or illness.
If Griffin is out for the remainder of the season, UConn will need its underclassmen to rise up and for its current leaders (Bueckers and Aaliyah Edwards) to carry an even larger role. Griffin’s absence would also shrink UConn’s frontcourt even more, leaving it with just three forwards and Edwards as its only true experienced big.
Griffin is UConn’s best doeverything player. Not only does she provide a spark off the bench, but she plays fearlessly and can impact the game from anywhere on the court.
She drives through crowded lanes and leaps up higher than most for layups and rebounds. Griffin’s experience (she’s in her fifth year at UConn after sitting out her true junior season with a back injury) is also unmatched on the court as the Huskies’ oldest player.
“Aubrey’s had to overcome a lot, you know, she had one of these (knee injuries) in high school. She missed a year at UConn when she needed back surgery,” Auriemma said Wednesday. “And it’s just, you’re just heartbroken for the kid when it’s their last year and something like this happens.”
The New York native is currently second on the team behind Edwards with 6.0 rebounds per game. She’s tied for second with a career-high 54.7 field goal percentage and is second with 13 blocks on the season while also being fourth with 9.5 points per game. She was also averaging a careerhigh 1.5 assists per contest.
Freshman Qadence Samuels and Brady will become Auriemma’s first choices off the bench.
Samuels will help out on the wing, as her length and shot allows to her become a threat off the perimeter and also down low, grabbing loose balls. The guard is currently averaging 6.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and a 42.2 3-point field goal percentage in 12.0 minutes per game.
“She’s more comfortable out there. She never loses her confidence, which I love. She’s getting better defensively. I said to one of the coaches yesterday, said, ‘We have to get her a lot more reps with the first team in practice going forward,’ ” Auriemma said Sunday. “I have real high expectations for Q, really high. I think she’s got an unbelievable upside.”
But it’s Brady who will need to contribute more.
The redshirt freshman (who missed last season with a knee
injury) played her best game of the season Wednesday after taking time to adapt to playing up to Auriemma’s expectations.
Prior to the team’s trip to Omaha, Brady hadn’t played more than 14 minutes in a game since UConn’s loss at Texas on Dec. 3. The 6-foot-3 forward was averaging 2.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 13.4 minutes per game.
“Ice is not progressing as quickly as I would like, to be honest, and probably not as quickly as she would like,” Auriemma said Saturday prior to UConn’s New Year’s Eve game against Marquette. “There have been moments in practice where I kind of nod my head and say, ‘That is exactly what we need.’ If we could get that every game, then I know Aaliyah would love it and our team would love it.”
Against the Bluejays, though, she played with hustle and an aggressive attack. She was physically demanding in
the post, grabbing down rebounds and found her open teammates more effortlessly.
To end the third quarter, Brady intercepted a Creighton pass, knocking the ball loose and chasing after it, going as far as slamming into a sideline wall to save it from going out of bounds. She tipped it back in last-second, passing it to Bueckers who found Ashlynn Shade open down low to give UConn a 30-point edge.
“Ice has a lot of talent. She has a lot of natural skills. She don’t know how to use them right now,” Auriemma said. “So, at the beginning, you know it’s about competing really hard. It’s about, you know, asserting yourself defensively, offensively, rebounding the ball, playing good D, and I thought today was her best game. I thought she gave us some great minutes and was a factor out there. So, I’m hoping that this gets her going in the right direction.”