Auriemma defends approach with Bueckers
The injury, a tibial plateau fracture, that will keep UConn guard Paige Bueckers out for 6-8 weeks was sustained with under a minute remaining in a 73-54 victory over Notre Dame that was well in hand.
That has led some to wonder whether coach Geno Auriemma should have had Bueckers on the bench by then.
“I can go back and forth and relive that whole thing,” Auriemma said Wednesday before the Huskies departed for Atlanta, where on Thursday the face Georgia Tech. “Obviously it happened in that one play, but … as you read all the stories about it, this is usually a traumatic injury caused by some sort of collision or something. So I don’t know whether something happened earlier in the game, something happened the day before in practice, where she banged knees with somebody, so I remember that.
“But, no, that’s like saying an NFL guy’s worried about, you know, they’re up two touchdowns, the starting quarterback is always taking the knee, right? I mean, you just play. You don’t think about these things.”
Bueckers’ injury, whether it was triggered by an earlier occurrence or not, was non-contact. Her left leg slipped out from under her as she jab-stepped, looking to cross mid-court
and run some of the final seconds off the clock.
She fell to the court with 38.5 seconds remaining. She had played the entire game to that point — 39 minutes, 21.5 seconds. Bueckers is averaging 36.3 minutes a game. That situation is something Auriemma is challenging himself to reconsider when Bueckers returns.
“Obviously a consideration,” he said. “When you think about it, these last three or four years, the most minutes any of my players have ever played. I don’t mean just Paige, either. Obviously things have evolved, things have changed, and I wish I could do it differently and I might end up having to do it differently — but certainly not in the next month because you’re just not going to be able to.”
UConn is without Bueckers (tibial plateau
fracture), Azzi Fudd (foot), Nika Muhl (foot) and likely Aubrey Griffin (back, ankle) for Thursday’s game. The Huskies then play Saturday in Newark against UCLA.
Auriemma is not secondguessing himself for having Bueckers on the court so late in a game.
“I’ve always — always — thought about those things,” he said. “But you can’t coach like that. You just can’t. I’ve had so many injuries that happened at the beginning of games, the middle of practice, where no one is even near you. So I can’t allow myself to go there.”
Bueckers’ minutes so far this season: 40 against Arkansas, 28 against Minnesota, 38 against South Florida, 39 against South Carolina, 34 against Seton Hall, 39 against Notre Dame.
His postgame comments Sunday: “She never comes out. She never wants to come out. She’s a pain in the ass to have on the bench because all she does is complain about why she’s not playing. And we’ve made a concerted effort the last three or four games to get her some rest during the game. And you’re right, I don’t have an answer for why she was in the game. I mean, that could happen any time. It could happen in practice. It could happen in a game. It could happen any time. But, yeah, I don’t like our team without her on the court. I mean, I might have to like it if she misses any time, but I don’t like the way our team looks when she’s not on the floor.”
Auriemma said Tuesday that his concerns are more specifically that he doesn’t like the way his team looks offensively without Bueckers. Overall, he said, the team’s defense has been terrific since a 95-80 over Arkansas in the seasonopener. UConn has held every opponent below its scoring average.