Rest stop ahead

UConn to face Louisville in final game before holiday break

STORRS — It’s been a tough two weeks for UConn.

On Dec. 5, Paige Bueckers went down in the final minute of UConn’s game against Notre Dame with a tibial plateau fracture.

Three days later, coach Geno Auriemma announced Nika Mühl was out with a foot injury, joining freshman Azzi Fudd (foot) on the sideline.

The day after Auriemma’s announcement on

Mühl, the Huskies lost at Georgia Tech, snapping their 240-game win streak over unranked opponents. Two days after that, UConn turned things around and defeated UCLA in Newark.

But the chaos continued into this week. On Monday, sophomore Mir McLean entered the transfer portal and UConn fell to No. 7 in the AP Top 25 Poll for its lowest ranking since 2007. On Tuesday, it was announced Bueckers underwent a successful surgery for her fracture and a torn meniscus and would be out eight weeks.

“It’s been a lot,” Auriemma told media Friday after practice. “It’s been overwhelming because it’s not

just Paige. Because if it was just Paige and we had Azzi and Nika, that’s two guards that can take a lot of the pressure off the guards we already have. But it’s three guards, so the overwhelming enormity of it is what’s got them down. That there’s no relief. … The reality is going to sink in little by little that this is it, this is what we’ve got.”

UConn concluded a full week of practice, in between exams, on Friday with a visit from former Husky Napheesa Collier, who is expecting her first child in the spring. The visit helped lift spirits as UConn prepares to face No. 6 Louisville on Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena after coming off a stretch of four games in nine days with a depleted bench.

“It’s been crazy,” senior Evina Westbrook said. “We’re all sitting in the locker room and were like, ‘It feels like we’re in the middle of February going into April.’ It just feels like super late and we’re only in December. But I think that’s also a positive side to look at it. It’s only December and we have so many people out, so I think by the time we get everyone healthy, everyone back, it’s going to be good.”

Auriemma said the team got a few things accomplished on the court this week, yet practice has been choppy without Bueckers, Fudd and Mühl.

The coach said the team’s medical staff advised both Fudd and Mühl (both seen wearing boots on their right feet during Friday’s practice) are looking good and expected to return after Christmas.

Meanwhile, Aubrey Griffin remains out indefinitely.

The junior has yet to play this season, after dealing with a high ankle sprain in the preseason and now an ongoing back injury. Auriemma said Griffin underwent more tests this week and tried getting back out but her back continues to be a big concern.

“The last couple of days, she gave it a shot for a day or two and it just didn’t respond,” Auriemma said. “I can’t even give you what a timeline looks like as far as Aubrey’s concern. The other two, according to our medical people, are coming along great, and this last break will be really good for them and after that hopefully we can start working them back in.”

On Friday, all four injured players were in attendance at practice. Bueckers sat against the wall to the side with her left leg propped up and wrapped with crutches nearby. Fudd, Mühl and Griffin watched from the sideline. At one point, Bueckers hopped up and grabbed her crutches. She took a few hobbled steps toward the court before Auriemma stopped practice and told her to sit back down.

Westbrook said the team has made an effort to make all four players continue to feel included with the team, whether through moral support off the court or bringing them into huddles during practice.

“All you want to do is kinda just go back to your room, just be alone,” Westbrook said. “Being through that, I understand that, and I understand the feeling of like, ‘I’ll just get through it alone,’ but that’s probably the worst possible thing that you can do.

“I love that they’re in the huddles with us still. We go over and we huddle with Paige because she can’t walk. She’s still giving her input and things like that. We’re not allowing them to bury themselves in this hole that it feels like you want to be in when you’re hurt.”

Auriemma said he’s noticed players come out of injury setbacks with a better sense of what’s going on on the court, with the team and how they can fit in because of their time watching from the sidelines. Westbrook and fellow senior Olivia Nelson-Ododa said they’ve appreciated the feedback from the injured players during the past week because of their ability to see the game from afar.

“(They’re) just staying engaged because knowing they’re gonna be back, knowing that they’re gonna have to play a role and be involved with things,” Nelson-Ododa said. “It’s important that they stay engaged and see the little things that you wouldn’t otherwise see when you’re going full speed on the court.”

UConn showed improvement this past Saturday in its win over UCLA, following its first game without Bueckers that Thursday in its loss at Georgia Tech. Westbrook took over the point guard role, while Caroline Ducharme and Dorka Juhász stepped up to provide surges on both ends of the court in Newark. Juhász finished with her best game yet at UConn, totaling 16 points and 16 rebounds against the Bruins.

“Wins are wins, and they’re hard to get,” Auriemma said. “It’s a weird thing of nature that the guys who seem to get hurt are the guys you’re counting on the most. And then everybody’s got to fill a role that they may not be quite ready to fill yet and now you gotta depend on them and they feel the pressure.”

Louisville is playing 10 consistent players, with six averaging 20 minutes or more per game. The Cardinals are 9-1 and led by Kianna Smith with 12.3 points per game and Emily Engstler with 9.1 rebounds per game.

“You’ve had years where something like this wouldn’t bother you one bit. You’d have Pheesa (Collier) bring the ball up the floor, you’d have Stewie (Breanna Stewart) or (Morgan) Tuck bring the ball up the floor. We don’t have that luxury,” Auriemma said. “There’s a chance they could wear out our guards pretty quickly. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re pretty judicious about how we attack them, how we use our timeouts, how we use our substitution patterns.”

Following Sunday, UConn will go on a 10-day break for the holidays before hosting Marquette on Dec. 29. The Huskies will face DePaul in Chicago on New Year’s Eve before beginning 2022 with six games in 12 days, including its nonconference game at Oregon on Jan. 17.

“With the amount of people that we have on the team now, we just have to figure it out. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. No one else feeling sorry for us,” Westbrook said. “But lucky for us, no one expects us to win anymore. Even though we’re still UConn, it’s like, ‘OK, this is going to be an easy game for us,’ like everyone wants a piece of us now, and we like that. I think we like that little edge, like ‘You guys want a piece of us, but we still got some people.’ I think we’re just excited to showcase that.”