Painful feeling
Fudd’s injury was deja vu for UConn
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When UConn women’s basketball star sophomore Azzi Fudd exited the court with a knee injury during the first quarter of Sunday’s game at Notre Dame, there was a sense of deja vu for the Huskies.
Deja vu in that … the last time UConn faced Notre Dame Paige Bueckers went down in the game’s final minute with a knee injury. Bueckers missed 19 games after suffering a tibial plateau fracture and a lateral meniscus tear.
Deja vu in that … this program has seen its fair share, and more, of injuries in the last one and a half seasons. Eight months after her knee injury against the Irish, Bueckers tore her ACL during a pick-up game in the summer. Two months after that, freshman Ice Brady dislocated her patella. Both are out for the 2022-23 season. Plus, both Caroline Ducharme and Dorka Juhász have already missed at least two games each due to injuries (Ducharme’s neck stiffness and Juhász’s broken thumb).
Sunday’s 74-60 loss to the Fighting Irish showed tat while these Huskies have come to accept last-minute injuries, they still struggle to respond on the court when they happen — especially to their best player.
“If we have enough time, I think they can figure out a way to handle it,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “But when it happens during a game earlier on, I think it can affect, especially when it’s somebody that averages 25 (points) a game or whatever. I think it puts people in a tough spot because now all of a sudden it dawns on them, ‘Now I have to make the shots that we normally would get from somebody else. I have to score more points.’ And it’s daunting on the road against a really good team.”
Bueckers’ injury against Notre Dame happened exactly a year to the day on Monday. Four days later, the Huskies lost at unranked Georgia Tech 57-44 in their very next game. The loss snapped UConn’s 240game win streak over unranked opponents for their first such loss since 2012.
How bad was that loss? UConn scored just five points in the fourth quarter after making just two of 12 shots. The team finished the game shooting 31 percent on field goals and 13.3 percent on 3-pointers. Its 44 total points were the program’s fewest in a single game since 2006. Sure, the