Before and after
How UConn’s Juhász improved her conditioning and elevated her game
Her left wrist in a cast because of a horrific injury, Dorka Juhász spent much of the summer of 2022 off the basketball court.
While her UConn women’s basketball teammates ran through drills during the summer practice session and organized informal pickup games, Juhász was limited to the training room. She worked with trainer Janelle Francisco and sports performance director Andrea Hudy on her recovery and conditioning with an eye on picking up a basketball by late summer.
Nearly a year later, Juhász is looking back with a sense of pride for how she reacted and navigated life after the setback. The wrist injury, suffered during UConn’s double-overtime Elite Eight victory over NC State in Bridgeport, was traumatic.
Yet the limits it created enabled Juhász to turn her offseason into a transformative summer. As UConn prepares to play in the Sweet 16 against Ohio State — her old school — Juhász feels great.
“I think I’m probably in the best shape that I’ve been in throughout my whole college career,” she said Sunday.
On Monday, she played 33 minutes in a physical, wearing game against Baylor. With fellow post player Aaliyah Edwards in foul trouble throughout the second half, Juhász carried the burden of patrolling the paint and was on the court for longer stretches than usual.
She converted 5 of 8 shots for 11 points with seven rebounds, three assists, and three steals. UConn won 77-58 on a night when Edwards was limited to 24 minutes.
“Dorka stepped up amazing for Aaliyah when she got in foul trouble,” guard Nika Muhl said after the game. “She stepped up so much today and she played so many more minutes than usual. I think she, even when she is tired like she was tired today, she just kept her pace and she kept being focused, talked to all of us. Her communication was amazing today on defense.
“She stepped up big time, and that’s what we expect of her as a senior, and she delivers every time.”
Juhász said during the season she felt stronger and more mobile, likely due to the training last summer. Director of Sports Performance Andrea Hudy found ways to work around the wrist injury, focusing on strength training and conditioning that overcompensated for Juhász’ inability to sprint on the court and stay in “basketball shape.”
And they found ways to get her on the court in a limited capacity.
“The conditioning part was good because, honestly, I was able to run a little even with the cast on,” Juhász said. “I was able to do a lot of agility stuff with the team. Even just, right-handed stuff like doing layups and all that. I couldn’t catch the ball, couldn’t really pass, shoot.
“But for the conditioning part,
it was good. Obviously, it’s not like, you know, playing five on five, that type of conditioning. I was definitely lacking whenever I came back in the preseason and definitely had to work with even harder, you know, doing extra to be able to get back into game shape ... But Coach Hudy did a great job of just getting me in good shape during that stretch in the summer and keeping me in shape.”
Lifting weights required some creativity, but Juhász said she felt stronger as the season began.
“It was very funny because it was a lot of different ways I didn’t know that you can lift,” she said. “Like I did it without actually holding the bar. I was able to have my finger stretch so I was able to just have the the strap and not by grabbing the bar, but I was lifting. So there was a lot of different ways to for me to lift and, you know, I could still do squats. So we found ways with Hudy to be able to keep getting stronger and stronger, especially with the lower body strength, put a little bit more emphasis on that when I couldn’t use my left hand.”
And that lower body strength has translated into better foot speed for a player who at times moved slowly through the paint last year. Juhász, averaging 14.2 points and 9.9 rebounds, has displayed more athleticism this season, playing herself into the the WNBA Draft conversation.
She’s also averaging 33.6 minutes, a careerhigh and up from 19.8 last season. She had a sixgame run in late January and early February when she averaged 38.8 minutes and included two 40-minute games.
While she missed seven games with a thumb injury early in the season, she has been a vital piece of UConn’s often shorthanded roster.
“Having that stretch where, you know, I played high 30 minutes, like high 30s and in some game 40 minutes ... that’s something that I felt like the beginning of my college career, I didn’t play that much and that often,” Juhász said. “There were stretches where I had to do back to back to back, so I definitely would say that I’m probably in my best shape of my life.
“I think just the training, the athletic training, the strength training here is just so special that I feel pretty, pretty good. It’s funny how it worked out with the injury ... but it’s March and we’re (36) games in, for me a little less, but I’m feeling pretty good, in pretty good shape. And you know, I think that you can see it on the whole team, too.”
On Monday, she played her last game at Gampel Pavilion. Juhász, who has an undergraduate psychology degree from Ohio State and is leaving UConn with an undergraduate general studies degree and a masters degree in sports management, is embarking on the final few games of her college career.
How ideal that UConn is matched with Ohio State Saturday (4 p.m., ABC) in Seattle? Juhász relocated from her native Hungary to enroll at Ohio State in 2018 and was a standout player in three seasons in Columbus. She averaged 13 points and 9.6 rebounds in 75 games, earning All-Big Ten in 2020 and 2021.
On Saturday, her past and present meet. And after missing an opportunity to play in the Final Four last year, Juhász has added incentive to will the Huskies through Seattle and into Dallas.
“I still have a lot of friends on the team,” Juhász said. “They’ve been having a great season. They’re very organized. Their press is deadly. So, I’m excited to kind of match up against them. I think it’s a different style of basketball that we faced. It’s something we have to adjust to. I’m excited to see them. I’m excited to play against them. It’s definitely a very special game for me.”