‘Remarkable’ resilience
How UConn has made it past rash of team injuries
STORRS — There was no official diagnosis yet, but the assumptions were already grim for UConn women’s basketball graduate student Aubrey Griffin’s left knee injury when she approached head coach Geno Auriemma with an important question this weekend.
“How much more eligibility to do I have?” she said.
Six days after suffering a knee injury last Wednesday in UConn’s game at Creighton, there remains no definitive word on Griffin’s status. Initial examination showed the knee was “very, very unstable.”
Auriemma said Tuesday afternoon that Griffin was undergoing additional testing and the team would know more later Tuesday or Wednesday morning. While Griffin is eligible for the WNBA Draft, the combo guard/ forward does have an additional year of collegiate eligibility remaining because of the pandemic.
“I don’t expect any good news,” Auriemma said Tuesday of her injury status. “… I think everybody is kinda ready for the worst.”
The No. 13 Huskies will play their second game without their sixth player Wednesday night in their first home game of 2024, hosting Providence at 6:30 p.m. in Hartford. The game will be a welcome home celebration for former Husky and current
UConn Men’s College Gameday,
Friars’ assistant Kaili McLaren.
UConn beat Georgetown by nearly 30 points in D.C. Sunday in its first game without Griffin as all nine available players saw the floor. But the biggest holes left by Griffin’s absence remain: rebounding and production off the bench.
Griffin (second on the team with 6.0 rebounds per game) was the only true experienced reserve.
Freshman Qadence Samuels and redshirt freshman Ice Brady are expected to provide a spark off the bench, but Auriemma wants to see even more from the two moving forward. Both greatly impacted the team’s defense last week at Creighton and Georgetown. Samuels recorded six rebounds (three shy of her career high) in Omaha while Brady played 22 minutes in D.C. (just four shy of her career high).
“I want Ice to contribute more because she’s skilled enough and I want Q to become more,” Auriemma said. “Are they going to both be able to become ever any versions of Au
coach