My dream was to watch Paige Azzi and Caroline play together at 100%. Due to injuries I feel we were robbed of that.
My dream too! I lament the loss of this dream every day — well, not exactly every day, but a lot. It practically kills me to watch as malign fortune steals so much from the players and the team and the fans.
If Paige and Aaliyah leave and Azzi Caroline Jana and Yana are not all healthy next season where does that leave UConn? I would expect some of those 4 to come back but how healthy will they be?
Paige came back from injury ‘with a vengeance’ three times. Can Azzi do the same? It looked like she might have last season against Texas and NC St. If she comes back well next season, then the huskies can do a lot. If Ayanna comes back they will be strong in the paint. If Jana comes roaring back, I think they’re an obvious NC contender. If Caroline comes back well, I think they’re pretty much unstoppable. I have the least confidence about this last one coming to pass, and I may be the saddest for Caroline of all of them.
I wouldn’t wish an injury on any players. But as I watch the other top 25 teams play now I can’t help muttering to myself stuff like, “Try playing without 3 starters and a top rotation player for the whole season.”
Picture SC’s season without Cardoso Raven Paopao and Kitts. What would our February game against them look like under those conditions? Or UCLA without Betts Dugalic Rice and Osborne. Or LSU without Reese Morrow Williams and Smith. Or Iowa without Caitlin Goodman Stuelke and Davis. Or ND without Miles Citron Hidalgo and Prosper.
These would all be pretty good teams and they’d still be trying to figure themselves out by February. Some of them have the team culture to bounce back to something respectable Others might not be able to recover much team unity since they don’t have much history together, like UCLA or LSU. But I doubt any of them would be capable of making the run Paige is about to engineer. I sincerely hope none of these injuries happen, since it would be too cruel to all of these kids. Plus we’d all be robbed of a tremendous season of women’s basketball.