Kamiko Williams playing tonight

[doggydaddy]

Wow...pretty surprising, although reports for weeks have her rehabbing realllllly well.

She had her surgery on July 22nd. Less than 6 months. Fantastic and extraordinary.

 

[stwainfan]

Based on what I've seen from practice clips and games. The way she would jump on the bench.I thought she would be back this year. I didn't know it would be tonight. Having her back helps the guards.

 

[tennfanatic00]

Kamiko has a ways to go to get her conditioning to the point where she can contribute on a game-to-game basis. Once she is up to speed, she adds much needed guard depth. This should help our defense quite a bit.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Impressive. Time will tell if its too early, but impressive none the less.

 

[VAMike23]

Wow! that's very impressive given the timeframe of the injury. Hopefully she can ease her way back in and avoid any kind of relapse etc. She must have really responded well to the surgery and rehabbed like a maniac

 

[Husky68]

Kamiko has a ways to go to get her conditioning to the point where she can contribute on a game-to-game basis. Once she is up to speed, she adds much needed guard depth. This should help our defense quite a bit.

Who sits? For her to help on defense quite a bit, needs to get some decent playing time.

 

[doggydaddy]

Who sits? For her to help on defense quite a bit, needs to get some decent playing time.

No one has to sit. She just becomes part of the rotation off the bench.

 

[UConnCat]

No one has to sit. She just becomes part of the rotation off the bench.

Sounds like Spani's injury had an impact on the decision to bring Williams back as Spani may miss another 2-3 weeks. (Holly Warlick: "With Taber (Spani) out, we didn't know if we were going to possibly redshirt her still or play her. With Taber out, it kind of pushed the issue for us.")

Spani has a bone bruise in her knee which can be a very painful injury and take months to fully heal. Healing often requires extended rest and playing too soon after sustaining a bone bruise may lengthen the recovery time. I'm sure Spani really wanted to play against Baylor, Rutgers and Stanford, but it might not have been the best thing for her recovery.

 

[EricLA]

Sounds like Spani's injury had an impact on the decision to bring Williams back as Spani may miss another 2-3 weeks. (Holly Warlick: "With Taber (Spani) out, we didn't know if we were going to possibly redshirt her still or play her. With Taber out, it kind of pushed the issue for us.")

Spani has a bone bruise in her knee which can be a very painful injury and take months to fully heal. Healing often requires extended rest and playing too soon after sustaining a bone bruise may lengthen the recovery time. I'm sure Spani really wanted to play against Baylor, Rutgers and Stanford, but it might not have been the best thing for her recovery.

that makes sense. were they talking about redshirting Spani or Williams?

 

[UConnCat]

that makes sense. were they talking about redshirting Spani or Williams?

Warlick was speaking about Williams.

 

[tennfanatic00]

that makes sense. were they talking about redshirting Spani or Williams?

Redshirt discussion was about Williams not Spani. Kamiko being back certainly helps our guard depth with Spani out, but, just to be clear, kamiko was cleared to practice before we knew Spani was going to be out. We did not rush kamiko back to fill a guard spot. That would be awfully callous of any staff to do. The priority is always first and foremost on the health of the player.

 

[UConnCat]

Redshirt discussion was about Williams not Spani. Kamiko being back certainly helps our guard depth with Spani out, but, just to be clear, kamiko was cleared to practice before we knew Spani was going to be out. We did not rush kamiko back to fill a guard spot. That would be awfully callous of any staff to do. The priority is always first and foremost on the health of the player.

No one suggested that Williams was rushed back. Based on Warlick's comment, Spani's injury impacted the decision to play Williams this year rather than sit this year out and redshirt.

 

[stwainfan]

Williams IMO is the best player on the team to create her own shot. A guard that can get in lane or shoot a 3. With Massegale,Simmons and Williams at guards helps the team be better.

 

[easttexastrash]

Sounds like Spani's injury had an impact on the decision to bring Williams back as Spani may miss another 2-3 weeks. (Holly Warlick: "With Taber (Spani) out, we didn't know if we were going to possibly redshirt her still or play her. With Taber out, it kind of pushed the issue for us.")

Spani has a bone bruise in her knee which can be a very painful injury and take months to fully heal. Healing often requires extended rest and playing too soon after sustaining a bone bruise may lengthen the recovery time. I'm sure Spani really wanted to play against Baylor, Rutgers and Stanford, but it might not have been the best thing for her recovery.

I had surgery to remove some staph-infected bone from my femur. Let me tell you, it is painful. And my Dr said that bone-associated pain can take a long time to recover from.

 

[tennfanatic00]

No one suggested that Williams was rushed back. Based on Warlick's comment, Spani's injury impacted the decision to play Williams this year rather than sit this year out and redshirt.

I was just trying to curb the discussion from turning in that direction. Warlick's qoute could certainly be interpreted in that way.

 

[EricLA]

i don't think anyone is trying to criticize the tennesse coaching staff for bringing back Williams too soon. if UCONN didn't have Tina Charles and Kaili Maclaren, they might well have brought Heather Buck back after her bout with mono instead of redshirting her. If Spani were healthy, per Holly, the staff may have decided to redshirt Williams. Per Warlick, "With Taber out it kind of pushed the issue for us" is not unclear or cloudy. the decision to NOT redshirt Kamiko was a result of Taber's injury.

 

[doggydaddy]

I was just trying to curb the discussion from turning in that direction. Warlick's qoute could certainly be interpreted in that way.

It certainly could be interpreted that way. But you have to admit that 5 month recovery is extraordinary. I can only think of one other one that fast and that was Jolly in 1998?

"Per Warlick, "With Taber out it kind of pushed the issue for us". Clearing her for practice is one thing. Playing in games and burning her redshirt is another.
I was more concerned with them playing Spani while she was hurting against the tough teams and sitting her out now against the weaker teams. You would think that sitting her right after she was injured until she was 100% would make more sense. I guess they felt it was just pain tolorance and Spani would not cause any additional damage. She certainly wasn't playing as well as before the injury.

 

[Vowelguy]

I was more concerned with them playing Spani while she was hurting against the tough teams and sitting her out now against the weaker teams. You would think that sitting her right after she was injured until she was 100% would make more sense. I guess they felt it was just pain tolorance and Spani would not cause any additional damage.

I assumed it to be more of a case of not understanding how much of a nagging issue it would be. That is the nature of injuries sometimes. Recall that UConn played Swin in 98-99 for a while when she had her stress fracture, before realizing that she couldn't just 'play through it', but had to rest.

 

[doggydaddy]

I assumed it to be more of a case of not understanding how much of a nagging issue it would be. That is the nature of injuries sometimes. Recall that UConn played Swin in 98-99 for a while when she had her stress fracture, before realizing that she couldn't just 'play through it', but had to rest.

Bone bruises are notorious for needing rest. It looks clear to me that they decided if it was still bad after the tough games, she could get a lot of rest not playing against the easier part of the schedule wrapped around the holiday break.

Not critisizing, just commenting.

 

[stwainfan]

Last year South Carolina had a player come back from acl. It was about the same time as Williams.

 

[doggydaddy]

Last year South Carolina had a player come back from acl. It was about the same time as Williams.

That's great. Who was that?

 

[stwainfan]

If I rember right it was Walker.

 

[UConnCat]

If I rember right it was Walker.

No, it was Valerie Nainima. She returned to action about 4.5-5 months after acl surgery to finish out her senior year. She had been So Carolina's leading scorer her junior year (I think), but not surprisingly wasn't the same player after returning from her knee injury.

 

[stwainfan]

No, it was Valerie Nainima. She returned to action about 4.5-5 months after acl surgery to finish out her senior year. She had been So Carolina's leading scorer her junior year (I think), but not surprisingly wasn't the same player after returning from her knee injury.

You are right.

 

[Jmpenn]

i don't think anyone is trying to criticize the tennesse coaching staff for bringing back Williams too soon. if UCONN didn't have Tina Charles and Kaili Maclaren, they might well have brought Heather Buck back after her bout with mono instead of redshirting her. If Spani were healthy, per Holly, the staff may have decided to redshirt Williams. Per Warlick, "With Taber out it kind of pushed the issue for us" is not unclear or cloudy. the decision to NOT redshirt Kamiko was a result of Taber's injury.

I don't agree with your last sentence. Taber's injury was a factor but I believe that Kamiko would have played this season even without the injury. From everything I have read Kamiko's goal was always to come back this season. The coaches, athlete, and doctors have to agree. On this case the doctors said she was good and Kamiko wanted to play. Even without Taber's injury I think they would have let her play since that is what she wants and she is needed. If the player doesn't want to stay an extra year then a redshirt is pointless.