Mallory Possible Knee Injury In The Exhibition.

[bruinbball]

From: http://articles.southbendtribune.co...isha-wright-fraderica-miller-purcell-pavilion

The roughest moment for the Irish occurred at the 7:17 mark of the first half. After a Novosel dish to Peters for a lay-up, Mallory suffered a knee injury away from the ball. Mallory limped off the court and then to the locker room. The senior guard is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Thursday.

I hope it's not serious. I enjoy watching her play - probably my favorite player on the Irish.

 

[alexrgct]

Could be a disappointing year for ND if they can't stay healthy. Their strength is everyone coming back other than Bruiser. But they're not super deep. If the injury bug keeps biting throughout the course of the season it WILL cost them. That's not a team with a super-duper-star (no, Diggins is not at this point from a pure basketball standpoint). They're going to win with a group of good players who play well together. Or they're going to lose because they don't have everyone available.

 

[Kibitzer]

Along with the injury to Ochanwa, a tragic reminder of how quickly the enthusiastic and occasionally wildly optimistic pre-season hopes/expectations can be dashed. In this case, ND. Could be anybody.

I hope they are at full strength each time UConn plays them. Makes victories more satisfying.

 

[HuskyNan]

The loss of Achonwa is difficult but the loss of Brittany Mallory would be devastating. She is the Irish's version of Caroline. I hope Mallory's injury is nothing serious.

 

[Husky68]

Most important aspect of playing ND is making sure the girl with the slimmy pony tale isn't ref'n.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The luck of the Irish is looking like bad luck right now.

 

[UConnCat]

I was able to watch about 10 minutes of ND's game on-line last night but missed Mallory's injury. The announcer said that the preliminary report was that it wasn't believed to be serious so hopefully the MRI is just precautionary and she'll be okay. Mallory did tear her acl during her freshman or sophomore year at ND.

BTW, ND was impressive, particularly on the defensive end. McBride, who missed most of last season for personal reasons, is back and looking very good. The freshman, McKnight, is a 6-2 forward and reminded me of Samarie Walker. I don't think she was even ranked by HG but she looked like she'll get some playing time. She's from Iowa, so I assume Kiah knows her.

ND's opponent last night was Windsor, the Canadian national champs last year. Notre Dame just overwhelmed Windsor's guards.

 

[magical2]

From: http://articles.southbendtribune.co...isha-wright-fraderica-miller-purcell-pavilion

The roughest moment for the Irish occurred at the 7:17 mark of the first half. After a Novosel dish to Peters for a lay-up, Mallory suffered a knee injury away from the ball. Mallory limped off the court and then to the locker room. The senior guard is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Thursday.

I hope it's not serious. I enjoy watching her play - probably my favorite player on the Irish.

How Serious is it? What is it within the past 48-72 hours we had posted about how fragile it can all be?
Hoping it is not bad. What does that make 3 players out within the past week? Geez

 

[rjp172]

Mallory's MRI came back fine. With the previous knee injury they erred on the side of caution. Achonwa's surgery yesterday went well. She was lifting today and attending practice to do what she could do. Expect her back sooner than later. ND will have a 9 player rotation minimum. Only new players added to last year's rotation are McBride and Wright. A legit rotation of 9 that will play in meaningful games not just scrap time against weak teams. That might not be super deep, but in comparison to 99% of the other teams shouldn't be listed as a weakness. The statement that if ND loses a player they lose is fair. Two years ago the only non-UConn losses were when Schrader was out. Last year when Mallory was out, Peters and BB in foul trouble. The upside is that they still had a chance to win all of those games in the final minute. Otherwise ND's only losses were to the 3 teams that held a #1 ranking at some point: UConn, Baylor, and T A&M.

 

[UConnCat]

Mallory's MRI came back fine. With the previous knee injury they erred on the side of caution. Achonwa's surgery yesterday went well. She was lifting today and attending practice to do what she could do. Expect her back sooner than later. ND will have a 9 player rotation minimum. Only new players added to last year's rotation are McBride and Wright. A legit rotation of 9 that will play in meaningful games not just scrap time against weak teams. That might not be super deep, but in comparison to 99% of the other teams shouldn't be listed as a weakness. The statement that if ND loses a player they lose is fair. Two years ago the only non-UConn losses were when Schrader was out. Last year when Mallory was out, Peters and BB in foul trouble. The upside is that they still had a chance to win all of those games in the final minute. Otherwise ND's only losses were to the 3 teams that held a #1 ranking at some point: UConn, Baylor, and T A&M.

Good news on Mallory. The freshman's name is (Markisha) Wright, not McKnight as I incorrectly stated in my post.

 

[rjp172]

I was able to watch about 10 minutes of ND's game on-line last night but missed Mallory's injury. The announcer said that the preliminary report was that it wasn't believed to be serious so hopefully the MRI is just precautionary and she'll be okay. Mallory did tear her acl during her freshman or sophomore year at ND.

BTW, ND was impressive, particularly on the defensive end. McBride, who missed most of last season for personal reasons, is back and looking very good. The freshman, McKnight, is a 6-2 forward and reminded me of Samarie Walker. I don't think she was even ranked by HG but she looked like she'll get some playing time. She's from Iowa, so I assume Kiah knows her.

ND's opponent last night was Windsor, the Canadian national champs last year. Notre Dame just overwhelmed Windsor's guards.

Freshman's name is Markisha Wright. Stokes does know her. Their junior year played in the state championships when Stokes team won by 3. Their senior year Wright's team was undefeated and ranked #1 from beginning to end. Wright was the MVP. Stokes deservedly won player of the year honors, but right next to her on the all-state teams for a few years was Wright. HG didn't rank her (?), but when they did their combined rankings with BS and ASGR she still came in around 50. Don't think she lived on the AAU circuit, especially the Nike camps that HG favors. McGraw keeps comparing to Bruszewski. Other ND fans mentioned Crystal Erwin i.e. she's suppose to be tough, physical, and like the contact. She'll play.

Hard to judge the quality of opponents for exhibitions. Windsor was the Canadian national champ, currently ranked #2, and about 7 games into their season already. They returned 8 letter winners & 4 starters. Started 4 that were 6'3+.

 

[alexrgct]

If you count Miller, ND played seven kids last year against good opponents, and one of those kids graduated. Six kids from the rotation return. I'm not convinced that adding someone who's been out a year plus three freshmen, none of whom were ranked in the top 50, makes for a nine-woman rotation. I'll believe that when I see it. BTW, to be clear, I have the same "I'll believe it when I see it" position with respect to UConn (re: Doty, Kiah, Michala/Buck/Engeln, and Banks- I don't think it's a stretch to believe firmly that KML will contribute meaningfully), so this isn't a double standard on my part. As of now, I think Achonwa's health and continued development is absolutely critical to ND's success this season with Brusier gone, and Mallory/Novosel provide toughness, steadiness, and leadership that would be very difficult to replace if they were sidelined. It's not a knock on ND; no program, including UConn, fields teams year in and year out that can sustain an injury to a starter. Where would UConn have been last year if Maya got hurt, and where will Baylor be if Griner gets hurt?

 

[MilfordHusky]

Where would UConn have been last year if Maya got hurt, and where will Baylor be if Griner gets hurt?

Up the Yazoo!

 

[rjp172]

If you count Miller, ND played seven kids last year against good opponents, and one of those kids graduated. Six kids from the rotation return. I'm not convinced that adding someone who's been out a year plus three freshmen, none of whom were ranked in the top 50, makes for a nine-woman rotation. I'll believe that when I see it. BTW, to be clear, I have the same "I'll believe it when I see it" position with respect to UConn (re: Doty, Kiah, Michala/Buck/Engeln, and Banks- I don't think it's a stretch to believe firmly that KML will contribute meaningfully), so this isn't a double standard on my part. As of now, I think Achonwa's health and continued development is absolutely critical to ND's success this season with Brusier gone, and Mallory/Novosel provide toughness, steadiness, and leadership that would be very difficult to replace if they were sidelined. It's not a knock on ND; no program, including UConn, fields teams year in and year out that can sustain an injury to a starter. Where would UConn have been last year if Maya got hurt, and where will Baylor be if Griner gets hurt?

Since I've seen every ND game I think I'm in a better position to estimate their rotation. I most certainly do count Miller. She created defensive havoc against OU and UT in the tourney. She had the speed to neutralize Robinson and Simmons and not let them get out ahead of the pack or penetrate. The other is Turner. She played every game and was the one who spelled Diggins. She doesn't post gaudy stats but she plays defense and she takes care of the ball i.e. zero turnovers against OK, UT, UConn, and T A&M. That's exactly what she suppose to do. Add McBride who is starting. Wright as a freshman will be first post off bench. All 3 freshman were ranked in the top 50, just not Hoopgurlz top 50. As I've stated previously when HG released their combined rankings with ASGR and BS they were top 50 even with the low Hoopgurlz ranking. MM is not going to recruit players that can't contribute. Johnson and Stokes are well aware of Holloway and Wright. It was Holloway who led Montini to back to back state titles when Johnson went down. Wright's team was the best in Iowa and Wright was the state MVP.