MRI needed to diagnose knee injury (merged thread)

[cohenzone]

Caroline got major important minutes and I am guessing all it took was for her to take to heart Geno saying we do not have any depth. Even before her great 4th Q, Geno put her in the 2nd Q when the game was a pressure cooker. I am guessing she showed Geno exactly what she needed to do on Saturday practice. Now Caroline has achieved some real confidence instead of the ficticious confidence of being given minutes without earning them.

Actually, the game was still relatively close when she entered in the 4th. Looked pretty confident. Can she ball handle? Without Paige the prime ball handlers will be Westbrook and Muhl and Williams to a lesser extent. Geno is quite right that they don’t look very good when Paige is out. Whether Paige would’ve been fine if she’d been out of the game we will never know. But now, short of a hoped for fast recovery, we sure will find out a lot about the others. When Fudd comes back, can she ball handle?

 

[Zinethar]

Like most of the others I hope that Paige is not seriously hurt. Fluke things happen. It looked to me like her foot slipped. Maybe some water on the floor as it had been a long hot game. For the ND fans before you carp on us and accuse us as not caring the Raven Johnson got hurt read the boards before you spread your form of hate. There were tons of post wishing her well. None of the UConn fans here want to win a game because the other teams star (or any other player) is hurt. Period. sometimes after something like this emotions well up a bit too much. As the movie once said - the sun will come up tomorrow. Lets all hope for good news then.

 

[Mulder]

What a bummer to see the young star go down with an injury. All the best to Paige.

 

[ubasketball]

I am not one to place blame lightly, and we all know that stuff happens. However, I think her injury was unnecessary and preventable. As an attendee, I could see that she was banged around a lot during the game, especially in the fourth quarter when she took over. In addition to being generally fatigued and beat up, I think she hurt her ribs earlier in the quarter when she was fouled and fell to the court. Even though it looked to me like she was trying to hide it, I could see she was laboring for the last four or five minutes. I think she injured her knee because her body could no longer handle the physical stress. If I, an “amateur” could see that, the coaches should have seen it too and taken her out. Also, here was a case were her competitiveness and desire to always play seriously clouded her judgment. Again, the coaches should have overruled whatever she wanted since the game was in hand.

 

[oldude]

If I'm not mistaken, when Bueckers got injured, Notre Dame had Miles, Westbeld, Peoples, Dodson, and Citron on the floor. I could be wrong about this.

4 starters, and their top reserve, at least in this game: Citron was the leading scorer for the Irish......

Leave it up to a Gamecock fan to point out an obvious, but overlooked fact by all of us UConn fans.

 

[OUTATIME]

There's a reason coaches pull their stars in the closing minute of a blowout.

 

[Dokey]

I am not one to place blame lightly, and we all know that stuff happens. However, I think her injury was unnecessary and preventable. As an attendee, I could see that she was banged around a lot during the game, especially in the fourth quarter when she took over. In addition to being generally fatigued and beat up, I think she hurt her ribs earlier in the quarter when she was fouled and fell to the court. Even though it looked to me like she was trying to hide it, I could see she was laboring for the last four or five minutes. I think she injured her knee because her body could no longer handle the physical stress. If I, an “amateur” could see that, the coaches should have seen it too and taken her out. Also, here was a case were her competitiveness and desire to always play seriously clouded her judgment. Again, the coaches should have overruled whatever she wanted since the game was in hand.

Agree 100%.

 

[fightinterp]

There was no reason at all that she or any other starter should have been in the game..lost some respect for coaching staff yesterday.

 

[HuskyNan]

Oh good, another thread on this topic.

Merging this with existing thread

 

[Cecil9]

With 40 seconds left and Uconn ahead, and with the usual "good sport" ethic alive, the bench would not have been permitted to run an offense.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Other players get banged around...pull them too? Liv takes a beating under the basket...every game...all game. It was a non-contact injury...so she could have been walking to class and somehow that would have prevented it? It's a sport...injuries happen and if the solution is...not to play...what does that serve? If it happened 30 seconds before halftime...is that preventable? It hasn't even been confirmed what happened to her!

 

[oldude]

With 40 seconds left and Uconn ahead, and with the usual "good sport" ethic alive, the bench would not have been permitted to run an offense.

That has never been true. UConn and every other team in basketball runs their offense unless the team is ahead significantly and there is less than 30 seconds on the shot clock. Frankly, not running your offense and taking a shot clock violation is far more insulting to a losing team then running your offense and taking a shot when the game is out of reach.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

There's a reason coaches pull their stars in the closing minute of a blowout.

What's the reason? Convention? Or that this couldn't have happened at any point in the game...or even...not at the game?

 

[HuskyNan]

What, exactly, is the point of affixing blame here? What will it change?

Paige’s injury happened. That is a fact. Nothing that’s said here will change that and getting everyone to agree (HAH!) that Geno is or isn’t at fault will not change that. What is the point of letting these dopey arguments devolve into grade school level insults?

Geez, move along.

 

[Skeets]

There was no reason at all that she or any other starter should have been in the game..lost some respect for coaching staff yesterday.

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but it was a boneheaded decision to keep Paige in the game. I hope Geno sees this and pulls at least some of his starters in future games when the game has been decided. What is to be gained by keeping the starters in there? What could be lost? Well, now we know.

 

[eebmg]

and ban those death trap TIC-TOK videos.

 

[BBallF]

I see that you too have never coached.

I coached girls from grade 4 through grade 11 going into 12. Recreation, travel, Club and AAU. I was acutely aware of the ACL danger in young women and my daughter had 2 of them in college. I didn't have my most of my starting team on the floor up by almost 20 with 40 seconds to go. Try to justify it all you want and give him a pass. It happened and I pray it is not an ACL. I realize it is controversial to question the decision made of the greatest women's coach ever, but it was totally unnecessary.

 

[eebmg]

That is where his assistant coaches have to wrestle Geno to the ground and kick him off the bench. I understand Geno hates to see ugly basketball but that is what blindfolds are for. Add some headphones and a bottle of wine and put some bench players in when the game is in hand,

 

[lsj001]

I don't post often but read multiple times a day. Seems like a lot of new posters either don't understand how Geno coaches or they are just stirring the pot.

 

[meyers7]

In watching the video I think her foot hits a wet spot on the floor before the step where the knee looked like it hyper extended - the foot slipped a bit and she was trying to maintain balance on the next step with the same foot.

Agree it looks more like a hyper-extension than any ACL type injury. (However, J. Moore tore her ACL in the NC game and continued to play the whole game....so you never know.) I am expecting her to miss the next couple games, but luckily they then have an 8 day break (for finals). And if she can't make it back for Louisville, there is another 10 day break for the Holidays. 3 weeks before the schedule really picks up.

I highly doubt Bueckers is angry at or blaming Geno for not taking her out of the game. And really her's is the only opinion that matters.

 

[Kaizen]

Please don't post why Geno put her in the last mins or how Paige injured her self. We have seen too many of those.

Things happen already all those won't help. Let keep praying Paige has the best scenario and recovery soon.

 

[meyers7]

If I, an “amateur”

No need to say anything more.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I coached girls from grade 4 through grade 11 going into 12. Recreation, travel, Club and AAU. I was acutely aware of the ACL danger in young women and my daughter had 2 of them in college. I didn't have my most of my starting team on the floor up by almost 20 with 40 seconds to go. Try to justify it all you want and give him a pass. It happened and I pray it is not an ACL. I realize it is controversial to question the decision made of the greatest women's coach ever, but it was totally unnecessary.

I think old school coaches all work their athletes too hard, whether it is for boys or girls, men or women. Any coach that wants to learn will find out that a lot of the way players were worked in the 1980's and 1990's was dangerous and resulted in unnecessary injuries. Fatigue is cumulative, and builds up over time, and when the body is tired, serious injuries are much more likely. Why drive players to the point where their bodies are so fatigued they are risking injury?

Many NBA players are basically on a minutes count. If maintaining a player's health and conditioning by managing their minutes is appropriate for Lebron and Giannis, why isn't it appropriate for D1 basketball players? Auriemma's practices are notoriously demanding, but there is a downside to all that running in terms of cumulative muscle and joint fatigue. This is not about being tough or fighting through it, this is about incorporating knowledge and learning about how to manage the athletes in a way that is best for them and for the team.

This is also not just for Auriemma having Bueckers out there up by 20, it is also about how exhausted she looked leading up to the injury. He had to find a way to get her some rest during the game, and he didn't. Bueckers played 39 minutes in that game. That should NEVER happen with any basketball coach in any game at any level above middle school. All those other players on the bench are not just there to get rebounds and make passes and hit a few shots, they are also there to keep the stars healthy. 39 minutes out of a 40 minute game is just too long.