- Joined
- Aug 28, 2011
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We played 23 games last season. Cole, Whaley, Sanogo, and Gaffney appeared in all 23.
We started the season with Polley and Akok returning from major injuries. Akok would appear in 7 games never playing more than 10 minutes. His absence was a huge loss for the Huskies front court in the 2021 season. He had one blocked shot all season.
Polley was inconsistent in the first few games. He came back to be a solid performer off the bench. However, he had the worst 3-point shooting percentage of his college career.
James Bouknight missed 9 games, almost all of January and half of February. The team was .500 in his absence. In the first game of the conference tournament he was badly dehydrated and suffered full body cramps. He never really recovered. In the BET and NCAA he shot 14-41 from the field, 1-13 from the arc, 10-15 from the stripe, all well below his season averages.
Andre Jackson, who was expected to be a major contributor, missed 7 games with a broken wrist robbing him of valuable playing experience. Perhaps worse, was a preseason knee injury, which took away his off-season practice time, slowed his integration onto the team.
I won’t mention Covid ( I just did) as it affected every team in the nation. But UConn went through two Covid pauses and missed three other games because of Covid pauses by opponents.
All teams have injuries. Few have major injuries to their best player, two other starters and their 6th man. Many Huskies fans may feel 2021 was an opportunity missed. In fact, it is not unreasonable to say that injuries were the main factor the Huskies failed to meet expectations.
We started the season with Polley and Akok returning from major injuries. Akok would appear in 7 games never playing more than 10 minutes. His absence was a huge loss for the Huskies front court in the 2021 season. He had one blocked shot all season.
Polley was inconsistent in the first few games. He came back to be a solid performer off the bench. However, he had the worst 3-point shooting percentage of his college career.
James Bouknight missed 9 games, almost all of January and half of February. The team was .500 in his absence. In the first game of the conference tournament he was badly dehydrated and suffered full body cramps. He never really recovered. In the BET and NCAA he shot 14-41 from the field, 1-13 from the arc, 10-15 from the stripe, all well below his season averages.
Andre Jackson, who was expected to be a major contributor, missed 7 games with a broken wrist robbing him of valuable playing experience. Perhaps worse, was a preseason knee injury, which took away his off-season practice time, slowed his integration onto the team.
I won’t mention Covid ( I just did) as it affected every team in the nation. But UConn went through two Covid pauses and missed three other games because of Covid pauses by opponents.
All teams have injuries. Few have major injuries to their best player, two other starters and their 6th man. Many Huskies fans may feel 2021 was an opportunity missed. In fact, it is not unreasonable to say that injuries were the main factor the Huskies failed to meet expectations.