In the final minute of the game, Bueckers went down with an apparent knee injury and was helped off the court. (0:41)
The news that the reigning national player of the year will return to the court for the seventh-ranked University of Connecticut on Friday was a big deal. Bueckers had surgery to repair a torn knee on December 5th and has missed the last 19 games.
The program has lost five times in the regular season since the 2004-05 season. It took a few months, but six other rotation players missed time due to injury or illness, but the Huskies slowly but surely learned how to play without their star point guard. They had started to put together some of their best basketball before she came back.
Heading into the game in Connecticut on Friday, we look at what Bueckers return means for the team.
The school did not say if Bueckers is on a minutes restriction, but it seems likely that she is and that she will come off the bench as she eases her way back. Since Bueckers last played in a game, Geno Auriemma told reporters that she hadn't participated in team drills until February 16. The Huskies shouldn't be in a position where they need to rely on Bueckers to contribute so much in the final two games of the season.
The nine different starting lineups that the Huskies have used this season are most recently going with sophomore Aaliyah Edwards, sophomore Nika M and senior Christyn Williams. When Bueckers returns, Auriemma will have some decisions to make, but at the end of the day, the players who are on the floor are more important than the ones who are on the bench. Assuming she has no setbacks, there is little doubt that Bueckers will be on the court in those situations, whether or not she is in prime player-of-the-year form.
There were times this season when the University of Connecticut had to play with only three guards. An All-American and two other top recruits are part of the backcourt that Auriemma has. The other players who can do a little bit of everything are a freshman and a senior.
Williams, Ducharme, and Fudd are all rookies and have been the best scorer since Bueckers went down.
| Total Points | PPG | Leading scorer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christyn Williams | 239 | 14.9 | 6 games |
| Caroline Ducharme | 223 | 14.9 | 6 |
| Evina Westbrook | 188 | 9.9 | 2 |
| Olivia Nelson-Ododa | 165 | 10.3 | 3 |
| Dorka Juhasz | 159 | 9.4 | 1 |
| Azzi Fudd | 148 | 14.8 | 3 |
| Aaliyah Edwards | 134 | 7.1 | 0 |
| Nika Muhl | 87 | 5.4 | 0 |
In recent games where the team has been completely healthy, Auriemma has distributed his minutes fairly evenly among the guards, though often leaning on his seniors for extended minutes.
Each of the three have had to assume Bueckers duties running the point, but each has seemingly established her own role: defensive intensity from MFC;hl, a spurt of bench energy and versatility from Westbrook. Even with Bueckers back, their responsibilities will likely not change much and will still be relied upon.
The team that will embrace Bueckers back into the fold Friday is a far cry from the one that had a pre-Bueckers injury. The former were too reliant on their star guard, who averaged 21.2 points per game, more than she had averaged in her All-American freshman campaign. Fudd was limited to 10 minutes because of a foot injury that would sideline her for 11 games after the loss to South Carolina.
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The fully healthy Huskies have barely gotten enough reps together as it is, with only four games under their belts, including the last three in conference play. The team has had obvious flaws to work out, and now they will add another player to the mix, altering the chemistry yet again.
An adjustment period is expected for both the team and Bueckers once she returns. They have some time to figure it out, but five games is not a lot when you consider how long other teams have had to mesh together.
In January, Ducharme scored the game-winning layup in the road game against DePaul. Fudd has excelled in late-game situations, with fourth-quarter performances against Tennessee, Villanova and Marquette. There are the vets in Williams and Westbrook who can come through when it's needed the most. Auriemma wants to be able to feed whichever player is hot that night, and for there to be multiple options in who that ends up being.
When her team needed her to take over games last season, Bueckers preferred to be a pass-first point guard. We don't know the answer to these questions until we see Bueckers back on the court, or even after a few games, but is she more likely to defer to her teammates if she isn't in her usual form? Is crunch time different in tournament play? Can we expect the ball to stay in the hands of the most trusted player up to this point?
Injuries and general inconsistency have made it difficult to assess how far the University of Connecticut can go this season. The moments of promise include wins. The lows came in their losses, although in the most recent four it wasn't a fully healthy Connecticut squad that got beat. Fudd, Bueckers, Nelson-Ododa, Ducharme, and Bueckers were out for the Louisville and Georgia Tech games.
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What do we know about these people? If they can stay healthy, they have more than just fresh legs and different combinations to choose from. The defense is stout. They are more battle-tested and more resilient in the face of adversity than they were in November. They can be turnover-prone and have a ways to go in improving their consistency.
Even if she isn't playing as well as she did last season, having her on the floor will still be a net positive. The margin of error against the likes of South Carolina and second-rankedStanford might just get slimmer, as Bueckers is from her typical self.
The sky is the limit for the team in March.
Fudd said after Connecticut took down Tennessee that they were going to be a nasty team.
Westbrook said it was nasty.
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