Doggydaddy's Den: Doggy's Doghouse 12/7/2021

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GO UCONN!!!!!

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UConn is reporting that Paige Bueckers will by out 6-8 weeks witn a knee injury.

Tibial plateau fracture - a break of the larger lower leg bone below the knee that breaks into the knee joint itself.

Yeah, I know, sounds really bad.

But it also could have been - an injury that can involve the bone, meniscus, ligaments, muscles, tendons and skin around the knee.

There doesn't appear to be much soft tissue with the 6-8 week prognosis.

So much to digest now that we know the approximate return of the best player in the country.

I'll address each question and I'm sure we all are thinking about.

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To me, there are two "when" questions.

When did she hurt her knee?

When did she hurt her knee? Well, we all saw it. A minute left in the game dribbline down the the court, stubbing her toe. But look at the injury. Can a mere stumble do that much damage. Doubtful. If you watch the game, there was a play where Paige threw a full court pass for a layup and then celebrated with a leap. She landed fine but as she walked to the bench she had a hitch in her digdy-up. It could have started the injury and the trip at the end of the game finished it. I'm no doctor, but it seems logical to me.

When will she play in a game again?

If the 6-8 weeks is accurate, and the countdown starts today, 12/7, then 6 weeks is January 18th.

Who is on the schedule around that date?

12/9 Georgia Tech

12/11 UCLA

12/19 Louisville

12/29 Marquette

12/31 DePaul

1/5 Georgetown

1/7 Villanova

1/9 Creighton

1/12 Butler

1/15 Xavier

1/17 at Oregon

Ok, Oregon is close enough to be at the 6 week mark. Will she travel to Oregon to play? Hmmm. I'm thinking this could be the last game she misses.

1/21 Seton Hall. This game is home in Gample. I like this as her likely return game if she heals quickly.

But if not that game, what are the next game in the 6-8 timeframe.

1/23 at St. John's

1/27 at South Carolina

1/30 at Providence

This takes us to the 8 week mark of 2/1. Unless there are setbacks her first game back would be 2/2 at Creighton.

Ok, that's the when.

Now for future forcasting.

So, how does UConn move on from this big loss? They can take a que from the team I love to hate, Tennessee. They lost their best player and someone on some preseason teams in Rae Burrell in their very first game. And yet they found a way to win in every game. It hasn't been pretty, in fact, downright ugly, but it's all about winning.

Now, Burrell is no Paige. But that is not the point. This team has plenty of talent. Enough talent to beat everyone on their schedule and compete in the one really tough game in South Carolina. It all depends on how the team comes together. How they rally around each other. Time will tell. They will have to have a new identity without Paige there. Players will have to step up. And Geno has dealt with injuries before. He will figure this out.

Ok, so who is going to start in her place. This is an interesting question. There probably are two answers. Short term or longer term.

The short term is while Fudd is still out. On 12/1 Geno said she would be reevaluated in two weeks. That's 12/15. That's the next two games. Let's just say she needs another 2 weeks. That would be 12/29. That's two more games. That is the way I will break my guess up.

Four games without Fudd - So, we have four starters in tact. Williams, Westbrook, Edwards and Nelson-Ododa. Who takes that fifth spot? Picking those two players is easy. Muhl or Ducharme. But only one of those has expereicene starting in the past and the other has only come off the bench in her 6 games and played a total of 39 minutes. The choice is pretty clear. And of course Geno will make me look foolish and start Ducharme. But I'm going with Nika.

After that? The picutre get's clearer. Fudd returns and there is no friggin' way she doesn't start. That moves Muhl back to the bench. The other question is whether or not Griffin will heal up in time to actually play.

With Paige out there are a bunch of minutes, points, 3 point shooting, assists, steals and certainly on court leadership to be made up. And it won't be one of these players. But you can bet this team won't average 20 points less per game. Not even close. The team will score, the team will defend, and the team will rebounds. My guess is the overall numbers don't change that much.

I won't name specific numbers for specific player. That is way to hard to figure out. But there is plenty of senior leadership, and while Paige was clearly the leader, Westbrook, Williams and Nelson-Ododa will steip on in that regard.

Scoring, you know that Westbrook and Williams have more to give and they will all contribute to the new found ability to rebounds. That is where Dorka will come in.

36 minutes have to be distributed among the current 7 player rotation. And 25 of those will go to Fudd when she gets back.

Well, by now you know my take on things. I believe in these young women and I expect more than one of them to rise to the occsasion. I'll give you my pie in the sky take on what will happen.

Nika Muhl starts and plays 20-25 MPG, making the occasional three pointer, harrassing the opposing point guard and being the ferocious defender and emotional player that we saw last year.

Caroline Ducharme comes off the bench for instant offense. She will average double figures and shoot 40%+ on threes while helping make up for Paige's missing rebounds. Look for 20 minutes per game.

Christyn Williams plays more consistently like the No. 1 player in her class averaging 18-20 PPG while playing even more minutes.

Evina Westbrook will take over court leadership and look to score more. She might have to increase her MPG to the mid-30's. I guess the big question is if she can physically handle it.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa will continue to play more physically and will foul less. With Paige out, UConn can't afford to have a starter in foul trouble. She is another player that will increase her scoring to help make up for the missing Bueckers.

Aaliyah Edward is one player that will really have to step up. I mentioned how Tennessee became a different team than they would have been with Burrell. Well, that is true about UConn with Bueckers out. And Edwards has the ability to help UConn be a force in the paint and along with Nelson-Ododa and Dorka Juhasz make them a power type team.

Dorka Juhasz hasn't been the player we hoped so far, but this is her chance. She will continue to rebound and I bet score more.

The two wild cards are the return of Fudd and possibly Griffin.

Azza Fudd is just a fantastic player. She was clearly deferring to Paige when on the court. When she comes back, I expect her to start and immediated be maybe the leading scorer. Geno will make sure she gets the ball in the right places and with Ducharme on the other side, get plenty of open looks.

Griffin adds to the power game with her offensive rebounding ability and her defense is as we know, terrific.

So, overall, the glass is definately half full. And when Paige comes back, and she will, the team will have a month to meld into the team we all expected at the beginning of the year. Tough, strong, great shooting, and ready to win No. 12.

Is that optimistic enough for you???

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Straight from the Dog

So, UConn puts out a press release about Bueckers. They say, and I quote:

"The estimated time of recovery is 6-8 weeks."

Now to me, that seems straight forward enough. I used that as the premise to what game she might be back for.

So, I go to my usual message boards to get the pulse on the UConn fans. And what to I read? Internet doctor after internet doctor proclaiming that they read that recovery is a 6 month thing and that 6-8 weeks was just some optimistic view on what is going to happen.

If you look up her injury on the web (I had to do it after reading all those posts) and there are some sites that do say the recovery could be months.

But seriously, using the web to diagnose something is just wrong. Not only are these folks not doctors, they are not PAIGE's doctor. They haven't seen the MRIs and even if they have, they wouldn't know what to look for. Sigh.....

It was just so negative to not only do this but post about it on a message board. Paige needs all the positive vibes she can get.

Here are a few thoughts from real doctors.

Calling it a tibial plateau fracture but by timeline of 6-8 weeks this is a severe bone bruise (fracture diagnosed by MRI, not X-ray) and thus no surgery and season not over. ACL spared as expected. Relatively good news. https://t.co/eqddldoUUW
— David J. Chao - ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) December 7, 2021

and this

Thankfully ACL spared. Hyperextension leading to severe bone bruise (anterior tibial plateau fracture). https://t.co/Gvu0WlEsZS
— David J. Chao - ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) December 7, 2021

Ok, so based on this doctor says, it's a bone bruise. And 6-8 weeks recover is why he thinks that. He has pretty good credentials.

And from the Hartford Courant article, a few quotes from other doctors.

UConn’s press release on Bueckers’ injury, and the timeline for her return, indicate there was no ligament or soft tissue damage associated with the injury – a “very big thing,” according to Stotts. When he first saw the replay of Bueckers’ injury, her knee hyperextension made him fear it could be an ACL tear.

“Those soft tissue structures [think: ACL, MCL, meniscus] are a little bit more problematic, don’t heal as smoothly as bone, and they often take a little bit longer as well,” Stotts said. “So, the fact that we didn’t hear anything like that, that they’re giving a 6-8 window, is a pretty good indication there’s not anything significantly wrong with those soft tissue structures.”

The average recovery time for NBA players who suffered a tibial plateau fracture, according to Stotts’ database, was closer to 10 weeks. In part, a player’s size may determine the severity of the break, as the bigger the player, the more force they put through their knees. Bueckers is obviously smaller than, say, Ming.

Miranda said these injuries should be thought of happening on a spectrum. Some people may not feel less severe impact, a bit more serious they’d just get a little sore, a bit more serious than that they’d experience a bone bruise. The next level of injury could be macro factures or, most seriously, a break where the bone moves out of position – the latter isn’t what UConn is suggesting here.

So, a bunch of information to digest. But I didn't read anything to suggest that the 6-8 weeks is just being optimistic. I'm still going with that. And with Paige's work ethic? I'm leaning to the 6 weeks.

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Ok, good for Tennessee for breaking into the Top 10. Great acheivement. But bragging on barely beating Virginia Tech is not something to go crazy over, which the Tennessee fans did of course. But let's bring a little reality into their lives.

Virginia Tech's schedule to date with Massey Rating

W Davidson - 118
W George Washington - 136
W George Mason - 218
W Coppin State - 278
W Campbell - 341
L Missouri State - 35
W UT Martin - 140
W Wisconsin - 184
L Tennessee - 7

Not exactly an impressive schedule. And they lost to the only two teams under 118.

And one of their resident brainiac said - "Adding insult to injury. Letting our game hangover and cause them an issue. Need them to step up and play well now so it’s still a quality win"

Yeah, it's because of Tennessee that Liberty beat up on Virginia Tech winning 59-40. In fact.....

Yes, you guessed it. The Hokies did themselves proud and won Tuesday's UGGY award.

How did they do this?

Well, for one, they didn't score in the first 7 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter. They scored again with one minute left in the game.

40 points, 28% from the field, 6-27 on threes, 60% from the line and 19 turnovers. Yeah pretty uggy.

Let me make it worse. Virgina Tech was led by Aisha Sheppard with 17 points on 6-10 shooting. She was also 5-8 on threes. No one else was in double figures. So take away that one player?

23 points, 8-40 for 20%, 1-19 on threes. Now THAT is UGGY!!!!

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UPSETS IN RED

MOST SCORES HAVE CLICKABLE LINKS TO A GAME STORY

No. 20 Ohio State 94 Mount St. Mary's 50

No. 25 Colorado Southern Utah - Late Game

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By David in Naples

Paige is out for 6-8 weeks and some UConn fans are losing their minds. Fire Geno, cancel the season and/or march on Storrs..! Seriously, get a grip. This MAY end up being a huge positive for the development of the rest of the team. Everyone steps up and in February/March, the Huskies are better when Paige comes back.

Paige is the best player, but not the only player. Consider:

1. Points - Someone other than Paige scored 320 points in the first 6 games. That is 72%.

2. Assists - Of the 114 assists, others had 77 of them. Everyone knows how to pass.

3. Rebounds - PB had 33 of the 221 total rebounds. That's only 15%.

4. Baskets - 176 total and 122 of them were scored by someone else.

5. Minutes - Five players on the court for 6 games totals 1,200 total minutes. Paige played 218 of those minutes. That is 18%.

Paige will be back. The team needs to improve their individual performance in all areas, so that the team reaches the highest level of performance when she comes back.

Go Huskies..!!

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UCONN RELEVANT LINKS

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What does recovery look like and long term implications

Bueckers out 6-8 weeks

Bueckers avoids season ending surgery

UConn loses Bueckers for 6-8 weeks with Tibial fracture

Everything you need to know about Bueckers weird injury

So many articles. Here is the google search results

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