Griffin's injury overshadows UConn's best performance of the season

In a season where UConn women’s basketball has often looked ordinary — the Huskies accumulated more losses before Christmas than any other campaign since Geno Auriemma’s second season and dropped to its lowest ranking in the AP Poll since 1993-94 — the team put in a vintage performance on Wednesday at No. 21 Creighton.

UConn didn’t just win in blowout fashion. The Huskies embarrassed the Bluejays on their home floor with a 44-point victory — tied for their second-largest of the season (behind only TMU and even with Dayton). It was UConn’s widest victory vs. an AP top 25 opponent since a 45-point destruction against Temple in Feb. 2017 and the largest road victory against a ranked team since Nov. 2015, when it obliterated No. 7 Ohio State by 44.

For one night, the Huskies took a page from the ‘02, ‘09, ‘10 and ‘16 teams by completely dismantling a quality foe — a feat even more impressive considering all the talent they’ve lost due to injury. The win further solidified UConn’s turnaround over the last month as it notched its seventh straight victory — four of which have come against ranked opponents.

Yet any good vibes surrounding the victory completely vanished in the third quarter when Aubrey Griffin went down with a non-contact knee injury and needed to be helped off the floor. She didn’t return and afterwards, a visibly distraught Auriemma delivered an ominous update.

“The team doctor for Creighton came out and he pretty much said that the knee’s very, very unstable,” he said. “I guess we’ll know more when we do the tests (back home).”

Unfortunately, this is nothing new for Griffin or the Huskies. The redshirt senior tore an ACL in high school and missed the 2021-22 season with a combination of leg, ankle and back injuries that eventually resulted in back surgery. As for the team, UConn already has three players — Jana El Alfy (achilles), Azzi Fudd (torn ACL) and Ayanna Patterson (knee surgery) — out for the year and another — Caroline Ducharme (head) — who appears to be trending in that same direction.

All that comes on the back of two previous injured-plagued seasons as well.

There’s never a good time for someone to get hurt, but the timing of Griffin’s injury is especially cruel. There were legitimate questions about whether the Huskies could turn things around a little more than a month ago, especially after a loss at Texas where they looked like their spirit had finally broken.

But UConn not only got off the mat, it turned a corner with a 24-point beatdown of Louisville then later followed it up with a win over Marquette in which it trailed 10-0 early on and still won by 31. The performance at Creighton felt like the Huskies’ declaration to the rest of the country that they were back — only for Griffin’s injury to throw a wrench in all of it.

Now, they have to start over without a key piece of the puzzle — again. UConn will worry about that later, though. For now, the Huskies will take time to grieve yet another injury to a teammate.

“You just are heartbroken for a kid when it's their last year and something like this happens,” Auriemma said. “When this happens, the basketball part’s actually really secondary.”

Paige’s domination vs. top 25 opponents continues

While this year’s UConn team may not have the same depth of talent as the aforementioned ‘02, ‘09, ‘10 or ‘16 squads, it looked like those squads on Wednesday night in part because it had a leader on the same level as Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart: Paige Bueckers.

The redshirt junior dominated another top-25 opponent with 24 points on 8-12 shooting to go with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals. In eight games against ranked competition (teams that have been in the poll at some point this season), she’s averaging 23.8 points, 3.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 1.5 blocks while shooting 57.9 percent from the field and an incredible 60.0 percent on 3-pointers.

After some ups and downs (for her standards) while knocking off the rust early in the season, Bueckers looks all the way back. If she keeps this up, she should be an All-American for the second time and could even push herself into the conversation for national player of the year.

Ice Brady shows signs of progress

Brady’s stat-line didn’t necessary jump off the page on Wednesday night. While her five rebounds were a career-high, she had just three points on 1-4 shooting and didn’t do much else in 14 minutes. Still, there was a difference in the way Brady played, highlighted by one sequence at the end of the third quarter when she hustled to save a ball from going out of bounds.

“That ball that was going out of bounds at the end of the third quarter that she saved, she never goes after that ball in practice. She just lets the managers go get it,” Auriemma quipped. “So today she actually did something that I didn't think she was capable of doing. So there's hope.”

Brady also showed more force and physicality in the lane than previously — something Auriemma has been pushing for recently.

“Maybe it's the California (in her), but she wants to be another 6-3 guard like Katie Lou (Samuelson),” the coach said about the redshirt freshman after the win over Butler. “She doesn't understand that's not going to make it for her. We're trying to get her to embrace being in the lane more.”

If there were ever a perfect time for Brady to come around, it’s now. With Griffin potentially done for the year, Brady is UConn’s only real option behind Aaliyah Edwards unless Amari DeBerry suddenly turns it around. Hopefully, Wednesday can be an important first step for her.

“I thought today was her best game,” Auriemma said. “I thought she gave us some great minutes and was a factor out there. So I'm hoping that this gets her going in the right direction.”