Paige Bueckers likely out at least a week with knee sprain

A knee sprain will sideline Paige Bueckers for UConn’s matchup with Xavier on Wednesday but the team doesn’t expect her to miss too much time.

“It's a sprain. There's nothing torn. There's nothing crazy about it,” Geno Auriemma said on Tuesday. “We're hoping that we have her back in a week.”

After Xavier, the Huskies travel to Georgetown on Saturday and then head to St. John’s the following Wednesday on Jan. 15.

Bueckers picked up the injury in the third quarter of the Huskies’ win over Villanova on Sunday when a defender dove for a loose ball and landed on her left leg. She exited the court under her own power but did not return to the game. Bueckers’ left ankle, which also twisted awkwardly on the play, is fine aside from some soreness.

Auriemma likened Bueckers’ injury to the minor knee sprain that Azzi Fudd picked up against Louisville on Dec. 7. She ended up sitting out three games and returned two weeks later on Dec. 21 vs. USC.

“I think I said for Paige, it was going to be kind of similar to what the scenario for Azzi was,” Auriemma mentioned. “It turned out to be pretty much the exact same thing.”

Bueckers didn’t need to undergo an MRI to determine the severity of the injury.

Now that she’s sidelined for the near future, Auriemma joked that he banned her from practice.

“For me, it was like Christmas Day,” he quipped. “Everybody nodded their head yes. When I said something, nobody rolled their eyes. Nobody had their own team huddle and told the guys what to do… She does things to get on my nerves because she knows it bugs me. So I didn’t have to deal with that today.”

Without Bueckers, UConn will have a new-look starting lineup with Ashlynn Shade most likely to take her spot. Even though KK Arnold has emerged as a force over the last two games, Auriemma doesn’t want to risk disrupting that success by changing her role.

Other injury updates

Aubrey Griffin still doesn’t have a definitive date for her return from a torn ACL but she continues to make steady progress.

“We're just waiting and whatever the timetable is, she practices more and more every day,” Auriemma said. “She does extra stuff. She plays pickup. So little by little, I see spurts, glimpses of what she used to be. So it makes everybody hope it’s sooner rather than later.”

As for Caroline Ducharme, Auriemma didn’t have much of an update but noted that she isn’t going to sit just to receive a medical redshirt. With Wednesday’s game against Xavier marking the exact midway point of the regular season, Ducharme would burn an entire year of eligibility if she plays even a single minute — but she’s okay with that.

“Knowing Caroline, if [on] March 1 she goes, ‘I'm good to go,’ she'll want to play in the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament,” Auriemma said. “Caroline just loves to play. But I also know Caroline, and I know that if you told her, ‘Maybe take a redshirt year,’ she’d go, ‘Really, I don't want to be as old as Coach Auriemma still be going to school here at some point.’ … There's only so much time that you can be here.”

Ducharme is a redshirt junior, meaning she has one additional season of eligibility left beyond the current campaign.

Even though she hasn’t been able to play in game action, Auriemma gushed about the impact she has on the team.

“If you asked our players who's the best teammate on the team right now, they would tell you Caroline,” he said. “She's just been unbelievable. For a kid who's not playing, she is a perfect role model, perfect example of what true selfless leadership really is. ‘I can't play, but I'm going to help all you guys be better.’ Just the way she talks to them, the way she interacts with them, she's just been absolutely phenomenal. I'm so, so proud of her.”

Plus: “She still can shoot the lights out.”