Ayanna Patterson to miss remainder of 2023-24 season after undergoing left knee surgery

UConn women’s basketball sophomore forward Ayanna Patterson will miss the remainder of the 2023-24 season after undergoing left knee surgery at UConn on Thursday, the team announced. She has yet to play in a game this year due to patellar tendonitis, which has ailed her since 10th grade.

“Ayanna’s been dealing with patellar tendonitis since high school,” Geno Auriemma said in a statement. “She’s been rehabbing and undergoing treatments and decided with our medical staff that it was time to take care of the issue. We’ll support Yanna through her rehab process and we anticipate she’ll make a full recovery. We look forward to having her back with the team on the court.”

Patterson underwent a procedure on the knee early in the offseason which Auriemma compared to something Morgan Tuck had done. She was expected to be ready for the start of the new campaign, but the timeline kept getting pushed back as the opener approached. In mid-November, Patterson appeared to be trending in the right direction and Auriemma went so far as to say she was “pretty close” to returning and that “she looks healthy.”

The team then shut Patterson down indefinitely before their trip to the Cayman Islands and ahead of the matchup with UNC, the coach revealed she’d likely miss the rest of the season.

“I don’t anticipate Yanna being back. We’ve tried everything with her and it’s a long-standing issue since high school, and everything that we’ve tried, she’s not responded to it very well,” he said.

The knee limited Patterson as a freshman as well. She began the year as a high-energy forward off the bench but her playing time tapered as the season went on as the ailment affected her more.

“She wasn’t right and it was a struggle every day in practice,” Auriemma said about Patterson’s freshmen campaign at Big East Media Day. “She had been dealing with something for quite some time and it just became really difficult for her.”

Patterson is the third Husky who will miss the rest of this season alongside Jana El Alfy, who ruptured her achilles over the summer, and Azzi Fudd, who tore her ACL and meniscus in practice on Nov. 14. She’s the fifth UConn player in the last three years to miss all or most of a season too, joining Paige Bueckers (torn ACL last year) and Aubrey Griffin (leg, ankle, back in 2021-22).

The Huskies currently have 10 healthy players available with Carolina Ducharme (neck spasms) still out indefinitely.

Since she hasn’t played in a game, Patterson can redshirt and will have three years of eligibility left when the 2024-25 season begins next fall.