How will UConn women's basketball team deal with loss of Azzi Fudd? 'Just focused on what we have'

STORRS — Nika Mühl on Wednesday afternoon was discussing the ridiculous string of injuries to the UConn women’s basketball team over the past couple of seasons, and how to process and respond to the latest, when Azzi Fudd appeared and descended a set of bleachers at Gampel Pavilion. Fudd, having been ruled out for three to six weeks with a knee injury sustained in Sunday’s loss at Notre Dame, was wearing a soft blue brace on her right leg. Moving carefully, she reached the court and spent time shooting free throws. “It's always frustrating to deal with this stuff,” said Mühl, the junior point guard. “Last year was just like a fluke, a coincidence, a year. It happens. But dealing with it this year, I wouldn't say it's much easier but we know how to handle it better. It's not a surprise anymore for us. It's, OK, this is what we've got, this is what we're dealing with.” Minutes later, Paige Bueckers, out for the season with a torn ACL, made her way down the same set of bleachers, wearing a gray compression sleeve on her left leg. She chatted with teammates and made her way off to the side. Ice Brady, out for the season with a torn patella, emerged from the locker room moments before practice was to begin — not much for her to do, either. Dorka Juhász (broken thumb) was set to practice, with a chance to return from a five-game absence when No. 6 UConn plays Princeton Thursday night in Storrs. This is the way it’s gone for the Huskies. And this is the way it’s going. The 2022-23 season, like the one that preceded it, is becoming as much about adversity as accomplishment. UConn, which reached the national championship game last season despite an unprecedented string of absences among key players, has shown it can handle the former and still earn the latter. But this theme is getting old. The Huskies are continually forced to roll with the punches and weather the storm, all the cliches that pop up when yet another player goes down. “Our entire time here, Coach and I have never worried about who wasn't able to play,” said Chris Dailey, in her 38th season as associate head coach under Geno Auriemma. “We’ve just focused on what we have. That has served us well. But I'd be lying if I said we've had this in consecutive years.” This blueprint couldn’t have been drawn up or imagined by someone actually looking to sabotage a season. Bueckers missed three months last season with a separate knee injury. Fudd missed about two and was never 100 percent as a freshman. Mühl, like Fudd, missed time with a foot injury. Aubrey Griffin (back surgery) missed the entire year. Juhusz went down with a leg injury. Olivia Nelson-Ododa was out for a stretch with a groin injury. Caroline Ducharme sustained a concussion and missed time. Bueckers returned to lead the Huskies to another Final Four, but Juhász sustained a gruesome wrist injury in the Elite Eight. Ducharme had hip surgery weeks later that left her immobile for much of the offseason. That’s not even a complete list. And now this. UConn was off to a fantastic start, with victories over three teams ranked in the top-10. Fudd was looking like a national player of the year candidate. Then she banged her knee into a teammate against Notre Dame and this portion of the season suddenly felt all too familiar. “This is almost worse than the pandemic because during the pandemic, you expected it and you tested every day or every other day and you knew there as a really good chance that something was going to happen,” Dailey said. “And you knew there was a really good chance that you were going to have a game canceled or whatever. Now, it's not the pandemic or COVID that's causing it. This is just freak things that are happening that we just have to handle.” Dailey spoke Wednesday in place of Auriemma, who arrived during practice after spending time in Philadelphia, due to a family issue. UConn plays at Maryland Sunday and against Florida State the following Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena. “We have our best scorers on the bench,” Mühl said. “That's being realistic. Those are our scorers. Those are people that have the ball the most. Now they're not playing. I feel like there's no time to be like, oh, we have 60 points to sitting on the bench, what are we going to do? We have no time for that. We have another game, then we have another game, then we have another game, and we never know what might happen, who might be back, who might be out. So, just think positive.” Bueckers and Brady aren’t coming back until 2023-24. Fudd and Juhász will return this season. Ducharme has been forced out and slowed by neck issues. She’s still working her way back into form. Dailey said she doesn’t expect Juhász to be as active upon return as she’ll eventually need to be. It will take time. It’s only December, when championships, as Auriemma pointed out Sunday, most certainly are not won. Still, this is all so strange — upsetting if no longer surprising to a team getting used to the type of scenario seldom experienced to this degree. Dailey said she long ago passed the point of feeling that she'd never seen anything like this. Moments later, she reflected on Nov. 20, when she collapsed on the court at the conclusion of the national anthem before the Huskies’ game against NC State. Dailey was taken off the court on a stretcher and briefly hospitalized. “We needed a little drama,” she joked. There has been, and continues to be, plenty of drama. “That was a big part of our team's success and failures last year, the injuries we faced and the absences,” Mühl said. “We've definitely talked to [players] who haven't been here, who haven't experienced it. But I don't think there's any space for being negative or being realistic, honestly. We just have to be positive. We have to expect a lot more from the people who are here and are left to play.”

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