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Any time UConn has lost a player, it has felt like Geno Auriemma has reached down into a Mary Poppins-like bag of top-end talent and plugged in the holes with it. After injuries have mounted for the Huskies, he may be running out of them.
UConn suffered another loss to its roster after Nika Muhl left Friday's game vs. Princeton after trying to take a charge in the third quarter. It left Auriemma and the coaching staff with seven active players the rest of the game (which they won 69-64).
“I don’t know that we handled it great,” Auriemma told reporters after the game. “I don’t know that we are going to be proud of obviously what we see on film. I think when Nika went down it was really a lot on some of the other guys, but at the end we had to make a couple plays, we gotta make a couple of shots, we gotta make a couple of free throws and we managed to do what needed to be done at that particular time to win a game.”
They might need to be handling “it” longer than they would like to.
Muhl has made strides this season but also served as someone who could keep the offense going while the team waits for Azzi Fudd to rejoin the team. Fudd and Dorka Juhasz will be back this year but not star Paige Bueckers or the heavily recruited freshman in Ice Brady. If Muhl is out for an extended period of time, there isn't an easy fix for someone else to step up.
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Fudd will eventually be back and has shown she can lead the charge for the Huskies but UConn is all about success in March. If they rush her back too quickly, UConn could risk having her healthy for the remainder of the season–if not the remainder of her time at UConn.
There are few teams that can make a roster of seven work. Heck, there are few who can do it with a healthy nine-person roster. UConn has always been the exception to the rule. One Division-I coach once told me when the Huskies were battling injuries that it doesn't matter when they are hobbled because they have players every college team in the country is vying after during the recruiting process.
So who steps up with keys players up and down the roster out? Lou Lopez Sénéchal is certainly making her case for why the UConn faithful should still believe in this team. She is now the Huskies' oldest player at 24 years old but has played well so far.
“Geno doesn't like kids with out-of-control egos,” former head coach at Farfield University Joe Frager said. “He wants kids that fit into a bigger scheme and understand that the program is more important than they are. And the kid's a scorer. [Lopez Sénéchal] can flat-out shoot it and she's worked very, very hard. You put someone like that on a team like UConn, where you've got an Azzi Fudd and all those other super talented players, there's no way she's going to be the primary focus of the opponent's defense all the time. I thought she'd really be able to contribute there. At what level, who knows? A lot goes into it. But I thought she was set up well.”
Maybe UConn has another chip to play that we all don't know about but it's early in December. Being ravaged this much by injuries is worrisome and even with Fudd coming back, there might not be enough health for this team to stay at the top of the rankings come March.
