Caroline Doty was being compared to former Huskies All-American Jennifer Rizzotti before she even stepped on campus. There is a feistiness to her and a desire to win every time she steps on the court. The sizeable red floor burn on her right elbow only reinforced the comparison. She picked it up diving for a loose ball she said this afternoon, seemingly proud of the wound.
Doty is legit. She has spent a good portion of the first four practices running with the blue team. She has hit shots and she has made plays, two things Geno Auriemma demands from his point guard. And Doty has already impressed the team leader Renee Montgomery, who just so happens to be among the top two point guards in the country along with Maryland’s Kristi Toliver.
“She’s just been doing really well as far as picking up the offense, understanding the offense,’’ Montgomery said. “She already came in here with a good basketball IQ so I think that helped her out a lot. But she just understands this offense and she’s been knocking down shots so I think that’s why she’s been getting a lot of reps on the blue team. Practice and the games are completely different. So the fact that she’s already getting it in practice is a good thing because that means she’s going to get a lot more experience before the games start. Usually people start getting it later along in practice so by the time the games come they’ve just now got it. So I think that’s going to be good for her. She’s going to be good.’’
Other than her all-or-nothing mindset, an outsider would also never be able to tell that Doty had surgery to repair a torn ACL in her left knee last Oct. 23. She runs free and easy, spotting up for jump shots on the perimeter without a hitch.
“Of course, I’m going to be thinking about it,’’ Doty said. “I haven’t been on the court for this long and for this amount of time. But when you’re playing you’ve just got to focus on, `I’m playing.’ You can’t worry about anything else, just doing as much as you can. So I ice it after. Of course I feel it, but I’m not going to worry about it or really think about because I know it’s alright. It’s happened. I’ve just got to deal with that and really take care of it, but playing-wise it feels great.’’
It’s amazing how some players can bounce back from such injuries. But it takes the mental make-up to want to bounce back, and that’s something that Doty clearly has. She’s a gamer. She’s tough as nails. She’s a UConn-player through and through. And she is going to be fun to watch.
Rich
