Junior guard Caroline Doty has been fully cleared and will start Saturday against South Florida at the XL Center (1 p.m. CPTV). She did not play Wednesday at Syracuse after suffering a bone bruise in her left knee at DePaul Jan. 21.
“I feel good,’’ Doty said. “The few days (off) definitely helped out. I’m a little winded, but that can come back. But I feel comfortable. It feels great now.’’
“I kind of kept questioning it. What made it a bone bruise? There’s so many different types of reasons that it could happen or just like the ACL is like a freak accident. So it was kind of like, `Uh, again.’ But it’s great to see that I’m only out a few days and not a few months or the rest of the year. I feel good.
Doty practiced fully today at Gampel Pavilion. UConn coach Geno Auriemma was pleased with what he saw from her during the session.
“She looked good today,’’ Auriemma said. “I think taking a couple days off was probably the best thing for her. And she did everything we did (today) so there was no restrictions on her whatsoever. Something’s going to hurt everyday until she stops playing, and then probably after that something’s going to hurt. It’s just a matter of being able to tolerate it and at what point do you say `it’s enough.’ But she’s nowhere near that. She’s found her new normal and we’re happy to have her back.’’
Both Doty and Auriemma said that there will be no limitations placed on Doty against South Florida.
“The plan from the beginning of the season was `let’s just play her and let’s go,’’’ Auriemma said. “So tomorrow’s not going to be any different. We’ll play her and if she says to me, `Hey, I need a breather.’
I’ll give her a breather. If she doesn’t say anything then we’re good to go. That’s kind of how we’ve treated it the whole year.’’
Here is what Doty said regarding what her knee felt like last Saturday when she was injured:
“It was kind of like a sting,” Doty said. “Nothing tweaked. Nothing turned. Nothing anything scary. I wasn’t concerned about the ACL. It was more concerned that it was the outside of my knee. It felt a little weird, but I wanted to get it checked out and make sure it was nothing serious. Doc T (Tom Trojian) was able to look at it and (team athletic trainer) Rosemary (Ragle) was able to look at it right at the game and they figured it was a bone bruise. They just wanted to get some testing just to make sure nothing else was wrong. Everything else looks great. So the fact that it was a bone bruise was a sigh of relief.’’
Here is Auriemma’s response when he learned that future Husky Breanna Stewart had been named the 2011 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year:
“She deserves it,” Auriemma said. “The only USA team she didn’t play on was the men’s team that won the World Championship.’’
Sophomore Bria Hartley and freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis have been named to the Wooden Award Midseason Watch List.
Rich
