Well the Huskies got the bad news about the injury suffered by Kalana Greene in last night’s win over South Carolina. She has a significant tear of her right ACL and will undergo surgery this Friday at the UConn Health Center.
John Altavilla from the Hartford Courant has a good article about Greene being able to apply for a medical redshirt for this season.
There are two provisions for a student-athlete to meet to be eligible.
1). The injury must occur the first half of the scheduled regular-season. And Monday night’s game against South Carolina was the eighth of 30 games, not counting exhibitions or any postseason games the Huskies will play.
2). The injured athlete must NOT have played in 30 percent of the scheduled games. Again, Greene’s injury was in game eight – 30 percent of the season would have been reached Friday night at San Diego State.
Should Greene’s injury be deemed season-ending, or should she or UConn decide she shouldn’t play again even if medically possible, the school must petition the Big East, which then decides whether to offer the hardship waiver and extra season.
Kalana would then have until just before her fifth-year begins (2009-10) to decide if she wants to take advantage of it, just like Brittany Hunter did this season.
It will be interesting to see what Greene and UConn decide. Odds are with her having surgery on Friday and the recovery period being at least 6 months, that she is done for this season.
Another interesting thing to look at is who will replace Greene in the starting lineup. My best guess is that Charde Houston will start on Friday night in her hometown of San Diego and have a chance to regain her starting position after that. If not, head coach Geno Auriemma could go with Maya Moore in the starting five but I am sure he would prefer to continue to use her off the bench. Whatever Geno decides I am sure will be the right thing as he is one of the best coaches in women’s basketball.
The preseason top 50 candidates for the Women’s Naismith Award have been announced and UConn has three players on the list. Sophomore Tina Charles, junior Renee Montgomery and senior Charde Houston are UConn’s representatives on the list. Maryland has the most at 4 and joining UConn with three players are Tennessee and Rutgers.
The list will be cut down to 30 players in January and then down to 4 players in February. Final voting will due on April 2nd. Maya Moore isn’t on the list but could be on there when the list is released again in January.
I forgot to mention this in last night’s notes but UConn’s top recruit Elena Delle Donne is out right now battling mononucleosis. It’s not known yet how long she will be out but she should return to the court this season.
