UConn women’s basketball battles unprecedented injury wave

The past three seasons have been among the most challenging in the history of UConn women’s basketball.

Sure, there were the heartbreaking losses and ends to historic streaks. But more devastating than any one game has been the sheer number of injuries the program suffered since 2021.

There’s been a handful of season-ending injuries to key stars along with multiple concussions, knee injuries and sprained ankles. Even the Husky coaches have suffered their fair share of ailments during this time.

In 2021-22, 10 of UConn’s 12 players missed at least one game due to injury or illness. In 2022-23, there were only four games out of 37 when the team had 10 active players available. UConn started with 14 healthy players in June 2023 and is now down to just eight available players to start the 2024 postseason.

And for UConn, the most frustrating part is that there does not seem to be one particular reason why the team is seeing so many injuries. Maybe it’s because athletes are specializing in one sport too early or maybe it’s because they’re playing one sport year-round or maybe it’s all an impact from the disruption of the pandemic.

The answer isn’t simple. UConn believes it’s ahead of most universities in its sports medicine and sports science practices. School officials say minimizing injury risk has been and remains the program’s No. 1 priority since there’s not one solution to completely preventing injuries.

“This is the best, most comprehensive, thorough, technological sports science staff that we’ve had ever at UConn, from top to bottom,” Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said. “From orthopedic surgeons down to, you know, our analytics people that sit by their computer every day and stare and try to figure things out. We’ve never ever been this comprehensive in every everything we do.”