RebKell's Junkie Boards

[summertime blues]

Maybe she can learn some patience sitting on the bench alongside her buddy Azzi Fudd.

_________________
Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohows permanent.
It takes 3 years to build a team and 7 to build a program.--Conventional Wisdom

[willtalk]

Some people on the Boneyard, after watching replays seem to think that she injured it jumpin in celebration before she collapsed with no contact. They said after she leaped in celebration she seemed to favior that leg. Not the first time some one has injured themselves celebrating.

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No one one is ever as good as their best game, nor as bad as their worst.

[Shades]

[Howee]

'bout the ONLY Bright Side to the possible (worst-case) scenario, is that she might red-shirt and finish her husky career alongside Fudd. Of course, a coupla years is a loooong time for all to remain injury free, but.....it's a possibility

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Oregon: Go Ducks!
"Inévitablement, les canards voleront"

[Stormeo]

Last season didn’t count towards eligibility. Bueckers can stay as long as Fudd can anyway without having to redshirt this season. Or hell, they could both redshirt this season together and stick around that much longer. I highly doubt we see Bueckers and Fudd as part of the 2026 WNBA Draft class five Drafts from now, but it’s still something of a possibility at this point, I guess. If they think they can be more profitable as wcbb stars than actual professionals, who knows.

[myrtle]

I believe Bueckers has already made comments to the effect that college players should be able to declare for the draft before the current age limit...which makes me think she would be wanting to take that option. But things change. She's young.

[Shades]

[Speebs56]

For those who've not read the Hartford paper about Paige's injury, I've copied/pasted below so anyone who wants can read without dealing with paywall.

Paige Bueckers’ injury: What is a tibial plateau fracture, what does recovery look like and what are the long-term implications?
By ALEXA PHILIPPOU
HARTFORD COURANT |
DEC 07, 2021 AT 5:38 PM

What is a tibial plateau fracture in the first place? How serious is that type of injury, and does Bueckers need to be concerned about any long-term issues concerning her knee?
To answer those questions and more, The Courant spoke to Dr. Michael Miranda, Chief of Orthopedic Trauma at Hartford Hospital, and Jeff Stotts, an injury analyst and certified athletic trainer who has an extensive background covering sports injuries and has his own NBA injury database.
What is a tibial plateau fracture?
In layman’s terms, Stotts describes a tibial plateau fracture as the result of “bones kind of knock[ing] together,” which occurred in this case from Bueckers hyperextending her knee. The plateau refers to the top of the bone, in this case the tibia (a.k.a. the shin bone).
The bone is spongy around the knee joint, Miranda says, allowing the thigh bone and knee bones to typically glide smoothly over each other. But when Bueckers hyperextended her knee, it became a situation of “two really hard objects hitting, and the spongy nature of the bone allows it to get pinched, very much like you’re pinching the rim of a Styrofoam cup, and it stays pinched. That’s what happens with the bone there. … It’s really sort of a gentle crush of the spongy part.”
UConn’s press release on Bueckers’ injury, and the timeline for her return, indicate there was no ligament or soft tissue damage associated with the injury – a “very big thing,” according to Stotts. When he first saw the replay of Bueckers’ injury, her knee hyperextension made him fear it could be an ACL tear.
“Those soft tissue structures [think: ACL, MCL, meniscus] are a little bit more problematic, don’t heal as smoothly as bone, and they often take a little bit longer as well,” Stotts said. “So, the fact that we didn’t hear anything like that, that they’re giving a 6-8 window, is a pretty good indication there’s not anything significantly wrong with those soft tissue structures.”


How common is this injury?
Tibial plateau fractures can occur as part of more traumatic knee injuries – say one where an ACL is also damaged. In that case, the fracture may be viewed as secondary to the more serious ligament damage.
It is a relatively uncommon basketball injury to happen in isolation, though stars Kobe Bryant, Yao Ming and Lindsay Whalen, as well as football player J.J. Watt, are among famous athletes who have dealt with them. Miranda says it’s more common to see the injury with skiers or among people who have suffered motor vehicle accidents or falls from great height.
“That’s kind of why you don’t hear that term, why a lot of people were like ‘wait, what’s a tibial plateau fracture?’” Stotts said. “Everyone knows ACL, everyone knows Achilles. But it does happen. It’s scary to talk about, but maybe not as bad as it could have been.”

How did it happen?
Stotts thought the Bueckers’ injury occurred from “just kind of a weird step.”
“If you think about it, literally hundreds of thousands of moves that she’s made during the course of her season, this is just one move where things didn’t go perfectly,” Miranda added. “I mean, she’s so incredibly graceful. This is a situation where things didn’t go smoothly.”
Watching the replay of Bueckers’ injury, it looks like she went to attempt a jab step as she was bringing the ball up the floor, and her ankle may have turned first before suffering the fracture. It’s possible that the ankle maneuver led to the knee hyperextension, Stotts and Miranda said, as ankle and knee movements are closely linked.

Does a 6-8 week recovery timeframe make sense?
The average recovery time for NBA players who suffered a tibial plateau fracture, according to Stotts’ database, was closer to 10 weeks. In part, a player’s size may determine the severity of the break, as the bigger the player, the more force they put through their knees. Bueckers is obviously smaller than, say, Ming.
Miranda said these injuries should be thought of happening on a spectrum. Some people may not feel less severe impact, a bit more serious they’d just get a little sore, a bit more serious than that they’d experience a bone bruise. The next level of injury could be macro factures or, most seriously, a break where the bone moves out of position – the latter isn’t what UConn is suggesting here.
“What they’re suggesting is that it got to the point where there’s a little crack and [the bone] crushed itself,” Miranda said.
What does recovery look like?
For non-athletes, rest is the most important ingredient to recovery. But for Bueckers, that won’t be as much the case, Miranda said.
“She’s going to start rehabbing this thing as soon as she possibly can, which means that they’re going to first focus on decreasing the swelling, decreasing the inflammation, regaining her motion, all at the same time trying to keep her muscles strong,” Miranda said. “And then the last part of that is also agility and balance. … It’s gonna be a lot of hard work.”
Depending on how UConn approaches her recovery and how much weight bearing she can manage, Bueckers could potentially do some work in the pool and maybe the stationary bike, Stotts added. The degree of the fracture would also determine how quickly she returns to on-court activity.
Are there any long-term implications?
Miranda says there’s a “small but not zero” chance she develops arthritis in her knee later on. Otherwise, she should probably be OK.
“Bone is a durable tissue,” Stotts said. “Once an injury occurs, it is fully capable of returning to its previous strength. Sometimes that isn’t the case with ligaments or muscles. They often might even take longer to get close to that same [strength as before] but they might not ever have the same biomechanical properties as they did before.
“Bone can. And as long as, again, we don’t hear about any accompanying ligament damage or cartilage damage, she should be fine moving forward once this area is healed up and she’s good to go.”

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com

[GlennMacGrady]

Bueckers may play only one more season of college ball -- two seasons in total -- if the injury keeps her out of play this season and she chooses to enter the 2023 draft, as her age will allow her to do.

I've always figured she was likely a three season WCBB player given her elite skills and age. By going pro as early as possible, she can still rack in the commercial deals plus a bundle of overseas money.

I remain puzzled as to how a young person can crack a the top of the the shinbone (tibial plateau) by such low impact looking event as Bueckers experienced. I hope some further details on diagnosis and prognosis are revealed.

[/img]

Edit: Hadn't seen the new Courant interview when I wrote about learning more, which the interview does provide somewhat.

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http://www.youtube.com/MagicBusBasketball

[myrtle]

It's always scary no matter how 'minor.' thanks for the additional info.

[mercfan3]

Seems like timeline is about how severe the fracture was, and given the 6-8 week prediction, it must be a minor fraction.

The other good thing about the Covid year is that UConn and Paige don’t need to mKe a decision about redshirting.

I don’t quite understand why people think she will leave early. Her money making opportunities are higher at UConn, her visibility in sports is higher at UConn, and she gets to play with her bff.

She may decide to leave early, but I honestly think it’s more likely she stays a fifth year.

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“Anyone point out that a Donald Trump anagram is ‘Lord Dampnut’”- Colin Mochrie

[GEF34]

[GlennMacGrady]

According to many medical authorities, including those quoted in the Courant interview, a tibia platform fracture usually happens when the thighbone (femur) smashes into the top of the shinbone (tibia) as when falling from a height or being in a car accident, not usually from a mild hyperextension.

Like many others online, I have wondered whether Bueckers' fracture may have been induced by cumulative knee impacts in the Notre Dame game, starting with earlier plays.

Bueckers was banged onto the the ground numerous times in the game, especially in the fourth quarter. In this first video, especially as shown in the slow motion replays, she takes a hard impact fall onto her left knee after being fouled by Maya Dodson.

https://youtu.be/jkAhTemYlFw?t=3797

On the very next play, Bueckers was knocked onto the floor on her left knee by an elbow-throw by Dara Mabrey while sprinting at high speed, which again can be seen in the slow motion replays.

https://youtu.be/jkAhTemYlFw?t=3864

Could these and other previous knee traumas in the game have cumulatively led up to a minor fracture or bone bruise type of injury, camel-strawed by the hyperextension?

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/MagicBusBasketball

[ucbart]

[myrtle]

[ArtBest23]

ESPN headline this afternoon, byline Mechelle Voepel:

"UConn Huskies women lose another guard; Nika Muhl might be out several weeks with foot injury"

Geno estimated three weeks during his press call today.

[myrtle]

[summertime blues]

Let this be a lesson to you, Geno...USE YOUR BENCH! Use it when you should, not when you just have to.

_________________
Don't take life so serious. It ain't nohows permanent.
It takes 3 years to build a team and 7 to build a program.--Conventional Wisdom

[Shades]

Fudd has a stress reaction they’re trying to prevent from turning into a stress fracture.

Here’s Geno from a week ago.

[NoDakSt]

This reminds me of the 1998-1999 season. There was a stretch where UCONN starting backcourt of frosh Sue Bird and SR Amy Duran were injured as was the first guard off the bench, RS SO Shea Ralph. Plus Swin Cash was out. Huskies took lumps with losses to TN, BC, La Tech while these players recouped. Cobbled enough of a team together to make a strong push before losing a big lead in the Sweet 16 to hot shooting Iowa State.

[undersized_post]

It is a good thing for UConn that upcoming opponents Georgia Tech and UCLA have both underperformed this season, in large part due to injuries of their own.

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RebKell's 2021-2022 NCAA Fantasy League Regular Season Champion 🏆

[ArtBest23]

[GlennMacGrady]

[linkster]

[linkster]