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No update on Brianna Banks' injury
UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma was not certain of the severity of sophomore guard Brianna Banks' right knee injury.
Banks had to be helped off the court after falling hard on her knee with 10:02 left in the first half. After heading to the locker room to have her knee checked out, she returned to the bench late in the first half. In the second half she wore a protective sleeve on her right leg.
The initial diagnosis is a knee sprain although that does not mean it is not more serious than that since that tends to be the terminology used with knee injuries until MRIs can be performed.
"I thought it was her hip when she first slammed into that kid," Auriemma said. "(UConn athletic trainer) Rosemary (Ragle) and Doc (Tom Trojian) told me that she kind of landed on her knee wrong and somebody hit it at the same time so we probably won't know too much until later on tonight or first thing tomorrow. I think both Brianna Banks and Moriah Jefferson gave us a big lift when they came into the game. The game changed a little bit and for that one little spurt, it only lasted three or four minutes, we really had the game going the way we wanted to."
Banks only played a minute but that was more playing time than starting center Stefanie Dolson.
Dolson, who had started the first 20 games of the season and hadn't missed a game since arriving at UConn, was dealing with flu-like symptoms and just a few minutes before the game was set to start she told her coaches that she wasn't able to go.
"She was good last night was great, went down to pre-game for walk through and she was shaking," Auriemma said. "She had a fever and we thought 'OK, we still have four hours before we play.' Then we showed up here and said 'what do you think?' She said 'no, I can't even stand up.' That was after we put the starting lineups in and comes in and she is all wobbly and said 'I can't do this.'"
Banks had to be helped off the court after falling hard on her knee with 10:02 left in the first half. After heading to the locker room to have her knee checked out, she returned to the bench late in the first half. In the second half she wore a protective sleeve on her right leg.
The initial diagnosis is a knee sprain although that does not mean it is not more serious than that since that tends to be the terminology used with knee injuries until MRIs can be performed.
"I thought it was her hip when she first slammed into that kid," Auriemma said. "(UConn athletic trainer) Rosemary (Ragle) and Doc (Tom Trojian) told me that she kind of landed on her knee wrong and somebody hit it at the same time so we probably won't know too much until later on tonight or first thing tomorrow. I think both Brianna Banks and Moriah Jefferson gave us a big lift when they came into the game. The game changed a little bit and for that one little spurt, it only lasted three or four minutes, we really had the game going the way we wanted to."
Banks only played a minute but that was more playing time than starting center Stefanie Dolson.
Dolson, who had started the first 20 games of the season and hadn't missed a game since arriving at UConn, was dealing with flu-like symptoms and just a few minutes before the game was set to start she told her coaches that she wasn't able to go.
"She was good last night was great, went down to pre-game for walk through and she was shaking," Auriemma said. "She had a fever and we thought 'OK, we still have four hours before we play.' Then we showed up here and said 'what do you think?' She said 'no, I can't even stand up.' That was after we put the starting lineups in and comes in and she is all wobbly and said 'I can't do this.'"
Labels: Brianna Banks, Geno Auriemma, Rosemary Ragle, Stefanie Dolson
posted by Jim Fuller at
5:05 PM
3 Comments:
Banks one minute was impressive. 2 Steals a score and great defense. Everyone should be so productive.
Geno has to be extremely pleased with the new kids on the bloc. Two of the three came thru.
Stewart seems to fade in big games, she isn't as tough as the other two. She's extremely talented . But she needs to have that talent in Big time games. Geno had better toughen her up or no NCAA title this year.
Tuck goes to the basket with the ball to low--easy for the smalls to steal it. Geno needs to fix that to.
it looked like she might easily have torn something from the slow-motion replay. You could see the knee flex in a direction it wasn't supposed to go.
It looked like she planted her right foot, and then the impact with the other player forced her body to rotate around the knee sideways.
If it is "only" a sprain then we can count ourselves very lucky from those circumstances.
Very unlucky for Brianna! She was playing really, really well during that run!
If it is only a sprain, Banks will still be out for a while. If Banks tore her ACL or MCL, UConn will really miss her in the BET and MM. And next season when Faris and Doty are gone, Banks will be out the beginning of the season most likely. It is sad that so many WCBB players suffer knee injuries. But they do put a lot of pressure on their knees with athletic moves. I feel sad for Banks because she worked her tail off in the off season without the UConn coaching staff.
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