The UConn Fast Break - 10/28/2022

Battles with Boston College, basketball previews and more!

October 28, 2022

Welcome to this week’s Fast Break, and thank you for being a subscriber. Have you ever thought about how Boston College is not in Boston and also not a college?

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UConn WBB loses another for the season

UConn women’s basketball got some more bad luck this week, as Ice Brady dislocated the patella in her right knee and will miss the entire 2022-23 season. Brady is the second Husky to go down with a season-ending injury, as Paige Bueckers also suffered a knee injury, tearing her ACL in August. The team plays its first game on Nov. 10.

Significant injury woes have been a constant over the past few seasons, as Aubrey Griffin missed all of last year due to several ailments, including a back injury, while Dorka Juhasz suffered a compound wrist fracture in the NCAA Tournament and Bueckers missed a significant portion of the 2021-22 season with a right knee issue. Those were just the big ones.

While it’s unclear how much Brady would have contributed this year, she was the fifth-ranked player in the Class of 2022 according to ESPN and was one of four true post players on the roster. Her absence means that UConn has just nine scholarship players that are healthy, preventing a full five-on-five scrimmage without walk-ons or practice players.

Geno Auriemma will have his depth tested this year, once again, as UConn cannot afford any more players to miss any kind of extended time.

Weekly Rewind

Men’s Basketball

Opponent previews - The UConn Blog is firing on all cylinders, with previews of early season opponents, both pods in the Phil Knight Invitational, Florida, Oklahoma State, and DePaul.

Women’s Basketball

UConn WBB Weekly - This week’s newsletter focuses on Aaliyah Edwards and whether she can take the next step this season.

Chasing Perfection - The latest podcast looks at how the preseason has fared for the Huskies, including Geno Auriemma’s uncharacteristic optimism about his squad.

Men’s Hockey

Win over Boston College - The Huskies scored four third-period goals to take down the Eagles.

First top-10 ranking - Mike Cavanaugh’s crew was in the top 10 of the USCHO poll for the first time in program history.

No. 14 Huskies split with No. 9 Boston University - UConn took the first battle in overtime on Friday, but fell resoundingly on Saturday to the Terriers.

Samu Salminen joins team - Now that visa issues have been solved, the highly-touted freshman is with the team.

Football

Future opponents - The Huskies were on a bye during Week 8, but three of their four remaining foes played on the weekend.

Advanced stat round-up - Check out how the Huskies have been faring this season.

Men’s Soccer

Perfect week for the Huskies - Chris Gbandi’s squad is on a roll at the right time, with just a few more games in the regular season to jockey for conference tournament position.

Baseball

2023 schedule - Jim Penders and his team are going to Hawaii for Spring Break.

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Highlights

The game-winner for the men’s hockey team on Thursday was an absolute missile. Just over a minute into the third and final period, Hudson Schandor took this rocket of a slap shot from the top of the left circle to put his team up 2-1.

Memory Lane

The last time UConn football played Boston College on the gridiron, it was in Randy Edsall 2.0’s first season, 2017. The game was played at Fenway Park as the “home” entry for UConn after a 2016 visit to Chestnut Hill in Bob Diaco’s final season that did not end well. This one didn’t go much better.

Future NFL running back, and CT native, AJ Dillon scored two touchdowns and rushed for 200 yards on a rainy and windy night as the Eagles scored 39 straight points through the second, third, and fourth quarters. Though the Huskies did add another two touchdowns, including a 70-yard Kevin Mensah touchdown run, it was a dominating Boston College victory as David Pindell threw three interceptions.

Take a look back at what was with our game story and photo gallery as we prepare for what should be a closer game on Saturday.

UConn, Great Pic

Men’s and women’s soccer are closing out the regular season and are battling for conference tournament position. Our own Ian Bethune snapped some nice shots at a few recent home games.

Parting Thoughts

UConn men’s hockey is ranked 10th in the country and just beat up BC. Go to these games!

The Huskies are off this weekend before playing two against Maine at the XL Center Nov. 4-5 and a big series against Providence the following weekend, in Rhode Island on the 11th and at XL on the 12th.

It is nothing short of incredible that Mike Cavanaugh has this team playing the best they’ve ever been this year. We’ve been waiting almost a decade for this!

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