UConn coach Geno Auriemma gave an update on Paige Bueckers’s injury after the Huskies’ 71-61 win over UCLA on Saturday.
The reigning women’s basketball Naismith Player of the Year left UConn’s Dec. 5 game against Notre Dame with a no-contact knee injury, later revealed to be a tibial plateau fracture. Auriemma said Bueckers may now be considering surgery, while also exploring other options.
“The next step is there’s either going to be surgery or there’s not going to be surgery,” Auriemma said, adding that Bueckers will make a decision “relatively soon.”
Surgery would push back Bueckers’s estimated 6–8-week recovery timeline. According to Auriemma, if she pursues surgery, Bueckers would not be available for UConn until “mid-February, late February at the latest.”
The Huskies dropped their first game without Bueckers on Thursday, falling to Georgia Tech in the team’s first loss to an unranked opponent in 239 games. Bueckers, a sophomore, was leading the team in points and assists before the injury.
No. 3 UConn next takes the court on Dec. 19 against No. 7 Louisville.