Spring Break
Doty returns from injury ready to go
Chris Brodeur
Issue date: 11/13/09 Section: Husky Hoopla
It happened to Shea Ralph three times while she was in Storrs. Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene both suffered the same fate in the span of a month one season.
When Caroline Doty planted to haul in a Maya Moore feed on a fast break in the first half of a January meeting with Syracuse at the XL Center last season, there was hardly any doubt - on her part or the part of anyone else - that she would soon be in the same category. That day, Doty joined a star-studded list of UConn women's basketball players to experience the season-killer, the three most dreaded letters a female athlete will ever hear - she had torn her ACL.
The injury cost the Doylestown, Pa. native the opportunity to help the Huskies to their sixth National Title in the last 15 years. If everything had gone the way the first 17 games of the 2008-09 campaign had for Doty, she would have done so as a starter. In those 17 games, she was averaging nearly nine points and shooting an even 40 percent from the three-point arc. She was living up to her billing as a sharp-shooter in the backcourt with ball-handling ability.
Instead, she was on the operating table six days after her injury, ready to begin rehabbing the same knee that had prevented her from playing any basketball in her senior season at Germantown Academy. Yes, this was the second time she'd torn the ACL in her left knee, the first of which came on the soccer field. This one kept her off the floor while her teammates finished what she helped them start - the third undefeated season in UConn history.
The road to recovery from restructured knee ligaments typically takes anywhere from six to nine months. Having spent the summer rehabbing and preparing for the moment she would reenter the fray that is live game action, Doty went into this year's preseason eager to turn the page. If her on-court entrance at the team's First Night festivities were any indication - she came out with crutches before tossing them aside, executing a spot-on version of Michael Jackson's patented leg kick and launching into her dance routine - Doty is energized and ready for the ball to tip on Saturday against Northeastern.
When Caroline Doty planted to haul in a Maya Moore feed on a fast break in the first half of a January meeting with Syracuse at the XL Center last season, there was hardly any doubt - on her part or the part of anyone else - that she would soon be in the same category. That day, Doty joined a star-studded list of UConn women's basketball players to experience the season-killer, the three most dreaded letters a female athlete will ever hear - she had torn her ACL.
The injury cost the Doylestown, Pa. native the opportunity to help the Huskies to their sixth National Title in the last 15 years. If everything had gone the way the first 17 games of the 2008-09 campaign had for Doty, she would have done so as a starter. In those 17 games, she was averaging nearly nine points and shooting an even 40 percent from the three-point arc. She was living up to her billing as a sharp-shooter in the backcourt with ball-handling ability.
Instead, she was on the operating table six days after her injury, ready to begin rehabbing the same knee that had prevented her from playing any basketball in her senior season at Germantown Academy. Yes, this was the second time she'd torn the ACL in her left knee, the first of which came on the soccer field. This one kept her off the floor while her teammates finished what she helped them start - the third undefeated season in UConn history.
The road to recovery from restructured knee ligaments typically takes anywhere from six to nine months. Having spent the summer rehabbing and preparing for the moment she would reenter the fray that is live game action, Doty went into this year's preseason eager to turn the page. If her on-court entrance at the team's First Night festivities were any indication - she came out with crutches before tossing them aside, executing a spot-on version of Michael Jackson's patented leg kick and launching into her dance routine - Doty is energized and ready for the ball to tip on Saturday against Northeastern.
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