Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was diagnosed with mononucleosis in mid-February and the prognosis was a 3-6 week recovery period. Ten days later, coach Geno Auriemma said the the junior sharpshooter was "making progress," and now, after the Huskies returned from a Texas trip in while Mosqueda-Lewis remained in Connecticut, she's back practicing with the team and expects to play this weekend.
“I feel good. I don’t feel sick anymore,” Mosqueda-Lewis said. “The worst part was that I couldn’t do any physical activity whatsoever. I got tired today, which was expected, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Then again, practice wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”
It probably doesn't hurt to be a young, well-conditioned athlete who seems to heal quickly.
“I didn’t feel like I was dying when I was told I had mono,” she said. “I heard that some people can’t get out of bed and they feel really drained. I didn’t feel that bad but my spleen was enlarged and I was tired. So I rested as much as I could and when I got my checkup I was good.
“It could have been worse. But once I heard people saying, ‘She’s not going to be back to the Sweet 16,’ I thought, that’s not going to happen. I’ll be back. I was never worried I’d be out longer than three weeks.”
Of course, KML's return makes like much easier for Auriemma, who now has one of the nation's best long-range shooters back on the floor just in time for the conference and NCAA tournaments.
It’s certainly much easier to play when you have someone of K’s caliber out on the floor,” he said, via SNY.com. “All of a sudden everything looks a little bit better. She’s such an integral part of what we’re doing. She plays with a lot of confidence and I’m not sure the guys that tried to take her place have that.
“She looked really good. She was in and out of practice for a good part of it. She was a bit winded. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow and at shoot-around and we’ll make a decision on how it’s going.”
