Two days after Connecticut freshman guard Caroline Doty blew out her knee, you’d never know by her attitude that the injury will force her to miss the season. She was upbeat and positive.
"I have three more years," said Doty, sitting on the UConn bench an hour before the Huskies routed No. 2 North Carolina 88-58 on Monday night. "I'm still young. I have a lot of time left to play."
Doty will have surgery Thursday and will immediately begin rehabilitation.
"My ACL is gone," Doty said. "It's completely torn. But it's different because I didn't tear any other ligaments so it feels a lot better. I can put weight on it. I can walk. Not normally, with a limp. It's different, but it's curable. I can do the surgery earlier than I did last time. And I guess it's better."
Second Injury
Doty’s first injured her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during a soccer game Sept. 7, 2007 and had surgery less than seven weeks later.
During Saturday's game against Syracuse, she reinjured the knee.
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"I knew right away. I felt the click. I knew," the freshman said. "I was thinking, 'Not again.' The feeling was just too familiar. We were just getting to the fun part of the season. I was looking forward to the Big East tournament, the NCAAs, the whole thing down the stretch. A million thoughts ran through my head. It was so disappointing."
She was averaging 8.6 points and headed to her best game with 17 points in the first half, including five 3-pointers. Then she crumpled to the ground just before halftime.
"The last couple of days have been like a roller coaster for me," Doty said. "I'm trying to stay as positive as possible, but the fact that it happened kind of brings me down."
