by: Griffin Bennett
UPDATE (12:42): UW has now confirmed the torn ACL injury and will miss the rest of the season.
Terrible news is circling right now. There is a CONFIRMED report from 950 KJR’s Softy (@SoftyKJR Abdul Gaddy torn left ACL. Confirmed) that Abdul Gaddy has torn his ACL. An injury of this sort could sideline him for the rest of the regular season and most likely, the year. While the university is giving “no comment” responses, rumors like these are usually never false. It’s a really tough break for Abdul as he was so close to turning the corner. We can only hope that he makes a full recovery and returns with full confidence whenever that date may be. Here are some of the player’s tweets.
Gaddy: “Worst news n feeling ever…. GOD please guide me as u always have”
IT: “Worse news of my life I jus heard! It’s a wrap 4 the whole NCAA and the pac10 now I’m KILLING all yall….. #HomeTeam”
“Takin this 1 to the heart!!!!! Cried at the house but god has a plan and everything gonna workout n the end… #HomeTeam”
“MINOR setback 4 a MAJOR comeback!!!!!”
MBA: “Dant trip baby bro he got u and we got u bruv.. RT @gaddy253: Worst news n feeling ever…. GOD please guide me as u always have”
I am trying to contact some sources and will get another official confirmation when I get it. Let’s take a look at how this will impact the Huskies going forward.
Impact:
This obviously leaves a hole at the starting point guard spot. The conventional move for Romar would be to move senior Venoy Overton into the role and give each back-up guard more minutes and try to not miss a beat. It’s not really rocket science there. Obviously Gaddy and Overton have different skill sets, but with the scoring options on the team, I think that the down grade in points won’t be huge hit in terms of wins. The L.A. road trip proved that the point guard spot doesn’t need to score 10+ a game in order to beat good teams. In terms of passing, Overton has really improved his passing ability and hopefully that trend won’t stop. Now as much as I hope that this won’t effect the team in the long run, the loss of depth at PG will always hurt. If Overton gets into foul trouble, the Huskies could get into trouble.
I think an interesting scenario would be to try to move IT to the starting point (if not starting, then minutes) and try Ross at the starting 2 guard. It looks like Ross is just about ready to burst, and against low competition like the Oregon schools, it’s a great time to see if it works. Obviously Wilcox (who is questionable this week) and Suggs will have increased rolls and minutes, but Ross looks to benefit the most from Gaddy’s injury.
Another note, the medical red shirt rules state that you only qualify if you get hurt while playing in less than 20% of games in a season (including pre-season and non-conference games). Obviously, Gaddy does not qualify for this.
We’ll take a look at the long term impact later (Wroten coming in next year), but this is just a terrible thing to happen to such a great young man. Our thoughts and prayers here at MM go out to Abdul. Get better.
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