UConn's Bueckers has ankle surgery

May 3—Paige Bueckers will be spending some time on the sidelines.

The UConn women's basketball team's freshman guard underwent what the school called successful surgery on Friday to repair an osteochondral defect on her right ankle. She is expected to be ready for preseason in September.

The Huskies are expected to be back on campus on Memorial Day for the first summer school session.

Bueckers had issues with her ankle during her sophomore season at Hopkins High that sidelined her for about two weeks. She suffered a sprained right ankle late in UConn's win over Tennessee on Jan. 21. After having the ankle re-taped, she returned to hit a 3-pointer that iced the win over the Lady Vols.

According to Google, "an osteochondral defect refers to a focal area of damage that involves both the cartilage and a piece of underlying bone. These can occur from an acute traumatic injury to the knee or an underlying disorder of the bone."

Bueckers became the first freshman to be named the Associated Press Player of the Year and the USBWA Player of the Year while also being the first freshman to win the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award. She was the second freshman to Maya Moore to be the Big East Player of the Year.

She's the first UConn freshman to average 20.0 points per game and she set a school freshman record with 168 assists. Her 36.2 minutes per game broke the 29-year school record of Wendy Davis (36.0).

In Big East rankings, Bueckers was second in scoring (20.0), first in assists (5.8), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3), third in steals (2.3), sixth in field-goal percentage (52.4), third in free-throw percentage (86.9), and first in 3-point percentage (46.4).

She led UConn to its eighth consecutive conference tournament title and its 13th straight NCAA Final Four berth as she was the Big East Tournament and NCAA River Walk Regional Most Outstanding Player. She was also named to the all-Final Four team after scoring 19 points in the Huskies' season-ending loss to Arizona in San Antonio on April 2. UConn finished the year 28-2.

For coverage of all sports in the JI's 18-town coverage area, plus updates on the UConn women's basketball team and head coach Geno Auriemma, follow Carl Adamec on Twitter: @CarlAdamec, Facebook: Carl Adamec, and Instagram: @CarlAdamec.