Sophomore guard Kari Korver of UCLA women’s basketball will miss the 2013-2014 season, after an MRI Wednesday revealed she has a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a tear in the meniscus of her right knee.
[UPDATED at 7:25 p.m. The injury occurred Tuesday during a one-on-one drill when she drove to the basket to attempt a jump stop and her knee “caved in.”
“I was honestly just really surprised. I wasn’t expecting that because the last time I tore my ACL I was feeling really weak,” Korver said. “I was feeling really good (this time) so when I tore it I was pretty shocked and also sad about it.”]
Her right knee injury mirrors a previous injury, tearing the ACL in her left knee, which forced her to miss her entire senior year at Valley Christian High School.
“She knew right away. That’s the thing when you’ve done one, when you do the other, you know,” said coach Cori Close. “She of course was really disappointed and tearful, but in the midst of those tears, she’s like, ‘Coach how can I still make an impact? How can I still help our team?,’ in typical Kari Korver fashion. Completely other-centered, wants to help the team in whatever way she can.”
With Korver out for the season, the Bruins will look for a way to replace her three-point shooting. Korver’s .345 three-point percentage was the second highest on the team and her 38 three-pointers led the Bruins. Korver finished last season averaging 4.7 points per game to go along with her 1.5 rebounds per game.
“We’ll make some adjustments and other players are going to have the opportunity to really step up. Not a lot of margin of error for us. We don’t have a lot of depth right now, so other people are going to have to grow up real fast and that’s going to be fun to watch,” Close said.
UCLA has some other options at the guard position, with senior Thea Lemberger, sophomore Nirra Fields, redshirt freshman Lauren Holiday, freshman Dominique Williams and junior Madeline Brooks available to fill the void.
While Korver won’t be able to play, Close expects her to take on a larger leadership role off the court.
“We’re gonna miss her a lot and those are big shoes to fill from a leadership standpoint, from a shooting standpoint, from a basketball IQ standpoint, but I expect her to find just different forms of leadership and she’ll still make a huge impact day-to-day,” Close said.
Close said Korver’s leadership role could include having “coaching responsibilities out on the floor” or reviewing film with her teammates instead of having a coach do that. While Korver’s playing experience will be put on hold, Close said the leadership experience could help Korver develop in different ways.
“I know she’s going to grow so much,” Close said. “She’ll come back even stronger and you know every coach has to say that but I really mean it, because she’s that kind of young lady. She’ll make the best of it.”
[UPDATED at 7:25 p.m. Despite her disappointment at the injury, Korver is optimistic that she will learn from it.
“Obviously, you don’t want to tear an ACL at all and having two torn ACLs, it is hard, but I learned a lot of lessons from tearing my first ACLs and feel like I really grew my senior year in high school because of that, and so I’m confident that I will grow a ton more from this ACL,” Korver said.]
Compiled by Kevin Bowman, Bruin Sports senior staff.