It was announced today that Abdul Gaddy has torn his ACL and will be out for the rest of the year. This is obviously bad news. Gaddy had taken a tremendous step forward this year and is now out for the rest of the year.
Even with this injury, the Huskies are the deepest team in the conference. Gaddy is a true point guard, but Isaiah Thomas is morphing into that more and more which could soften the blow of losing Gaddy.
Two questions come to mind with this injury:
- How bad does this hurt the Huskies?
- Who takes Gaddy’s minutes?
Any injury to a starting player is bad. That goes without saying. But, of the 5 Husky starters, Gaddy might have been the least valuable. That’s not to say he’s not valuable, he clearly was. But, the Huskies couldn’t afford to lose a big man and they are deep at the guard position. Overton and Thomas will take over point guard duties. Sometimes they’ll be in at the same time. Those two can’t get in foul trouble because the Huskies can’t afford to lose a ball handler. Also, Gaddy was good at settling down the offense into the half court sets. That will be missed.
As for who takes Gaddy’s minutes? Clearly, Overton will get a bump in playing time. Hopefully he’s healthy enough for that. Also, the trio of Ross, Wilcox, and Suggs will get more. Because of his play lately, I’d like to see Ross get more minutes. As would most of Husky nation. The Huskies lineup will be taller now and more lengthy, which could be a good thing. I’m not sure who will take Gaddy’s spot in the stating lineup. I would vote for Ross, because I think Overton is more effective off the bench.
Make no mistake, this is a big loss for the Huskies, but, I don’t think it ends the Huskies season. I think they will be just fine. I could be wrong but I sure hope not.
Andrew
andrewlong7
dpscansen
Joe Loughery
Matthew
The Good Guys Sports Blog 
I am actually concerned about this. Gaddy has been VERY good this season in being able to run the offense and keep the Huskies at an even keel on the court. His ability to run the offense and pass with great precision will be sorely missed. I think IT and Venoy can do fine, but Venoy’s foul trouble concerns me. Venoy simply CANNOT get into foul trouble, and considering his increased minutes he’ll no doubt get, it’ll be interesting to see if he can stay aggressive, same goes for IT. IT has been awesome this year playing off the ball, which I think has made him more relaxed when he does have the ball. Gaddy was just playing so well this whole thing makes me sick.
I think in general the Dawgs will be fine because the Pac-10 is weak and they can win the league with the team they have, but come tourney time I am very concerned.
At least they have about 19 games to figure all this out. I am in favor of keeping Venoy coming off the bench and then starting either Suggs or Ross, and have CJ and Venoy off the bench. Wonder if Simmons will get his redshirt burned. I am serious. If we have any more games like the UCLA fiasco, Romar may have to. It would stink but hey that’s the breaks.
Romar said no about Simmons. Frankly, that’s the fair and right decision. It’d be pretty wrong to burn his redshirt now in my opinion. Plus, Simmons wouldn’t really help the depth at this spot.
My thinking is the Huskies still go 9 deep and it’s the best 9 in the Pac-10, and maybe closer to the best 9 in the country. Suggs is the emergency point guard and I think that will be okay.