Paige Bueckers, KK Arnold and more gush over UConn teammate Jana El Alfy’s IG dump
Paige Bueckers, KK Arnold and other UConn players showed how much they loved Huskies freshman Jana El Alfy's Instagram post. El Alfy posted several photos, mostly from some of her UConn games, on Tuesday.
Her teammates took to the comments section to gush over the photos.
"ELFY😍," Bueckers wrote.
"GOOD MORNING PINEAPPLE 😍," Arnold wrote.
"Cleopatra," former UConn star, Nika Mulh wrote, referring to El Alfy's Egyptian heritage.
"🇪🇬 👑," Huskies forward Aubrey Griffin wrote.
"Up top," UConn transfer Kaitly Chen wrote.
El Alfy made a slow start to her collegiate basketball career, having to wait an extra year to make her debut for UConn due to injury. Since her debut, she has endured an up-and-down season with the Huskies, averaging 6.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists on 52.3% shooting.
Will Paige Bueckers return for UConn matchup vs St. John's?
Paige Bueckers is expected to return to court as UConn takes on St. John's on Wednesday night. The Huskies star guard was absent from their last two games after sustaining a knee injury in UConn's game at Villanova on Jan. 5. UConn coach Geno Auriemma said that Bueckers would be recovering on the sidelines for a week.
No. 6 UConn (15-2, 6-0 Big East) travels to Queens to face St. John's (11-5, 1-4) but an update on Bueckers' availability for the game was not provided as of Tuesday. However, Auriemma said that his star player was unhappy about missing any games for the Huskies.
“I think she's p***ed more than anything about having to miss any time at all," he said last week. "And the thing that happens, I think, to a lot of athletes is, when they've been through something in the past, is the fear of, 'Do I have to go through something again?' That's the initial reaction right away. Then, once that's alleviated, then, you know, she's great.”
This is Bueckers' third knee injury in her five years with UConn. The first two led to missing 19 games in her sophomore year and the entire 2022-23 season due to an ACL injury.
Despite not playing in the last two games, Bueckers continued to motivate her teammates from the sidelines. She cheered on her teammates and even argued a few calls with the officials. The top WNBA draft prospect continues to dominate the stats for UConn, with 19.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg and 4.0 apg on 55.9% shooting.