Abdul Gaddy, done for the year with an ACL tear

The Washington Huskies suffered a major blow yesterday when Abdul Gaddy, their sophomore starting point guard, tore his acl in practice.

"First and foremost, this is a big blow for Abdul Gaddy," said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar in a statement. "Sometimes in team sports we tend to say, 'look at the whole team.' Forget the team now. This is a blow for Abdul Gaddy."

"He was playing very well for us and he loves to play the game. He worked extremely hard to work on his game this summer. For this to happen, it's a big blow for him. To a lesser extent, it's a big blow for our team - he was our starting point guard."

Gaddy posted the following on twitter Wednesday afternoon: "Worst news n feeling ever.... GOD please guide me as u always have".


Gaddy's numbers have been much improved this season. He was averaging 8.5 ppg and 3.8 apg while leading the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.1 (49 assists, 16 turnovers). Granted, he still hasn't quite lived up to the lofty expectations that come with being the guy directly behind John Wall in the rankings, but keep in mind that Gaddy is so young that he played on the same USA national team as Mike Gilchrist and Austin Rivers -- high school seniors -- this summer.

That youth may also be a blessing in disguise for Gaddy with this injury. While he's already played in too many games to be eligible for a redshirt, his young age should make it easier for him medically, and as a prospect, to come back from this injury. A blown out knee on an 18 year old sophomore is not as big of a deal as a blown out knee on a 23 year old senior.

He has time to make a recovery and continue his development.

As far as the Washington team is concerned, losing your point guard is a huge blow. Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton are both good basketball players, but neither of them can run a team in the same way that Gaddy can. It will be interesting to see who Romar inserts in the starting lineup against Oregon on Thursday.