Gators women's basketball team dealing with adversity as season opener nears
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 | Women's Basketball, Football, Scott Carter
With the season opener only two days away, Gators women's basketball coach Amanda Butler certainly would tweak the script if she could.
But she can't of course, so instead of fretting over two unfortunate events the past week Butler is focused on preparing the 10 players she'll have for Friday's season opener against Michigan.
The Gators will be without two freshmen Butler expected to play key roles: guard Carlie Needles and forward Andrea Vilaro Aragones. Needles suffered a season-ending knee injury on Sunday in a scrimmage and will miss the season following surgery.
“She was playing very good defense. No one was around her, there was no collision,'' Butler said Tuesday. “She just planted and it buckled. That was it.''
A dangerous three-point shooter and skillful ball-handler, Needles was expected to provide backcourt depth behind point guards Jaterra Bonds and Lanita Bartley. Now the player Butler calls an energetic bulldog will provide a boost as the team's loudest cheerleader on the bench.
“I hate it for her more than anything,'' Butler said. “She was going to add to something that was already very solid. It doesn't really change the way that we'll play or our overall approach, we just have one less weapon, which means the other weapons have to be sharp.”
As disappointing as Needles' injury is, Butler's most challenging task of the preseason came last week when she received an early morning call from Vilaro Aragones' father in Barcelona, Spain. He was calling to tell Butler that his daughter needed to come home quickly due to her mother's health taking a turn for the worse.
Butler immediately began making plans for Vilaro Aragones to catch a flight out of Jacksonville later that day and return to Spain to be with her ailing mother. She arrived in time to see her mother before she passed away after a battle with cancer.
“She was able to spend that last day or two with her,'' Butler said. “She is absolutely amazing. There is not a bigger Andrea Vilaro fan than me. Even before handling the adversity she has dealt with this last week … you talk about being thrown into the fire. She flies in just a few days before fall classes start and has really done well in her adjustment. It just took so much courage.''
Butler said it's uncertain when Vilaro Aragones will rejoin the team as she mourns the loss of her mom.
When the Gators take the court Friday against Michigan – tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the O'Connell Center – all three players in the Gators' 2011 freshmen class will be unavailable. Besides Needles and Vilaro Aragones, 6-foot-4 center Viktorija Dimaite is being redshirted as she recovers from a foot injury.
“All of our freshmen are just really going through a tough time,'' Butler said.
Entering her fifth season, Butler is optimistic about the team's outlook heading into Friday's season opener. The Gators had a spirited practice on Tuesday and began their prep work for the Wolverines.
“I've never seen them so excited to get a scouting report,'' Butler said. “Although we've had a tough week with the injury and Andrea being away from us, in another sense I think it's made us closer. It's not best-case scenario by any stretch, but it's exactly the response you hope to see from your team.
“We feel good about where we're at. We'll just get after it two more days [at practice] and see what happens on Friday.''
