She knew it right away.
“It was just one step that felt like my foot just snapped in half,” junior guard Lianna Doty said.
Before she went in on a drive for the ball during practice Oct. 31, Doty was Missouri’s starting point guard, a leader of the team.
Minutes later, she was out for the season. Instead of a uniform, she wore a boot and crutches.
Doty partially tore her Lisfranc, the major tendon going across the center of the foot, and also dislocated her first and second metatarsals. Just like that, the most experienced point guard on the Missouri women’s basketball team was out.
“(Each guard) brings something different to the table,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “But what Lianna Doty had was those minutes played, that experience. And that’s a hard thing to replace.”
With Doty’s injury keeping her off the court for the foreseeable future, she said her job as a mentor to younger players has become even more important as the Tigers look for her replacement.
“I’m another set of eyes removed from the court, and now I’m starting to see things from the coach’s perspective,” Doty said. “All of (the young guards) are open to learning and want to grow, so I’m sharing with them as much as I can about the point position.”
Doty is the second player to end up on crutches for the Tigers this season. Junior forward Michelle Hudyn got an MRI on Nov. 10, for some long-term pains she’s felt in her shins since the summer.
Hudyn, however, is only expected to be out for two to six weeks.
Another injury scare occurred during the Tigers’ exhibition game against Missouri Western on Nov. 11, when sophomore guard Lindsey Cunningham was taken off the court early in the first half with discomfort in her knee.
Cunningham and Pingeton feared the worst.
But after getting tested by doctors the next day, it turned out her possible meniscus tear, which would’ve most likely been season ending, was just some swelling, and both Cunningham and Pingeton were relieved to hear the good news.
“We’ve had a lot of curveballs,” Pingeton said. “It seems like they just keep piling up on us, but it’s huge that Lindsey’s injury came back negative. Lindsey has always been, from the first time I met her and watched her play, a competitor and wants to be out on the court.”
Cunningham did get out on the court, starting at point guard Saturday against Western Illinois, as the Tigers cruised to a 89-52 victory in their first regular season game.
“We recruit players into our system that have versatility,” Pingeton said. “We have a handful of players I feel can play in multiple positions.”
The Tigers will need them.