It’s hard to miss Brynn McCurry when she takes the floor at the Finneran Pavilion. The Villanova forward has two large, bulky braces on the right side of her body. One brace supports her knee, where she tore her anterior cruciate ligament before last season. The other is on her elbow, protecting a torn ulnar collateral ligament, an injury typically associated with baseball.
After McCurry missed all of last season with the ACL injury, she suffered the torn UCL just before this season started. But she knew she was not going to sit out another full year.
So McCurry strapped on the braces and embraced a look she calls “bionic.” Despite the injuries, McCurry, who’s averaging 11.8 points in 11 games this season, has blossomed into an integral part of the Wildcats’ roster, helping them to a 12-3 record as their second-leading scorer and leading rebounder.
“It’s a great feeling just to be out there in itself, but also being on a team that’s been so successful,” McCurry said. “… And just being able to be back playing with people that I’ve never gotten to play with. So it’s a great feeling to be out there, and an even better feeling to be winning.”
Injury issues first popped up for McCurry during her senior season at Sparta (N.J.) High School in 2022-23, when she suffered a torn left ACL in mid-December, ending her high school career.
McCurry enrolled at Villanova but spent most of her freshman year playing sparingly off the bench. However, her role increased near the end of the season. She played double-digit minutes in seven of the Wildcats’ final nine games, which helped her confidence grow.
That confidence continued to rise when the team traveled to Italy for exhibition games in the summer of 2024. McCurry looked like the best player on a team full of newcomers to coach Denise Dillon, and her sophomore leap seemed inevitable.
“A lot of our team had left in [the] transfer portal or graduated, so that was a great experience,” McCurry said. “[But] the momentum kind of just stopped once I tore my ACL.”
Just as the team began ramping up its preseason in September 2024, McCurry suffered a torn right ACL.
The injury set up another nine-month recovery period as she was finding her role on the court. However, with the help of her support system, McCurry attacked her rehab to return to the court as soon as possible.
“Once you have surgery, it’s done; you’ve got to start rehabbing again,” McCurry said. “So just having a good support system around me, my family came down and was with me for the first week after surgery because you can’t do a lot by yourself. But after that, Villanova, my teammates, and the coaches took great care of me.”
That setback meant McCurry had to spend another season watching from the sidelines. She remained positive in her year off, motivated to get back to the court and compete.
She was healthy for Villanova’s preseason this fall, albeit supported by a large knee brace. Then, more bad news struck following a seemingly normal practice.
McCurry was playing defense and had her right arm caught in a screen, leaving a tingly feeling in her arm, almost as if she hit her funny bone. Initially, she wasn’t too concerned, but she discovered the next day she could not turn doorknobs with her right hand. Scans revealed a torn UCL. She’ll need to undergo Tommy John surgery, but she has put that off.
“I’m just trying to push through this season without having to get that done, and wearing that big brace is how I can do it,” McCurry said. “So I look a little bit bionic out there on my right side, but whatever keeps me out there, as long as the doctors say I can just wear the brace, that’s what I’ll do.”
The elbow brace has affected McCurry’s shooting ability, but she has still developed into one of the Wildcats’ crucial players this season — braces and all.
She came off the bench in the first four games and didn’t score more than seven points. McCurry entered the starting lineup against James Madison on Nov. 16 and scored a then-career-high 18 points with seven assists.
McCurry has been on a tear since that breakout performance. She scored in double figures in the next five games, including three straight games with 20 or more points. McCurry put up 21 points in an 81-59 upset of then-No. 25 West Virginia on Dec. 1. She scored another 21 points six days later to beat St. Joseph’s, 76-70, in the Big 5 Classic championship on Dec. 7.
“She picked up right where she had left off [in freshman year],” Dillon said. “She’s a consistent worker, and she understands the game so well. She knows what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and I’m super proud of her for continuing. Her resilience is amazing, and she’s getting results that are working in favor of this team’s success.”
McCurry’s first start coincided with the beginning of a 10-game winning streak, Villanova’s longest since the 2017-18 season. McCurry’s impact does not just come from scoring. She takes pride in being an all-around player, averaging 5.6 rebounds, and is second on the Wildcats with 58 assists.
Villanova’s winning streak ended against Marquette on Sunday, but it is in the NCAA Tournament conversation with two months to play. McCurry has been critical to the Wildcats’ success, despite playing with two big braces and a torn UCL. She is aiming to remain confident to end the season and to help her team continue to pick up wins.
“Being out, I got to see what some great players are,” McCurry said. “There are so many people out there, and Maddy Siegrist is a big one that everyone from Villanova knows, but just modeling myself after other great players.
“Confidence is a huge thing. So just continuing to be confident in myself and my teammates. I think we can be really successful.”
