Taylor McCabe (Nebraska Media)

[o_AMAYS]

Paywalled article in Nebraska newspapers

 

[mphawk]

Paywalled article in Nebraska newspapers

Can you summarize then?

 

[Traveling wilbury]

I read somewhere and now cant find it where they said her injury was worse than thought. Surgery took 2 hours and had some meniscus tears as well. Also stated that she was hoping to get on as a graduate assistant while working on her graduate degree in engineering.

 

[o_AMAYS]

Can you summarize then?

All I could read was the tweet. Sorry.

 

[Alum-Ni]

I'll help you out:

Spoiler: Article

Fremont alum McCabe embracing mentorship role at Iowa post injury
by Randy Speer, Fremont Tribune

LINCOLN - Taylor McCabe almost didn't come to her final homecoming game.

The former Fremont standout was given the option to watch No. 13 Iowa's game against Nebraska Monday morning from the couch because full leg braces don't make for great air travel partners and the Hawkeyes were flying into Lincoln.

She contemplated staying home. The emotions of returning to her home state without the option of playing on the court that made her a Tiger legend and the inconvenience of a five-hour road trip were nearly enough for her to skip the trip.

But she felt a duty to make sure her squad "took care of business and did our thing."

"With an 11 a.m. game, a lot of these younger girls don't know how hard these are to play in, so I really wanted to be here to emphasize that to them and be a factor still," McCabe said.

The Hawkeyes rolled to an 80-67 win over the Huskers with their former starter on the end of the bench, passing out high fives and encouragement instead of splashing three's.

"I made it clear to my teammates this morning, I would be busting my butt out there today if I could," McCabe said. "This game means a lot to me and because they know how much it means to me and how much they care about me, I could tell they were playing with a little extra today."

McCabe has slowly embraced her newfound mentor role in the wake of her season-ending injury suffered on Jan. 25 against Ohio State.

"Now I feel like I'm more of a teacher and mentor and becoming a coach a little bit," McCabe said.

"My new responsibility is to take more of a mentorship in every single one of the girls that play my position, which has been a rotation of like five people, so it's kind of a lot and they all really look up to me and are locked in and listening, which I really appreciate."

Jan. 25 will live in infamy in the McCabe household with both Taylor and her younger sister, Peyton, a sophomore at Drake, suffering season-ending injuries just hours apart. Peyton's ankle injury was more dire, postponing Taylor's concern for herself until she made sure her sister would be okay.

"I was so scared for my sister and we had no idea what would happen," McCabe said. "It was a lot of worrying for her, then once she got her stuff figured out then it was a lot of grieving truthfully.

It was pretty hard, pretty terrible."

McCabe spent some of the pregame Monday chatting with Huskers Natalie Potts and Allison Weidner, both who have navigated knee injury rehabs. Weidner's mom, Cathy, found McCabe after the game to offer words of encouragement and lessons learned from Allison's journey.

"The amount of people that have reached out to me has really helped and made it easier, but it's just not the same," McCabe said.

The realization she'd never play competitively again hit her like an unannounced pick.

"It's hard to talk about honestly," McCabe said as tears fell. "For me to work my way up and just do everything the right way and not get to reap the results is just really hard."

"Just for it to come to an end so quick. I knew it was going to come to an end, but it was supposed to be two months later, I just wasn't prepared for it."

McCabe, who started all 20 games as a senior, still had plenty to show for her four-year career at Iowa.

She shot 40.7% from three in her career, making her one of the most accurate sharpshooters the Iowa program has ever seen. Her 49 threes this season puts her fourth on the single-season record list.

The former top 100 recruit played in over 100 games in her Iowa career, getting to experience Caitlin Clark-mania as an underclassman — McCabe was occasionally the superstar's roommate on road trips as a freshman — before being asked to help maintain the standard left by Clark.

McCabe's biggest fear post injury was becoming lost as the team's and her own path diverged. Iowa had to shift its focus on replacing her production and she needed to turn her attention to rehab. Becoming an extra coaching voice kept McCabe interlocked with her squad, even if it was an off the court role.

"I'm so thankful for the opportunity to help my team because I know we have so much potential," McCabe said.

The former Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year had an inkling she wanted to stay around basketball after her playing days were done and started to absorb some leadership roles in preparation.

"It's been over the last year, especially over the summertime when we were trying to get freshmen adjusted," McCabe said. "So it's something that I've picked up over the last year and now it's just really coming to the forefront."
The plan now for McCabe is to snag a graduate assistant role with Iowa next year while she finishes up her Masters in Engineering.

"From there I can pick whether I want to go into engineering or coaching," McCabe said. "That'd be the most ideal situation for me, that way I can extend out both as long as possible."

 

[whynot?]

I'll help you out:

Spoiler: Article

Fremont alum McCabe embracing mentorship role at Iowa post injury
by Randy Speer, Fremont Tribune

LINCOLN - Taylor McCabe almost didn't come to her final homecoming game.

The former Fremont standout was given the option to watch No. 13 Iowa's game against Nebraska Monday morning from the couch because full leg braces don't make for great air travel partners and the Hawkeyes were flying into Lincoln.

She contemplated staying home. The emotions of returning to her home state without the option of playing on the court that made her a Tiger legend and the inconvenience of a five-hour road trip were nearly enough for her to skip the trip.

But she felt a duty to make sure her squad "took care of business and did our thing."

"With an 11 a.m. game, a lot of these younger girls don't know how hard these are to play in, so I really wanted to be here to emphasize that to them and be a factor still," McCabe said.

The Hawkeyes rolled to an 80-67 win over the Huskers with their former starter on the end of the bench, passing out high fives and encouragement instead of splashing three's.

"I made it clear to my teammates this morning, I would be busting my butt out there today if I could," McCabe said. "This game means a lot to me and because they know how much it means to me and how much they care about me, I could tell they were playing with a little extra today."

McCabe has slowly embraced her newfound mentor role in the wake of her season-ending injury suffered on Jan. 25 against Ohio State.

"Now I feel like I'm more of a teacher and mentor and becoming a coach a little bit," McCabe said.

"My new responsibility is to take more of a mentorship in every single one of the girls that play my position, which has been a rotation of like five people, so it's kind of a lot and they all really look up to me and are locked in and listening, which I really appreciate."

Jan. 25 will live in infamy in the McCabe household with both Taylor and her younger sister, Peyton, a sophomore at Drake, suffering season-ending injuries just hours apart. Peyton's ankle injury was more dire, postponing Taylor's concern for herself until she made sure her sister would be okay.

"I was so scared for my sister and we had no idea what would happen," McCabe said. "It was a lot of worrying for her, then once she got her stuff figured out then it was a lot of grieving truthfully.

It was pretty hard, pretty terrible."

McCabe spent some of the pregame Monday chatting with Huskers Natalie Potts and Allison Weidner, both who have navigated knee injury rehabs. Weidner's mom, Cathy, found McCabe after the game to offer words of encouragement and lessons learned from Allison's journey.

"The amount of people that have reached out to me has really helped and made it easier, but it's just not the same," McCabe said.

The realization she'd never play competitively again hit her like an unannounced pick.

"It's hard to talk about honestly," McCabe said as tears fell. "For me to work my way up and just do everything the right way and not get to reap the results is just really hard."

"Just for it to come to an end so quick. I knew it was going to come to an end, but it was supposed to be two months later, I just wasn't prepared for it."

McCabe, who started all 20 games as a senior, still had plenty to show for her four-year career at Iowa.

She shot 40.7% from three in her career, making her one of the most accurate sharpshooters the Iowa program has ever seen. Her 49 threes this season puts her fourth on the single-season record list.

The former top 100 recruit played in over 100 games in her Iowa career, getting to experience Caitlin Clark-mania as an underclassman — McCabe was occasionally the superstar's roommate on road trips as a freshman — before being asked to help maintain the standard left by Clark.

McCabe's biggest fear post injury was becoming lost as the team's and her own path diverged. Iowa had to shift its focus on replacing her production and she needed to turn her attention to rehab. Becoming an extra coaching voice kept McCabe interlocked with her squad, even if it was an off the court role.

"I'm so thankful for the opportunity to help my team because I know we have so much potential," McCabe said.

The former Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year had an inkling she wanted to stay around basketball after her playing days were done and started to absorb some leadership roles in preparation.

"It's been over the last year, especially over the summertime when we were trying to get freshmen adjusted," McCabe said. "So it's something that I've picked up over the last year and now it's just really coming to the forefront."
The plan now for McCabe is to snag a graduate assistant role with Iowa next year while she finishes up her Masters in Engineering.

"From there I can pick whether I want to go into engineering or coaching," McCabe said. "That'd be the most ideal situation for me, that way I can extend out both as long as possible."

Thank you!