Is Nika Maria Conlon redux ? | The Boneyard

Is Nika Maria Conlon redux ?

CTrefugee said:
Competent, steady. Brings it every game. A perfect complement to Paige.

Nika is faster and might be a better defender (I don't recall Maria's defense).
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She is much faster and a much better defender. Maria seemed unperturbable and handled the ball extremely well even facing full-court pressure.
 
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Jen Renzotti has been my comparison. I love the intensity. She will soon be the UConn player that opposing fans love to hate.
 
Maria and Nike are completely different players. The first two years of Marias career, she didn't play much.
( she was from Connecticut, so how good could she be). I thought she was a little out of shape and very slow. Nika, a freshmen, is solid physically and much faster, and by far more energenic. Maria was a very good ball handler, and was a pretty good 3 point shooter. Nika has a lot to learn about taking advantages of shooting opportunities. The absolute thing that they share is the ability to give more space to the player that they replaced as the point guard.
I don't believe that we would have won the NC in 03 and 04 if Diana was saddled with the point guard duties. Those teams were not great, but Dianas' ability to do her thing enabled the team to exceed expectations. Currently, Nika now is allowing Paige to do her thing, and because of these two working together we may be seeing something special in the works. Once Nika starts believing in her shooting ability, we will be off and running. The point guard doesn't have to be the best all around player, just the most dependable. ( Paige may be the exception )
 
Certainly, the full-time Huskies media know many more of them. But two of my favorites came last year, when Auriemma said of Conlon, "She has that great combination: She may be short, but she is slow.''

Then when asked why he recruited her, Auriemma said, "I have no idea. When I watched Maria in high school, she was never happy on court. She has got a miserable on-court demeanor. If she were a doctor, she would have no patients.''
 
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psconn said:
BUT Nika has a long way to go to be the Jen we remember from 1995.
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I don't think that long. That was the #1 team in the country UConn was playing last night and she was one of the best players on the court. She took it to the hole, dropped dimes and D'ed up. The USC guards had nothing on her. And it was only her 11th college game.
 
I regret my part in perhaps being the first one bringing Conlon into the discussion. The comparison was only meant to distinguish between good and bad timing; good and bad opportunities. Conlon found herself with a golden opportunity because of our roster at the time. Muhl found herself with a golden opportunity due to injuries.

As for ability comparisons, long before Muhl arrived on campus I made a comparison of Muhl to Rizzotti, based on videos and hype. I agree with others here that is still the best comparison. Their athleticism, toughness and leadership abilities are on similar planes.
 
psconn said:
That thought had crossed my mind a few games ago, but I'm saying no. I think a budding Jen Rizzotti is a closer analog BUT Nika has a long way to go to be the Jen we remember from 1995.
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Just an FYI for those who don't remember. ( I hope I am remembering correctly since I am 71 years old ) In the 1995 championship year, Jen Rizzotti was NOT the starting point guard for that team, it was actually Pam Webber. Pam played about half of the first half, then was replaced by Nekesha Sales, a freshmen who I think was the very first all around dynamic player at Uconn. She couldn't play the point because she couldn't dribble with her left hand. Thats when Jen moved over to the 1. Sales is best known for breaking the school scoring mark while wearing a cast in the infamous Villanova game. Like I said, FYI
 
Bald Huskie said:
Just an FYI for those who don't remember. ( I hope I am remembering correctly since I am 71 years old ) In the 1995 championship year, Jen Rizzotti was NOT the starting point guard for that team, it was actually Pam Webber. Pam played about half of the first half, then was replaced by Nekesha Sales, a freshmen who I think was the very first all around dynamic player at Uconn. She couldn't play the point because she couldn't dribble with her left hand. Thats when Jen moved over to the 1. Sales is best known for breaking the school scoring mark while wearing a cast in the infamous Villanova game. Like I said, FYI
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Rizzotti started as a freshman, two years before the championship season. Her stats her freshman year are surpassed only by her stats her championship year. Those stats include better assists than Webber; Webber was a better outside shooter. She also was recognized by Lobo as the leader of the team, getting in people's faces when they did not give enough effort by her standards. I would say she was the effective PG.
 
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slepers said:
When all is said and done nika will be much closer to Jen R than Maria. Her shot will improve and she is a bulldog.
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Conlon was pretty tough herself.

When her friend, Christin Morgatto, accidentally clipped the side of Conlon's face with a javelin toss at a track practice, Conlon passed out, went to the emergency room, got six stitches and showed up at an AAU practice that evening.
 
diggerfoot said:
the comparison was only meant to distinguish between good and bad timing; good and bad opportunities. Conlon found herself with a golden opportunity because of our roster at the time. Muhl found herself with a golden opportunity due to injuries.
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Then I definitely disagree with you. It was just a matter of time before Muhl earned a starting spot. This wasn't a Pipp.
 
i'm
diggerfoot said:
Rizzotti started as a freshman, two years before the championship season. Her stats her freshman year are surpassed only by her stats her championship year. Those stats include better assists than Webber; Webber was a better outside shooter. She also was recognized by Lobo as the leader of the team, getting in people's faces when they did not give enough effort by her standards. I would say she was the effective PG.
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I'm older than I thought
 
Bald Huskie said:
Maria and Nike are completely different players. The first two years of Marias career, she didn't play much.
( she was from Connecticut, so how good could she be). I thought she was a little out of shape and very slow. Nika, a freshmen, is solid physically and much faster, and by far more energenic. Maria was a very good ball handler, and was a pretty good 3 point shooter. Nika has a lot to learn about taking advantages of shooting opportunities. The absolute thing that they share is the ability to give more space to the player that they replaced as the point guard.
I don't believe that we would have won the NC in 03 and 04 if Diana was saddled with the point guard duties. Those teams were not great, but Dianas' ability to do her thing enabled the team to exceed expectations. Currently, Nika now is allowing Paige to do her thing, and because of these two working together we may be seeing something special in the works. Once Nika starts believing in her shooting ability, we will be off and running. The point guard doesn't have to be the best all around player, just the most dependable. ( Paige may be the exception )
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This post is very much on the money. Not to quibble, but I would say that Maria was a very good three point shooter. The rest of her game was average but there were not many options on that roster.

I think the game has sped up since 2004 and Maria would struggle with it today trying to play the point.

There is no one we have had that is a perfect analogy to Nika. I do see some Kelly Faris, similar court awareness.

Nika should work on a midrange game. She looks good from the free throw line, limited sample size but good form, no reason she can’t - but I don’t think she has taken one. I would note that Boston was giving the 15-17 footer to Liv and Boston was also not coming out to guard the ball handler on the pick and roll. Paige took advantage of that, but no one else. If our players could take and make foul line jumpers, we would have won fairly easily.
 
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The crazy thing with Nika is that in the beginning of the season she looked like a waste of a scholarship (confused, can't make a simple lay-up, can't shoot, can't guard anyone) and look at her now. She deserves to start every game for the rest of her career. She bring s so much to the game with her energy, defense, shooting when she should be shooting, and most important taking the load of ball handling from Paige which makes Paige the most leathal weapon in WBB.
 
Waquoit said:
Then I definitely disagree with you. It was just a matter of time before Muhl earned a starting spot. This wasn't a Pipp.
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That's easy to say in hindsight. Muhl did not get a start until both Makurat and Bueckers were out with injuries. She had not played well up until then and was not great during her first start against a bad Georgetown team either. But that first start started giving her abundant game minutes to acclimate. That's all she needed.

If Makurat was not out indefinitely, then Muhl would have continued only getting limited game minutes. Would she still have progressed the same way and bust through the starting line-up before the year was over? Perhaps, but certainly not a given for this year. I assume that's what you meant, for this year. If not, then the golden opportunity that happened for Muhl this year does not apply.
 
If I would to ask A'ja Wilson, she would probably say, "let Nika...be Nika"
 
It is unfortunate that all a lot of fans seem to remember about Maria is that 1) she was a pretty good 3 point shooter and 2) she was short and slow. As I recall, she was also one helluva passer and extremely savvy and unflappable. Just wanted to get that in.
 
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