Much love to Nika

[JellyBean]

She was the star of this game before the injury. Disruptive on D and effectively running the offense at the other end. I admit there was a time this season I was concerned she might not have a legit future on this team, especially next year. I'm totally on the Muhl Train now! GET WELL SOON NIKA!!

Well said!! Nika brought the intensity today. Also agree on the concern level at the start of the season. I am over those concerns after watching Nika play. She is a huge game changer. She sets the tone on both ends of the floor. Her defense leads to offense for her and the rest of the players. Get well, Nika!!

 

[oldude]

Having been through it a few times myself, when you sprain an ankle as badly as Nika did, it hurts like hell and your first reaction is fear, thinking you’ve broken it. Once you get the swelling down, it can start to feel better pretty quickly.

I don’t know that we’ll see her tomorrow or the next day, but it would not surprise me if she’s back in a few days.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I rewatched the replay. Possible good news: I think Nika fell as soon as she stepped on the SJU player's foot. Thus, she may not have put any weight on it after the impact. That could be a good thing.

 

[Sanka541]

I really wouldn't expect them to risk her for these next two games. Then she can have atleast a couple of weeks to get it right

 

[Huskee11]

She was playing like a real veteran out there today. Great point earlier about learning to play tough defense without fouling. Her growth over two months has been astronomical. What a player.

 

[Bills Fan]

I just re-watched the game and although I have not been a UCONN fan as long as some of you (about 25 years for me) I have to say that I have never, ever seen one player as intense and relentless as Nika was in her time on time court today. What a performance by a young woman thousands of miles (kilometers) away from home. If I was Geno and was trying to make a point during future practices about how to play UCONN basketball, I would just pop a tape of this into the old replay machine. She was unbelievable !

 

[fomalhaut]

How do you make a u with two dots over it like that? SNY does it too.

I'm still wondering if her family is of German descent, since umlaut-u doesn't exist in Croatian.

 

[eebmg]

I just re-watched the game and although I have not been a UCONN fan as long as some of you (about 25 years for me) I have to say that I have never, ever seen one player as intense and relentless as Nika was in her time on time court today. What a performance by a young woman thousands of miles (kilometers) away from home. If I was Geno and was trying to make a point during future practices about how to play UCONN basketball, I would just pop a tape of this into the old replay machine. She was unbelievable !

Nice compliment but you should pop in a few Moriah Jefferson tapes.

 

[Argonaut]

How do you make a u with two dots over it like that? SNY does it too.

On my iPhone, I just hold down the u and different accents come up.

On my computer, I’d just Google umlauts and copy and paste. 😂

 

[bluedevil]

umlauts get no respect..lol..good one...

 

[bluedevil]

BTW, Nika has a black eye in her left eye prior to the game start, any idea how that occurred-I am assuming in practice...leads to the credence of her efforts. Best of wishes to her for a speedy recovery.

Rebounding a bowling ball is the latest theory..

 

[j66kicker]

On my iPhone, I just hold down the u and different accents come up.

On my computer, I’d just Google umlauts and copy and paste. 😂

On your computer keyboard try holding the key down for similar menu as phone (that’s how my MacBook Air works, anyway)

 

[MD#12Fan]

How do you make a u with two dots over it like that? SNY does it too.

Google how to do it for your device. Common in German.

 

[#12in21]

On your computer keyboard try holding the key down for similar menu as phone (that’s how my MacBook Air works, anyway)

just tried that and it works, never knew that, ü second option of u's on a MacBook pro. Learn something everyday - at this point forget most of them by the next though.

 

[MD#12Fan]

Having been through it a few times myself, when you sprain an ankle as badly as Nika did, it hurts like hell and your first reaction is fear, thinking you’ve broken it. Once you get the swelling down, it can start to feel better pretty quickly.

I don’t know that we’ll see her tomorrow or the next day, but it would not surprise me if she’s back in a few days.

I’ve sprained my ankles at least 10 times. In college I learned to get treatment on them as quickly as you can. Makes all the difference. Wonder if the arena there has a training room. An ice whirlpool is the key. Do training rooms still have ice pools? Ice in a bag strapped to the ankle isn’t the same thing.
ICE= Ice, compression, elevation
We need Nika for the NC push. She is playing so well!

 

[UcMiami]

I just re-watched the game and although I have not been a UCONN fan as long as some of you (about 25 years for me) I have to say that I have never, ever seen one player as intense and relentless as Nika was in her time on time court today. What a performance by a young woman thousands of miles (kilometers) away from home. If I was Geno and was trying to make a point during future practices about how to play UCONN basketball, I would just pop a tape of this into the old replay machine. She was unbelievable !

You probably have forgotten MoJeff guarding the ND player (McBride?) so intensely the ref had to come over and let MoJeff know that the player was just trying to get to the baseline so she trigger an in-bounds play.

 

[Childhood]

We need Nika for the NC. To me, she is the Defensive Player of the Year. It's better to sit her for the next two games.

 

[Longtime fan]

Hopefully 14 days off will be all she needs...

It depends. If it is a " high ankle " sprain, she is out 4-6 weeks.

And she will be greatly missed. She was looking more and more comfortable each game. A defensive terror.

Injuries can end any great team's season fast. In UCONN's case, we have tremendous depth to help us along. Anna getting her feet back would be a big help, and Geno is starting to like what he is seeing from Mir in practice.

But we can hope. I did see Nika smile and she had a brief exchange with Paige which I imagine was something like this; " You gonna be okay?" Positive nod, in response, from Nika. We'll know more tomorrow.

 

[Zinethar]

In windows 10 hold down the alt key and type 129 on the keypad let up on alt and ü appears.

 

[CL82]

Get well Nika. You are a terrific player. All the sportscasters pronounce Nika's last name, Muhl, as "Mule." Am I wrong in thinking the correct pronunciation is "Mool?"

Yes you are.

 

[MSGRET]

I'm still wondering if her family is of German descent, since umlaut-u doesn't exist in Croatian.

Mühl is German, but the family could of had the name from the Austria-Hungry Empire of 1867 to 1918. The official language was German and Croatian.

 

[Bigboote]

It depends. If it is a " high ankle " sprain, she is out 4-6 weeks.

And she will be greatly missed. She was looking more and more comfortable each game. A defensive terror.

Injuries can end any great team's season fast. In UCONN's case, we have tremendous depth to help us along. Anna getting her feet back would be a big help, and Geno is starting to like what he is seeing from Mir in practice.

But we can hope. I did see Nika smile and she had a brief exchange with Paige which I imagine was something like this; " You gonna be okay?" Positive nod, in response, from Nika. We'll know more tomorrow.

Yeah, she had a really pained look on her face coming out of the locker room. But a couple of minutes later, they showed her talking to Shea, and they were both smiling.

I suspect it's easy to mistake a scowl on Nika's face for a pained look. I'm sure the pained look was really something like, "C'mon, lemme in on crutches, I'm sure I can pick her pocket a couple more times."

 

[cohenzone]

They wont need Nika until the Sweet 16 game at the earliest. It appears she might be ready by then. If Geno even hinted that she might try to play for tomorrow, that means it's not too bad of a sprain.

I've seem much more gruesome ankle twists from stepping on other's feet. Yes, there was a clear twist, but not a worse case scenario.

Years ago I broke my ankle landing on someone’s foot in a pick up game. One of the players was a Yale med student who looked at my ankle and said he didn’t think it was broken. Walked on it for a day before going to the emergency room where X rays showed the break. He’s now a prof at a well known university med school. On the rare occasions over the years when we see each other, we joke about his conclusion and I tell him I’m glad he didn’t go in to orthopedics.

 

[ScuderiaDiU]

I just re-watched the game and although I have not been a UCONN fan as long as some of you (about 25 years for me) I have to say that I have never, ever seen one player as intense and relentless as Nika was in her time on time court today. What a performance by a young woman thousands of miles (kilometers) away from home. If I was Geno and was trying to make a point during future practices about how to play UCONN basketball, I would just pop a tape of this into the old replay machine. She was unbelievable !

Shea Ralph was that intense. I bet Shea loves this kid.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Having been through it a few times myself, when you sprain an ankle as badly as Nika did, it hurts like hell and your first reaction is fear, thinking you’ve broken it. Once you get the swelling down, it can start to feel better pretty quickly.

I don’t know that we’ll see her tomorrow or the next day, but it would not surprise me if she’s back in a few days.

Low ankle sprain and you may see her in a few days. High ankle sprain and it's likely at least a few weeks.

 

[oldude]

Low ankle sprain and you may see her in a few days. High ankle sprain and it's likely at least a few weeks.

I’ll let the medical staff diagnose Nika’s injury and hope for the best.

 

[mbr33ct]

Get well Nika. You are a terrific player. All the sportscasters pronounce Nika's last name, Muhl, as "Mule." Am I wrong in thinking the correct pronunciation is "Mool?"

I'm sure it's not all sportscasters, I bet if you take a poll on the Boneyard you'll get about 10+ ways of says "Mull"

 

[Jim]

I'm sure it's not all sportscasters, I bet if you take a poll on the Boneyard you'll get about 10+ ways of says "Mull"

For what it is worth, page 2 of the Villanova game notes has a pronunciation guide which says her name is to be pronounced "NEE-kuh mule".

https://s3.amazonaws.com/uconnhuskies.com/documents/2021/3/6/24_Villanova_Notes.pdf

 

[ScottCT]

There should be a lot of videos of Nika around, are there not any of her saying her own name or correcting someone of the pronunciation?

 

[LarryLegend]

like Mars Blackmon said once upon a time, it must be the shoes. Too many ankles getting rolled (PB, EW, AE once I think, now Nika)