Nika is a like the weak hitting, strong defensive catcher, who is the backbone of the team. Directs the defense, handles the pitchers. Nika's work rate brings the team up a notch. Be happy she is on your team and not playing against you.
And your point?
Not questioning her work ethic or passion - your analogy isn’t bad, but I wouldnt say strong defense.
He praised her in today’s presser, too
I don't think you are being negative. I think your critique of "Nika's play" is very reasonable with the exception of I would change the word "anything" to "very little" and delete the entire last sentence. For some reason critique of Nika play seems to hit many BY posters differently that critique of some other UCONN players and I don't know why that is. For example last season when Aubrey was fully healthy may BY came to the realization that the reason Aubrey was not a starter was because the UCONN offense stalled when she was in the game. With Nika you have a different but equal issue and it is simply this: As the primary ball handler Nika needs to be more of an offensive threat while she on the floor and that means; shooting the ball more often, shooting more accurately and shooting from more spots on the floor. From this critique I was asked this rather silly question: Do you think Nika is contributing anything to this team? Of course I do. I also fully understand that many of the things that Nika is contributing are things that will not show up in a box score. Here is the irony: The things than I'm asking of Nika are things that will show up in a box score so there really should be any argument when/if they happen. Nika is playing very good basketball lately. Despite a scoreless full 40 minute game today improved play from Nika will be critical for the remainder of the season and next.
sometime during her career she will rack up a double-double while scoring no points
Moriah Jefferson went scoreless at ND in a UCONN blowout in 2014.
As @DefenseBB migght say a little perspective might be helpful here. UCONN played its best basketball last season against South Carolina, Baylor and Iowa. Nika didn't have anything to do with those last two. The SC game was a game that went into OT, so I went back to check if Nika had any positive stats/impact on that OT-she did not. Nika did hit a 3Pt shot early in the 4th quarter which put UCONN up by 7 but she started celebrating too early. From that point on she committed two fouls and a turnover and was not on the floor for the final 2 minutes of the game. Pressure defense would have been helpful against the SC guards who orchestrated the come back . A facilitator would have been very helpful to Paige instead of Paige having to set her self up for all the UCONN OT offense. BTW. Nika played 21 minutes in the Arizona game. That UCONN season ended when Nika was cleanly stripped of the basketball on the second to last UCONN possession and with Nika missing a 3pt FGA on the final possession.
I pretty sure the rules prohibit her from reaching double digits in PF, so what other statistical categories did you have in mind. 
A little perspective indeed. Tell me how well MoJeff, Bria Hartley, Rene Montgomery, Ketia Swanier, Caroline Doty played their freshman year and in the playoffs where they did not have the misfortune to having been injured early in the playoffs and then reluctantly inserted in the FF semis because she wasn't fully recovered? Might she not have been playing in pain in that game?.....after all, the lingering effects of that injury had to be dealt with early this season which made her miss games....
Although she went scoreless, she only played 21 minutes that game.
Yes with her in my opinion they win.
Came in for few minutes in the 1st half was playing on one leg, same foot injury that flared up this year limited her at the start and eventually shut her down for games this year. The statement played their best was Geno's. Aubrey only played 6 minutes in the Arizona game, then was benched.
Rebounds
But that won’t stop her from trying! That woman is a menace!
Maybe rebounds and assists, good effort towards it last year against Marquette, 2/5/21 7 REB, 9 A, 5 S, 8 PT
They were all uneven, most UCONN freshman are. Renee was perhaps the least uneven. Caroline' unevenness was directly attributable to a reoccurrence of her HS ACL injury. With the exception of Ketia Swanier all the players you mentioned had better freshman offensive statistics when compared to Nika. For example Caroline Doty was a day one freshman starter on an undefeated National Championship team where the other starters were Renee Montgomery, Maya and Tina Charles.
As I recall, all those others were scoring PGs or combo guards in high school. Nika almost disdains scoring and prefers an assist, so being asked to shoot when open is a change in mindset.