Nika Muhl

[npignatjr]

It was unbelievable to me that Nika only played 6 minutes yesterday and no I don't want to see Nika out there instead of Paige, I want to see her with Paige more. Geno said she wasn't out there because he wanted offense. Evina played 18 minutes with no scoring, Nika played 6 minutes and hit the three that put us ahead. In my opinion she is a better ball handler under pressure than Evina, a better pressure defender and better at getting the offense going quicker. If Evina was as effective offensively as she has been of late, stay with her, but that wasn't the case so why not split those 24 minutes evenly between Nika and Evina and see what Nika was able to do for the team with that additional 6 minutes. I heard the argument about the two quick fouls, clearly not great choices by Nika but she wasn't the only Husky making bad choices ( fouls or turnovers). Also it should be noted that UCF did not score on either of those fouls.

Her energy and intensity triggered us to take the lead in the second, besides hitting the three she should have had two assists as well, one after a great steal and pass to Caroline who missed the easy layup and the second, a great feed to Olivia who was called for a 3 sec violation. If Nika was on the floor six more minutes ( getting six of Evina's minutes) does anyone seriously think she wouldn't have had additional positive impact. BTW Geno in his presser indicated that he expected Nika to play a bigger role going forward, in this particular game he sat her in hopes of getting more offense ( which as I would argue above didn't happen).

Remember Evina fouled a 3 point shooter.

 

[Cuango]

I get that Geno went with Evina in hopes of getting more offense but that is why I said, " If Evina was as effective offensively as she has been of late, stay with her, but that wasn't the case so why not split those 24 minutes evenly between Nika and Evina and see what Nika was able to do for the team with that additional 6 minutes."

And I wouldn't agree that Evina "would probably be hungrier", Nika is fiercely competitive. Also she may not personally put the ball in the basket as much as Evina but as a point guard making the overall offense more effective, I would argue, is a greater asset, which I believe Nika has shown she can do.

Evina has, I believe, 106 assists this season.
Nika has 84. E has had 10 assists in one game. While I would agree Nika is the more natural point guard, the difference is not imo, prohibitive. E is more experienced, better offensively, and less likely to make a mistake than Nika. As for the “hungrier” I’d have to go with the player that is out of chances after this tournament. Nika will have more chances to win.

 

[Boreifs]

I expect Nika will play more against IU. They need someone to contain their Spanish point guard.

 

[Bigboote]

Caroline has not played the same since her head injury

And UConn was playing UCF. I was fine with Caroline not being subjected to their horseplay.

 

[npignatjr]

Evina has, I believe, 106 assists this season.
Nika has 84. E has had 10 assists in one game. While I would agree Nika is the more natural point guard, the difference is not imo, prohibitive. E is more experienced, better offensively, and less likely to make a mistake than Nika. As for the “hungrier” I’d have to go with the player that is out of chances after this tournament. Nika will have more chances to win.

Nika was hurt all season limited in minutes in games when she returned. Evina never missed a game. 22 more assists. Evina played 242 more minutes.

 

[Spaceman213J]

First, I love the way Muhl plays defense, but I think Geno made the right choice.
As many have stated and it played out, UCF is/was severly limited on the offensive end. UConn itself was struggling on the offensive end. There were 3 Husky guards out on the floor most of the time. Geno could not take Fudd out because they desperately needed her offense and she was pretty solid defensively. Williams give another offensive option. That leaves Bueckers. No she is not 100 percent, but they need her to play and get better, and is still more of an offensive option.

Geno has even said that this group, now healthy, is presenting a new challenge for him. This time of year, you take the win and run. Survive and advance!

 

[Nolefan]

Imo Nika helps break the full court press of UCF too many times Paige went straight to the triple team and was tied up a few times .. EW did better in that regards and Azzi also did ok but threw some boneheaded passes at times .. You break the press you normally get easy baskets but the way we shot layups last night might not have helped .. Hopefully Paige gets her court vision back here soon because each game is not gonna get easier ..

 

[JoePgh]

I think Geno was fibbing at the postgame press conference when he said that Nika's fouls were not the reason why she didn't play in the second half. He wasn't asked why Caroline didn't play in the second half, but I think the true reason is her two missed layups.

I think he made the judgment that they were both too amped on this particular night to play smart basketball under pressure. Their first half mistakes were evidence of that. By contrast, the guards who did play (Paige, Azzi, Christyn, and Evina), while not perfect, showed a lot more poise under pressure than Nika and Caroline did.

Some posters here, Nick Pignatello in particular, have commented that UConn was severely disrupted by UCF's full court pressure. There were some misplays by Paige and Azzi, but in general (considering how much the ball was in their hands as they were bringing the ball up), they did remarkably well to maintain possession and maintain composure. The evidence for this is that UConn had only 13 turnovers for the game compared to 20 for UCF, and of those 13, only 4 were live-ball turnovers (shown in the box score as UCF steals). Against that much constant pressure, that is very good ball custody. By the way, without counting, I believe that most of the UConn turnovers were in the first half and many were in the first few minutes, not in crunch time.

I think Geno had good reason to be concerned that if he played either Nika or Caroline in the second half, they were quite likely to make more bonehead plays than the guards that he did play. That might have been dumb fouls, traveling calls, or bad passes.

Of course he isn't going to demoralize those players by saying publicly in the press conference that he didn't have enough confidence in them to let them play the second half. But I will bet that he told them that (or will tell them) at practice or in another non-public forum.

 

[npignatjr]

I think Geno was fibbing at the postgame press conference when he said that Nika's fouls were not the reason why she didn't play in the second half. He wasn't asked why Caroline didn't play in the second half, but I think the true reason is her two missed layups.

I think he made the judgment that they were both too amped on this particular night to play smart basketball under pressure. Their first half mistakes were evidence of that. By contrast, the guards who did play (Paige, Azzi, Christyn, and Evina), while not perfect, showed a lot more poise under pressure than Nika and Caroline did.

Some posters here, Nick Pignatello in particular, have commented that UConn was severely disrupted by UCF's full court pressure. There were some misplays by Paige and Azzi, but in general (considering how much the ball was in their hands as they were bringing the ball up), they did remarkably well to maintain possession and maintain composure. The evidence for this is that UConn had only 13 turnovers for the game compared to 20 for UCF, and of those 13, only 4 were live-ball turnovers (shown in the box score as UCF steals). Against that much constant pressure, that is very good ball custody. By the way, without counting, I believe that most of the UConn turnovers were in the first half and many were in the first few minutes, not in crunch time.

I think Geno had good reason to be concerned that if he played either Nika or Caroline in the second half, they were quite likely to make more bonehead plays than the guards that he did play. That might have been dumb fouls, traveling calls, or bad passes.

Of course he isn't going to demoralize those players by saying publicly in the press conference that he didn't have enough confidence in them to let them play the second half. But I will bet that he told them that (or will tell them) at practice or in another non-public forum.

During the minutes Nika played is when UConn came back from being down to take their first lead. The team had 14 point lead in the 4th quarter and Turnovers, rushed shots and fouls caused the lead to shrink to 3.

 

[Bricklayer]

there seems to be a lot of battles of starter, imo Ducharme should start over Fudd. I know people are gonna boxscore and say Fudd had 16, but she went 4-13. And I feel Ducharme brings better defense especially cause she has length and bigger reach.

nothing against ducharme, but fudd is their best player right now, and certainly their best shooter, and she is the reason that they won the other night. a freshman, with the game on the line, swished four free throws - nbn. while others were throwing up bricks - something i know a thing or three about - she was lights out from beyond the arc. now, why ducharme was not put in after ono and ae fouled out, well, that's another story...

 

[jazz]

You are thinking of Rajon Rondo but can you bring us back to an example in WCBB and preferably a UCONN WBB basketball PG that was a deficient shooter.

think first two years at point guard at uconn and you will find your answers. IIRC, shooting percentage from 3 was a lot worse than NM. Also another who was a good shooter but couldnt score much due to lack of athleticism, defense was spotty and needed help breaking the press - still one of my fav players. couldnt get off the bench her first two years.

Now if you think NM is a deficient shooter, then what would you call our so-called AA shooting guard who, I think, without checking the percentage, but I'm sure you will, are less (or at least close if not less) from three than NM is this year.

I never called NM deficient, those are your words and mischaracterizing my post as you normally do.

 

[tchalla1]

Has Nika fouled out of a game this season? I would add that Geno specially in response to the questioner said that Nika's two fouls were not the reason she didn't play in the second half. She has played with fouls several times this season and has harnessed her aggression to stay on the court. She did the same to finish out last season as well.

No, Nika is yet to foul out in a game this season. She came close in the BE semi when she garnered four, but strangely, Geno left her in and she didn't foul out....

 

[Cornell Lt]

NOBODY says that nika is on paige's level. of course not. everybody wants to see paige play. everybody thinks she's an extraordinary player.

but it is not just nika who is gonna look lacking compared to her. this is not a matter of PAIGE YES, NIKA NO or vice versa. why do some of you see it that way?

some of us say that nika makes a real, obvious and unique difference in the team's success. we're not saying that she can replace paige. gawdalmighty. i seriously doubt anyone is attacking paige, and it's absurd that some are happy for some reason to use this bruhaha as a reason to attack nika.

she's hardly the first husky to make mistakes (and not an outlandishly number or outrageously egregious, at that), but she is one of the few who always is trying to light a fire -- like, for example, jenn rizzotti. ...who was not at paige's level either

It's not that she made mistakes, she had two critical fouls called on her, both at the very end of the shot clock. Those types of plays are inexcusable and thus she was sent to the bench. That's good coaching and hopefully a lesson learned for Nika.

 

[jazz]

In the 6 minutes that NM played, we went from 4 down, to 2 up. That is a 6 pt advantage in 6 minutes, which over a course of a game equates to a 40 pt win. Of course, it would probably not quite happen like that over the course of the game, but it goes to show that NM is not a problem, but instead can be thought of as a catalyst for our team when you consider all facets of the game.

During this 6 minute stretch:

• Backcourt violation on UCF
• Open three from EW- miss.
• NM caused another UCF TO with a terrific steal and then the push and pass to CD which should have been an great assist and an easy 2 - but CD missed the bunny.
• Next possession, NM makes a nice pass into the post to get Dorka to the FT line for 2.
• Then NM causes yet another UCF TO with a tie up of a much stronger, bigger player. NM has directly given us 2 additional possessions in roughly a minute of being in the game.
• PB gives up her dribble too easily but NM handles the soft pressure easily.
• We get another foul on a layup by a fast break take to the basket by CW for 2 more FT.
• Next possession, great pass from NM to Liv for the easy two but....Liv is three seconds in the lane - a silly thing to do as all players do silly things!
• Shot clock violation on UCF - can we give NM some credit for this?
• NM hits a three pointer! ummm. not bad for a girl who can't shoot...anybody got the stats on NM 3 pt shooting this year. my guess is it is close to 35%.
• Then NM makes a silly foul to bail out UCF - but it was an aggressive foul - but ok, silly nonetheless. But, it doesnt hurt us, because we cause yet another shot clock violation - is it coincidence or can we at least give NM some credit for this? No harm on the NM foul.
• Dorka miss on a nice feed from Liv - why does she make it harder than it needs to be?
• NM playing her heart out and gets called for a tacky foul on a good sell job by Sanders. I watched this in slow-mo and couldnt see any foul, but ok NM gets the foul, but Sanders missed both -again no harm!
• NM out of the game.

So thus far, in a matter of a couple minutes, not only do we outscore UCF by 6 points, but we caused several TOs, two of which were caused directly by NM giving us extra possessions and three other UCF TOs which you have to give NM some credit for.

Every single possession NM was in the game, we had a good look or good shot, so the offense was flowing very well. But we miss an easy layup, get a silly shot clock violation on Liv, not to mention EW missing an open three and Dorka losing balance for some reason on a nice entry pass from Liv against a smaller player which should have been another easy two. If we only score on half of those, we go up by at least 6 points for a 10 point differential in 6 minutes of play. Both hustle errors by NM never hurt us.

There are those who will only argue that NM is not the cause of the above good fortune, but she sure does seem to be the direct cause of our good fortune or in the middle of it, which is what a good point guard does. By the way, No TOs from NM either AND the 'deficient' shooter goes 1-1 from 3.

Who can look at this objectively and conclude NM be rewarded for her hard work and sit on the bench the rest of the game?

Yes I know, GA has won a zillion games and has 11 titles and I have none of that on my resume, so who am I to criticize the great one....

 

[jazz]

It's not that she made mistakes, she had two critical fouls called on her, both at the very end of the shot clock. Those types of plays are inexcusable and thus she was sent to the bench. That's good coaching and hopefully a lesson learned for Nika.

neither one hurt us and they were hustle plays. the last one was questionable. kid put in a good 6 minutes of work.

 

[diggerfoot]

Funny how people disregard plus/minus statistics all year but in a 6 minute sample size Nika did well so everything changes.

I have great respect for +/- if used properly. When you first brought them up I was excited and went looking for them. Have not found them yet. Please provide a link to the +/- claims you are making.

As for Muhl, I guess from watching that her +/- was not great at the start when she was coming off the bench. Also from watching it was obviously good in recent weeks when she was starting and the team was uncharacteristically finally getting off to good starts.

What I am unsure about is her +/- during the bulk of the midseason. I would like to check out the +/- for her and others to illuminate my thinking but I ask your assistance to find them.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

You can plus-minus all day. Those numbers have meaning (limited) until...the reality of the game at hand bergs for coaches to make decisions. We wouldn't need coaches if all that mattered were numbers. In a defensive battle, possessions are critical. EVERY point is critical. Yes, everyone turns the ball over. BUT, the error for forgiveness margin is a lot less for a one-dimensional player (eg. a defensive specialist) than it is for someone who plays more than defense. For Nika to contribute in a tight game like this...she has to stop the other team from scoring. If she trends away from that role or is less effective, then she has to score points and we all saw the game. She's hesitant to do that at times...even when wide open. If Azzi, Caroline, CW or someone else turns the ball over...they can make up for that because they can put points on the board...and defend. That's what coaches see.

 

[Conndog]

I think Geno was fibbing at the postgame press conference when he said that Nika's fouls were not the reason why she didn't play in the second half. He wasn't asked why Caroline didn't play in the second half, but I think the true reason is her two missed layups.

I think he made the judgment that they were both too amped on this particular night to play smart basketball under pressure. Their first half mistakes were evidence of that. By contrast, the guards who did play (Paige, Azzi, Christyn, and Evina), while not perfect, showed a lot more poise under pressure than Nika and Caroline did.

Some posters here, Nick Pignatello in particular, have commented that UConn was severely disrupted by UCF's full court pressure. There were some misplays by Paige and Azzi, but in general (considering how much the ball was in their hands as they were bringing the ball up), they did remarkably well to maintain possession and maintain composure. The evidence for this is that UConn had only 13 turnovers for the game compared to 20 for UCF, and of those 13, only 4 were live-ball turnovers (shown in the box score as UCF steals). Against that much constant pressure, that is very good ball custody. By the way, without counting, I believe that most of the UConn turnovers were in the first half and many were in the first few minutes, not in crunch time.

I think Geno had good reason to be concerned that if he played either Nika or Caroline in the second half, they were quite likely to make more bonehead plays than the guards that he did play. That might have been dumb fouls, traveling calls, or bad passes.

Of course he isn't going to demoralize those players by saying publicly in the press conference that he didn't have enough confidence in them to let them play the second half. But I will bet that he told them that (or will tell them) at practice or in another non-public forum.

Disagree about not playing Caroline because she was likely to make mistakes, especially when overall goal is to increase offensive output against a tough defense. To me, it seemed that Geno gets nervous and tightens/shrinks the roster at critical times. I hope I’m wrong, cause if true, the games just get tougher, and limiting who plays 1) means tired players in crunch time and 2) we are limiting our options for team scoring. If the end of game players Geno is stubbornly clinging to just aren’t doing well, he won’t risk trying something else- take out player X and put in Caroline, for example- that might work great.

 

[jazz]

In the 6 minutes that NM played, we went from 4 down, to 2 up. That is a 6 pt advantage in 6 minutes, which over a course of a game equates to a 40 pt win. Of course, it would probably not quite happen like that over the course of the game, but it goes to show that NM is not a problem, but instead can be thought of as a catalyst for our team when you consider all facets of the game.

During this 6 minute stretch:

• Backcourt violation on UCF
• Open three from EW- miss.
• NM caused another UCF TO with a terrific steal and then the push and pass to CD which should have been an great assist and an easy 2 - but CD missed the bunny.
• Next possession, NM makes a nice pass into the post to get Dorka to the FT line for 2.
• Then NM causes yet another UCF TO with a tie up of a much stronger, bigger player. NM has directly given us 2 additional possessions in roughly a minute of being in the game.
• PB gives up her dribble too easily but NM handles the soft pressure easily.
• We get another foul on a layup by a fast break take to the basket by CW for 2 more FT.
• Next possession, great pass from NM to Liv for the easy two but....Liv is three seconds in the lane - a silly thing to do as all players do silly things!
• Shot clock violation on UCF - can we give NM some credit for this?
• NM hits a three pointer! ummm. not bad for a girl who can't shoot...anybody got the stats on NM 3 pt shooting this year. my guess is it is close to 35%.
• Then NM makes a silly foul to bail out UCF - but it was an aggressive foul - but ok, silly nonetheless. But, it doesnt hurt us, because we cause yet another shot clock violation - is it coincidence or can we at least give NM some credit for this? No harm on the NM foul.
• Dorka miss on a nice feed from Liv - why does she make it harder than it needs to be?
• NM playing her heart out and gets called for a tacky foul on a good sell job by Sanders. I watched this in slow-mo and couldnt see any foul, but ok NM gets the foul, but Sanders missed both -again no harm!
• NM out of the game.

So thus far, in a matter of a couple minutes, not only do we outscore UCF by 6 points, but we caused several TOs, two of which were caused directly by NM giving us extra possessions and three other UCF TOs which you have to give NM some credit for.

Every single possession NM was in the game, we had a good look or good shot, so the offense was flowing very well. But we miss an easy layup, get a silly shot clock violation on Liv, not to mention EW missing an open three and Dorka losing balance for some reason on a nice entry pass from Liv against a smaller player which should have been another easy two. If we only score on half of those, we go up by at least 6 points for a 10 point differential in 6 minutes of play. Both hustle errors by NM never hurt us.

There are those who will only argue that NM is not the cause of the above good fortune, but she sure does seem to be the direct cause of our good fortune or in the middle of it, which is what a good point guard does. By the way, No TOs from NM either AND the 'deficient' shooter goes 1-1 from 3.

Who can look at this objectively and conclude NM be rewarded for her hard work and sit on the bench the rest of the game?

Yes I know, GA has won a zillion games and has 11 titles and I have none of that on my resume, so who am I to criticize the great one....

not a shot clock violation on Liv but instead a 3 second violation.

 

[Bald Husky]

What makes you so sure that Nika would get the message in the second half of this game when she has failed to receive the exact same message for almost two full season now. Geno and the staff have been delivering that message ( harness & control your aggression) to Nika since her very first game in a UCONN uniform. The same message is being delivered to ONO for 4 years now and AE for two. This messenger does not like to be ignored.

Where the hell have you been? Nika has done a great job of not fouling, alot better than some of her teammates. To play the kind of defense that she plays involves getting in someones face and fouls will occur. Even in her 6 minutes she changed the game. Most people on this board can see the contribution she makes, and in my opinion, she is one of our most valuable players. We needed her in this game in the final quarter.

 

[EdSaid]

I think Geno was fibbing at the postgame press conference when he said that Nika's fouls were not the reason why she didn't play in the second half. He wasn't asked why Caroline didn't play in the second half, but I think the true reason is her two missed layups.

I think he made the judgment that they were both too amped on this particular night to play smart basketball under pressure. Their first half mistakes were evidence of that. By contrast, the guards who did play (Paige, Azzi, Christyn, and Evina), while not perfect, showed a lot more poise under pressure than Nika and Caroline did.

Some posters here, Nick Pignatello in particular, have commented that UConn was severely disrupted by UCF's full court pressure. There were some misplays by Paige and Azzi, but in general (considering how much the ball was in their hands as they were bringing the ball up), they did remarkably well to maintain possession and maintain composure. The evidence for this is that UConn had only 13 turnovers for the game compared to 20 for UCF, and of those 13, only 4 were live-ball turnovers (shown in the box score as UCF steals). Against that much constant pressure, that is very good ball custody. By the way, without counting, I believe that most of the UConn turnovers were in the first half and many were in the first few minutes, not in crunch time.

I think Geno had good reason to be concerned that if he played either Nika or Caroline in the second half, they were quite likely to make more bonehead plays than the guards that he did play. That might have been dumb fouls, traveling calls, or bad passes.

Of course he isn't going to demoralize those players by saying publicly in the press conference that he didn't have enough confidence in them to let them play the second half. But I will bet that he told them that (or will tell them) at practice or in another non-public forum.

I agree with what you are saying. Geno went nuts when NM committed the first foul.

I also think Geno has 6-7 players in his DNA. I think we will see 6-7 the rest of the way

 

[jazz]

Anybody got stats on fouls per minute played? also year to year.

I think you will see NM probably fouls more per minute than most but yet much less than last year, especially in comparison to the first half of last year. I think the stats would show some (drastic) improvement.

Also, if you play defense, you will foul...no need to do a PHD on it. If you play chest to chest defense all game, well, you probably get more fouls called against you as well, including a few phantom ones along the way. Mandator defense with the olee hand up on the three usually doesnt get a silly foul.....whoops, EW got one doing this same thing!

 

[cohenzone]

No they are good on defense at best without her, UCF is seriously offensively challenged, defense wins, offense impresses those who don’t really know the game. It amazes me that so many if you think that strategy last night was a sound one because you ignore that all those offensive players generated no offense. That team that played the 2nd half didn’t even pass the casual eye test compared to the way Uconn finished the year. If you think Uconn is going to just outscore elite teams I think you are kidding yourself.

That is all true. Just happens that UCF is a team that our better players on offense can defend really well without Nika. UCF is a very good defensive team against whom we needed players who had better scoring ability. Even then we had trouble scoring. We’ll never know but I’d guess with more Nika, UCF wouldn’t have been much worse than 47 points. But no doubt UConn’s D has always been the key and Nika will see the floor.

 

[fan4eva]

Nika Muhl brings the humility, intensity, power, & contagious energy that UConn needs to start games. Paige brings swagger & skill, but not the leadership that jumps from intensity & energy. Auriemma spent time developing all his players without Paige. Auriemma has to focus on the team & not Paige. The road to a championship is through Nika with sharpshooters Fudd & Williams.

you win with talent UCF had intensity heart and hustle but not talent to win they held Uconn to under 30% shooting and still lost. Talent plus hustle and heart wins championship so no one piece is greater than the other when chasing a championship less we division because one faction will think they are more important to the team than the other. Finally put Paige on UCF and Uconn would have lost IMO