Nika myth should be dumped | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Nika myth should be dumped

Huskee11 said:
Well, tough one today as Flammes Carolo (a team KLS played for briefly many years ago) thumped Sopron in a Euroleague matchup, 82-54. It was an away game for Sopron.

Nika did not appear to have a great game with only four points and a rough plus/minus, but she did have seven assists (half of team total).

Biggest positive takeaway is that she played 29 minutes, after previously playing 17, 20, and 17. So that is a very positive development as she gets back into it.
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Nika's entire team was not ready for the game. It was actually a home game for Sopron.

Here is a hustle play, by Nika. She didnt save the ball, but the UConn hustle is still there.

 
Yeah, I watched the first three quarters (thanks for the link, OCHoops). After Sopron had gone 3-0 in Hungary, I wasn't expecting a thumping like that. Carolo was bigger, faster, and more active. It was nice to see Ashley Joens and Liz Dixon, though.
 
Bigboote said:
Yeah, I watched the first three quarters (thanks for the link, OCHoops). After Sopron had gone 3-0 in Hungary, I wasn't expecting a thumping like that. Carolo was bigger, faster, and more active. It was nice to see Ashley Joens and Liz Dixon, though.
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It was only one game but I didnt like Soprons forwards or inside game.
 
Sopron with another lopsided victory in the Hungarian League, this time 92-40 against BEAC -Ujbuda.

Solid game apparently for Nika with 13 points on 5-9 shooting (3 for 6 from three), 3 rebounds, 5 assists in 24 minutes.

Very strange game in that Sopron only led 30-22 at the half but outscored BEAC 62-18 in the second half. That must have been a halftime speech worthy of Vince Lombardi. Or maybe something else was going on, don't know.

The jury is still out on Sopron despite four resounding Hungarian League victories. There was the bad loss to Flammes in the European, and the four victories all appear to be against some of the weaker Hungarian teams.
 
veivoli said:
I think her words were along the lines of "can someone get that girl* out of my grille!"

Loved watching her play although, in fairness, I believe that Geno said she came out of the locker room with two fouls already.

And don't forget that she was the one who broke Aaliyah's nose in practice.

* she may not have said "girl", I can't recall exactly...
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Clark stated "can someone get that #10 out of my face". It was during one of the Nike tournaments in Oregon.
 
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Basingstoke said:
I believe that Caitlin Clark would attest to Nika being an excellent and exasperating defender (remember her in-game statement of something like: can someone get that defender off of me).
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Nika is the only defender I have seen that has been able to stay with CC for a game. That goes for college and pro players. With that I would say she was an exceptional defender.
 
I don’t know about any myths. At least on offense she was better junior and senior year. Not much points but she was getting just as much assists as she scored. Averaging close to 8 and 7 assists helps out a lot. So that’s still lots of points on the board she’s providing those 8 assists still have to be at least 16 points. So she’s still contributing 20 something points to the team. So she’s good enough offensively cuz her passing in transition and just finding her shooters like Azzi offsets her personal shortcomings. Outside of passing though she doesn’t provide a whole lot else in her arsenal. She doesn’t provide any pressure at the rim and while it’s commendable she hit 40% of her threes senior year, she’s left wide open most of the time cuz she’s got no volume to her outside shot. Teams can live by not focusing on her defensively which in some years really hurt our spacing as a team(man sometimes it felt like Paige was the only one who could even shoot consistently).

Defense wise yea she could make mistakes and commit some bonehead fouls but you can kind of overlook that. She was way more important than she was a detriment. She’s just the little engine that could. On ball steals, shooting passing lanes, rebounding at her size, hounding a teams best player all game. While I think her offense is more polarizing, I don’t think it’s possible to think her defense is a little overrated. Even just her motor and leadership alone really set the tone for UConn a lot. She’s a blue collar punch in punch out type player and a bit of an underdog. I think that’s a big part of why ppl were so fond of her. If she wasn’t as good as she was on defense and such a big personality I don’t think she would have played as much as she did or been as popular. Injuries kind of helped her get her opportunity but by god she accepted the challenge.
 
Sopron playing Galatasawary out of Istanbul Wednesday at noon. NCAAW and WNBA fans will see a lot of familiar faces -- the Turkish squad includes Dorka Juhasz, Marine Johannes, Elizabeth Williams, Awak Kauir, and Kamiah Smalls (James Madison grad who's spent parts of a couple of seasons in the W). That's a lotta size and talent for Sopron to handle, assuming Wiki has the roster current..

 
Nika is currently playing for the Croatian National team and she led them to a 76-73 win over Greece, scoring a game-high 21 points (her career high at UConn was 19) and 7 assists. 4 of 5 from three! Denmark up next.

This is a FIBA Eurobasket 2027 qualifying tournament although I don't have all the details.
 
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Thanks, huskee. I’d wondered why Sopron had no Hungarian or Eurobasket games for 2-3 weeks.

Anyone know if one can watch these games? I’m striking out on the Eurobasket site.
 
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Bigboote said:
Thanks, huskee. I’d wondered why Sopron had no Hungarian or Eurobasket games for 2-3 weeks.

Anyone know if one can watch these games? I’m striking out on the Eurobasket site.
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If you google Croatia versus Greece FIBA or something similar, youtube videos of the full game and of highlights should both pop up.
 
Vote for Nika as best senior national team debut, FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers First Round, her stats for 1st qualifier against Greece 21 ; 21 PTS; 7 AST; 2 REB. Use this link:
Instant impact: Who had the best national team debut?
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Also prayers that her injury is minor, for those unaware, she went down in pain at about 1:30 in the 4th qtr. It appeared to be an ankle injury ( bring back those infamous black ankle braces). You could see the anguish/frustration/pain on her face as no doubt her immediate thoughts were - not again! She was in high spirits after the win though, as she was piggy back on a supportive teammate going through the hand shake line and high fiving and celebrating the win with her teammates. Their next game is Saturday 11/15 (7:00am our time) hopefully she will be back on the court 🙏.
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Dixiedog said:
Vote for Nika as best senior national team debut, FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers First Round, her stats for 1st qualifier against Greece 21 ; 21 PTS; 7 AST; 2 REB. Use this link:

Also prayers that her injury is minor, for those unaware, she went down in pain at about 1:30 in the 4th qtr. It appeared to be an ankle injury ( bring back those infamous black ankle braces). You could see the anguish/frustration/pain on her face as no doubt her immediate thoughts were - not again! She was in high spirits after the win though, as she was piggy back on a supportive teammate going through the hand shake line and high fiving and celebrating the win with her teammates. Their next game is Saturday 11/15 (7:00am our time) hopefully she will be back on the court 🙏.
View attachment 113236
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Actually I was mistaken her next game may be at noon tomorrow (18:00 CET)
 
Thanks to Huskee and WBBZen -- I was looking for Eurobasket instead of FIBA. I should be old enough to know the difference. . .😖
 
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Nika has had so many ankle injuries that I am concerned she will eventually need surgery. 🙁

Hope I'm wrong...
 
Ozimoto said:
Nika has had so many ankle injuries that I am concerned she will eventually need surgery. 🙁

Hope I'm wrong...
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Didn't she have surgery after the loss to Arizona in the Final Four?
 
Croatia is playing Denmark today. Nika is not playing although she is there at the end of the bench in "street clothes".

I can't discern much. That she is there makes me think (hope) that the worst possibilities are off the table. The game is being broadcast as a live feed but there are no announcers to provide info.

The info out there such as it is refer to it as an ankle injury without further elaboration.

Addendum: after the game she walked out on the court to join her teammates at mid court with a cane, not crutches, and only a slight limp and was not relying heavily on the cane. No cast, no boot. They lost, remaining game is against that powerhouse from North Macedonia.
 
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