Nika myth should be dumped

[Skeets]

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).

I'm not 100% sure but I think it was something like "get that #10 out of my face".

 

[Skeets]

By the end of that year, according to Geno, Nika was indispensable. “I’m not as happy as if we had Nika 100 percent, … If we had Nika 100 percent, we’re a different basketball team. Much different basketball team.”

Expressed in the language of analytics, Nika is a multiplier, kinda like the umami ingredient in a recipe. By itself, it is under appreciated. But without it, a recipe is not the same.

Nika wasn't a force, she was a force multiplier. Everything was better when Nika was on the court. And it's not just assists. It's energy, attitude, leadership, and a bunch of other stuff you're not going to find on the stat page.

 

[MSGRET]

I honestly believe that Geno would've won #12 and Paige would've gotten her first NC ring as a Freshman if Nika had not gotten hurt in the Tournament.

 

[freshler40]

I honestly believe that Geno would've won #12 and Paige would've gotten her first NC ring as a Freshman if Nika had not gotten hurt in the Tournament.

Our team was playing short handed during much of Nika's time. She got extra minutes on the court but it also limited our offense or what we could throw at opponents.

 

[Bone Dog]

I honestly believe that Geno would've won #12 and Paige would've gotten her first NC ring as a Freshman if Nika had not gotten hurt in the Tournament.

The problem in that Final Four game was Aari Macdonald’s offense… and her ball deny defense on Paige. Nika played in that game but was visibly slowed from the ankle injury. She might have helped against Aari’s offense. But her defense would have been a different story. It looked to me like Liv and Aaliyah didn’t give Paige and Christyn enough help, scoring but also setting screens.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

Our team was playing short handed during much of Nika's time. She got extra minutes on the court but it also limited our offense or what we could throw at opponents.

I think there is a significant argument that can be made that Nika’s and Paige’s freshman year was a very potential championship year (see Net Rating in attached / pic).

• The team also beat (eventual champion) South Carolina that year in OT on 2/8/2021 with Nika in the starting lineup.

It was not as if Nika stumbled into her starting job. Geno experimented with starting lineups. Nika’s starting lineup was the longest (and without a loss) and probably would have been the final starting lineup. The chronology was: “Nika tears game” on 1/19, benching in TN game, and then replacing Aubrey as a starter two games later (after the loss to AK).

Imagining “What If” for the AZ game is not simply extrapolating from the actual game played. The Nika team that would have played against AZ would have played much differently (per Geno) from the one that did.

 

[hoophuskee]

Our team was playing short handed during much of Nika's time. She got extra minutes on the court but it also limited our offense or what we could throw at opponents.

It did limit because as you say UCONN was playing short-handed.

If they weren't playing short-handed then you would probably have seen more like the beginning of Nika's jr year.

That’s when they wiped out Texas, Duke and NC State. The Texas coach spoke after that game and said no one had torched his defense the way Azzi did in a long long time. And we know who was running the offense to get the ball to Azzi. - Nika

And the 4th game was vs a good opponent was Iowa. The same team that later on went on to beat SoCar. UCONN put the game away with about 3 minutes left. In the 4 games UCONN put up 338 pts vs high quality coached teams; an average of 84.5 ppg.

So yes I agree that when UCONN got destroyed by injuries, the pg Geno recruited as a primary passer, defender, and work-in-progress to hit open shots, Nika Muhl; if the rest of her team built with perimeter scorers got wiped out with injury; sure,- Nika would struggle to score. Some players do have limitations. If players such as Edwards and Griffin were required to go out of their zone and be required to become 3pt shooters, then that would have been a limitation too.

 

[browns]

Even in the national semifinal loss to Iowa, Nika held CC to a pedestrian 7/18 shooting, 3/11 from 3pt range. In fact Nika made just as many 3-pt shots (3) as CC on 5 fewer attempts (3/6).

Problem was that CC scored 8 points in the 4th to send Iowa to the championship game

 

[oldude]

Problem was that CC scored 8 points in the 4th to send Iowa to the championship game

What a surprise that you would come to the defense of CC…….

 

[Blond D.]

Problem was that CC scored 8 points in the 4th to send Iowa to the championship game

No, the problem was that Aaliyah was called for a moving screen or Nika would have gotten the winning shot off after she stole the ball from CC.