Nika Player Breakdown | The Boneyard

Nika Player Breakdown

I'm glad that she strongly supported Nika's shooting ability. Passing is just one of Nika's greatest strengths, but I'd still like her to shoot more. If her role is keeping everything moving, and moving fast, then she will earn more and more court time.
 
You can`t overstate the impact on the opponent`s point guard, the best ball handler on their team, of Nika picking her pocket at midcourt and going in for an easy layup at the other end.

Suddenly embarrassed, frustrated, angry, tentative.
 
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Huskee11 said:
You can`t overstate the impact on the opponent`s point guard, the best ball handler on their team, of Nika picking her pocket at midcourt and going in for an easy layup at the other end.

Suddenly embarrassed, frustrated, angry, tentative.
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Her close defense on pg's bringing up the ball wears them down physically and mentally over the course of a game. For years UConn has had to avoid foul trouble. This year I see pressure defense being used to force the pace up. Mühl will be the fire.
 
i'm a big fan of nika. Her playmaking ability is high level. Her grit and tenacity is amazing. When Geno says she brings something no one else does on the team I can definitely see it. To me she feels like the only pure point guard. If she improves her shot (from distance and develops from 15 off the pick and roll), I think she could really be special.
 
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MSGRET said:
I truly believe that if Nika had not injured herself in the High Point game and had been 100% in the Arizona game that UConn would have earned #12.
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Not true. If you watch the game they show a replay where you can see that after Mühl went up for her shot her defender stepped laterally and put he left leg right where Mühl came down. No foul was called but it was obvious on replay.
 
Alydar said:
Not true. If you watch the game they show a replay where you can see that after Mühl went up for her shot her defender stepped laterally and put he left leg right where Mühl came down. No foul was called but it was obvious on replay.
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Did she get injured or not? She didn't get a foul called so that's mute.
 
Alydar said:
the post said "injured herself". She did not. A player injured her. Semantics maybe.
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Can you 100% prove that the player did it on purpose, unless you can, she injured herself, even if she landed on another person's foot. Are you going to go and say that the Seton Hall player did the same when Nika came down on her foot in the Quarterfinals game?
 
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I love Nika's game and personality. She has the intensity that the team needs. Over the course of the year, she got better at connecting with fancy passes and shooting the 3-ball. As with Anna previously, Nika started 0-for-America, but then became a competent shooter. Her overall stats--even including the cold start--were decent. She didn't come 4.000 miles to be mediocre. She is probably my favorite interviewee.
 
MilfordHusky said:
I love Nika's game and personality. She has the intensity that the team needs. Over the course of the year, she got better at connecting with fancy passes and shooting the 3-ball. As with Anna previously, Nika started 0-for-America, but then became a competent shooter. Her overall stats--even including the cold start--were decent. She didn't come 4.000 miles to be mediocre. She is probably my favorite interviewee.
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I always enjoy Nika's interviews, nothing is forced, very genuine, often a bit of levity and always enjoyable to see her interact with the interviewer. I have said before that I believe she will be one of those players that the crowds at Gampel really react to - she has such a demonstrative personality, high energy and intensity. We'll see what Geno comes up with given all the talent on the rooster and depth at all positions but I will be surprised if he plays Paige primarily at point guard, given how he was very intentional at moving her off point and inserting Nika in that role for better than the half of last season. I feel she responded to all his challenges last season, continually improving and earning her starting spot and I believe she will have continued to work to improve her game to be ready for this season.

I expect Nika to come back this season with continued intensity on defense, solid picks, great passing and box outs on rebounds. I anticipate her to show more willingness to shoot when open and/or challenge defenders more with drives to the basket and pull-ups, which should result in more kick outs, and-ones and trips to the line. Given a year's experience together I believe she knows where to deliver the ball to each teammate and they know to expect a pass from her so her assists should go up and turnovers drop. I expect her to continue to maintain her intensity on defense, disrupting their point in starting their offense and getting tips and steals while improving her ability to keep her player in front of her and reducing fouls.

Nika's stats for the 15 games she started (finishing out last season) all showed improvement. Over that period she shot 44% FG, 37.5% 3pt and per 40 minutes, averaged 8.63 points, 4.41 rebounds, 4.51 assists and 3.16 steals. As I suggested above I expect to see her improve on all those numbers, continue to be a great teammate and be an impactful member of the team. From all that she has said her goal for this season is to play what ever role she is asked to and do whatever she can to help her team win. How can you not be grateful this kid is on our team. I personally want to see her on the floor as much as possible because imo she makes her team better and I love to watch her play the game.
 
#12in21 said:
I always enjoy Nika's interviews, nothing is forced, very genuine, often a bit of levity and always enjoyable to see her interact with the interviewer. ,,,,, From all that she has said her goal for this season is to play what ever role she is asked to and do whatever she can to help her team win. How can you not be grateful this kid is on our team. I personally want to see her on the floor as much as possible because imo she makes her team better and I love to watch her play the game.
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wow ... great expectations -- and i ain't gonna dispute any of it.

i just remember all the aggressively negative crap we heard about her on the BY less than a year ago (there's still a bit now, but there is about paige too, so ... what can you expect?)

it's great to see such glowing commentary as yours now. kudos

personally, preseason '20 i was very 'show me' concerning nika, i was very leery about her potential to contribute, but i knew enough to open my eyes and soon appreciated what she does bring, along with her many freshman adjustments and early shooting futilities
 
MSGRET said:
Can you 100% prove that the player did it on purpose, unless you can, she injured herself, even if she landed on another person's foot. Are you going to go and say that the Seton Hall player did the same when Nika came down on her foot in the Quarterfinals game?
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Can you prove 100% Nika did it on purpose? Unless you can, she didn't injure herself.

(sometimes the attempts at arguments on here are just silly)
 
Nika brings so much more to the table than scoring. We have so much fire power in the other four players that we only need enough scoring from her to keep the defense honest. Baylor seemed to do alright with DiDi Richards, and look what happened when she was injured during the regional game. We need at least one good defensive player to guard their best and Nika is the one who can do it. I think we can manage with four great shooters on the floor.
 
Nika is extraordinarily valuable because, in addition to being a skilled player, she brings a rare collection of attributes that cannot be taught, even by Geno that include pace, attitude, energy, aggressiveness, and spirit. I think she is our most gear-shifting TEAM oriented player, who, coming off the bench, will be that spark that ignites or rejuvenates the team whenever she’s called on.
 
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Nika brings everything she has to the floor during a game....we all love her aggressive, emotional attitude. I don't buy the idea that she will be a great shooter, it is just not a big part of her game, but on this team it isn't really needed.
 
Nika is relentless every second she's on the floor.
Sometimes she was a little overeager and picked up questionable fouls. Her season seemed to be sandwiched in between injuries.
We can only hope she stays healthy this season ( we can still expect her to show up with the occasional shiner) and continues on the improving trajectory she was on last season.
Her shooting got better, her defensive skills got sharper, her court vision improved.
Still a work in progress, but has she definitely shown why it was worth going Eastern Europe to get her.
Paige's wire to wire phenomenal performance, AE's aggressive physical presence, and Nika's impressive play, sort of made us all forget that these were freshmen, just starting to learn the ropes. As the games went by and the wins, against whoever, added up, going all the way was the expectation for this exceptionally young, but talented group.
UCONN has a history of recruiting the best and boldest out of the high schools and from around the globe.
People like Diana, Maya, KML, KLS, CW really hit the ground moving. Difficult to live up to that kind of example.
Seemed like last year's rookies developed markedly in the short, weird season.
Given the influx of fresh blood in 2021-2022, if the sophomores (not forgetting Mir and Piath) can move their performance & game smarts needle just a few inches upwards, Geno might just put one of his best squads ever on the floor.
I know that's a bold statement given Husky History, but you have to believe that the tougher NC schedule, the challenges from vastly improved programs and the competition amongst the "14" to excel or get out of the way is going to engender a hunger that has perhaps been missing or at least asleep.
 
meyers7 said:
Can you prove 100% Nika did it on purpose? Unless you can, she didn't injure herself.

(sometimes the attempts at arguments on here are just silly)
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When someone steps off a curb and blows out their achilles tendon, that someone that injures themselves. It's a freak accident, but I did it. Same thing happened to Nika, it's a freak accident, but she injured herself. @Alyder stated that the High Point player did it on purpose and that's why Nika got hurt. My statement above is not what I meant to say. Unless you can, she did injure herself.
 
Happydad745 said:
Nika brings everything she has to the floor during a game....we all love her aggressive, emotional attitude. I don't buy the idea that she will be a great shooter, it is just not a big part of her game, but on this team it isn't really needed.
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I would agree and go further to suggest that if the priority for Nika to see extensive playing time this season hinged on her being 'a great scorer' that would indicate a lot of players on the rooster are not playing to their strengths, Nika included. I believe Nika will continue to improve in the many areas I mentioned above but her personal goals and what will serve the team the best does not include being one of the leading scorers. In terms of scoring, she just needs to be an able scorer and someone you need to cover because she will hit more than she misses if left open.

What Nika can bring to the team this season, even more so than last, is to enable the many gifted scorers on the rooster to be in the best position and have the best opportunities to score. She will move the offense, set the picks, do the box outs and make the passes to do just that. That is where her heart and skills are on the offensive end. She loves to be part of the setup for her teammates to make the great shots, that is when we see her fist pumps and chest bumps, not after her own basket. I have to believe her teammates love to play with her because of her team first attitude, intensity, energy, engaging personality and her commitment to work her butt off to be the best player she can be for her team. The icing is that it isn't all about just a great attitude and desire but that she delivers as a skilled, great court visioned, hard-nosed competitor.

She's a unique kid on this rooster who I believe will continue to win over those who still don't see her as a valuable piece of what should be a championship caliber team this year and a few to come. Delegating her, as some have suggested, to be the player that spells Paige at point for the five minutes she will be off the court each game (Paiges concession mid season in the contract negotiations with Geno last year to have her shoot more) just isn't going to happen. Nika plays one position and that is point and I expect to see her there a lot more than 5 minutes/contest. I'm pretty sure Geno does as well.
 
#12in21 said:
I would agree and go further to suggest that if the priority for Nika to see extensive playing time this season hinged on her being 'a great scorer' that would indicate a lot of players on the rooster are not playing to their strengths, Nika included. I believe Nika will continue to improve in the many areas I mentioned above but her personal goals and what will serve the team the best does not include being one of the leading scorers. In terms of scoring, she just needs to be an able scorer and someone you need to cover because she will hit more than she misses if left open.

What Nika can bring to the team this season, even more so than last, is to enable the many gifted scorers on the rooster to be in the best position and have the best opportunities to score. She will move the offense, set the picks, do the box outs and make the passes to do just that. That is where her heart and skills are on the offensive end. She loves to be part of the setup for her teammates to make the great shots, that is when we see her fist pumps and chest bumps, not after her own basket. I have to believe her teammates love to play with her because of her team first attitude, intensity, energy, engaging personality and her commitment to work her butt off to be the best player she can be for her team. The icing is that it isn't all about just a great attitude and desire but that she delivers as a skilled, great court visioned, hard-nosed competitor.

She's a unique kid on this rooster who I believe will continue to win over those who still don't see her as a valuable piece of what should be a championship caliber team this year and a few to come. Delegating her, as some have suggested, to be the player that spells Paige at point for the five minutes she will be off the court each game (Paiges concession mid season in the contract negotiations with Geno last year to have her shoot more) just isn't going to happen. Nika plays one position and that is point and I expect to see her there a lot more than 5 minutes/contest. I'm pretty sure Geno does as well.
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I'm solid Nika fan....she brings the 'dawg' and game swag reminds me of Bria.Geno looooves her (he was tough on her last season) but he says she has something that no one on the team has -that's a quote. UConn players say when G rides you he sees something, another level there-they hated it but they know it was good for them. Geno says Nika's value doesn't show up in box scores - I agree Like others have stated I want N to work on reducing the unnecessary fouls. Hopefully a injury free season and lots of steals.
 
Oracle9 said:
I'm solid Nika fan....she brings the 'dawg' and game swag reminds me of Bria.Geno looooves her (he was tough on her last season) but he says she has something that no one on the team has -that's a quote. UConn players say when G rides you he sees something, another level there-they hated it but they know it was good for them. Geno says Nika's value doesn't show up in box scores - I agree Like others have stated I want N to work on reducing the unnecessary fouls. Hopefully a injury free season and lots of steals.
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I agree. There is no stat for being a gnat.
 
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