Nika

[HuskyNan]

 

[MSGRET]

Duffy has always praised Nika for her play ever since she has coached against her. Nika is a great defensive player that disrupts the opposing teams point guard, plus gets you defensive rebounds.

 

[Kat]

10 rebounds.. I guess no one told her she's not big enough to do that.

 

[HuskyNan]

5 points, 7 assists, 10 rebounds, only 1 TO in 35 minutes

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Gotta love Nika. The Imp, our demon child, who lives so in the moment. Geno rightly says her energy is irreplaceable.

 

[azfan]

Who plays basketball....

 

[The deacon]

5 points, 7 assists, 10 rebounds, only 1 TO in 35 minutes

Gotta love Nika. The Imp, our demon child, who lives so in the moment. Geno rightly says her energy is irreplaceable.

Nika rose to the occasion in front of Duffy, for sure. She's scored more points and had more assists in other games but, to me, from my perch just a few rows up from the Marquette bench, I thought Nika was at her very best today.

With players like Paige, KK and Ashlynn doing their thing, I don't know that I agree her 'energy is irreplaceable,' but she surely is handy to have on the court to complement the talents of her teammates.

 

[Next 12]

Nika is the spark plug of a smooth running engine that has been fine tuned.Without her in the line-up , it's when a spark plug is missing, the engine doesn't run smooth any more. Nika has made a name and place for herself that will not be forgotten in Uconn lore. There is only one Nika and I pray she stays her Covid year. GO NIKA!!!! GO HUSKIES!!!!!

 

[vtcwbuff]

It seems that Muhl has fixed her early season turnover bug (hope I didn't jinx her). But am I the only one wishing that someone would tell her to close her mouth when she chews.

 

[Cornell Lt]

"The Queen of the small things" - I like it

 

[psconn]

The full arc of Nika's career here (and I hope it is far from done) has been a remarkable story of perseverence, toughness and optimism.

She doesn't seem destined for the wall, but she'll never be forgotten in Husky nation.

 

[#12in21]

Nika is now sitting at 499 career assists. 43 more assists and she moves into tenth place of the Uconn all time assist leaders list ! 61 and she passes Bria to sit at # 7. Keep dishing 'em and I'm loving the rebounds as well. It should be no surprise to anyone on here, but I love watching this woman play the game.

 

[huskeynut]

Nika is my favorite player. Tough as nails, all energy and heart. She does the grunt work for the team.

 

[PacoSwede]

Nika is my favorite player. Tough as nails, all energy and heart. She does the grunt work for the team.

and she's vastly unappreciated by lots of folks.

her contributions to the team go beyond defense, assists, rebounds, points and good (or bad) on-court performance. she always provides belief and inspiration to the team.

imo, those intangibles are the absolutely vital things she adds to uconn ... and are a rare find in any teammate.

 

[Blond D.]

You ask Geno, you ask Paige, you ask just about anyone on the team whether coaches or players and they will all say that Nika is the glue that holds this team together. Shes the energy giver.

 

[todbo]

And she has great timing. As I remember, her three-ball put us ahead.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Megan at 5'7" wasn't a star, but she was very solid. Decent 3-point shooter, excellent FT shooter, lots of assists. She helped ND beat UConn at least once.

Megan Duffy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Skeets]

It's been a while since anyone referred to her as the GNAT. On defense she still is the GNAT, and also a rebounding animal.

 

[#12in21]

It's been a while since anyone referred to her as the GNAT. On defense she still is the GNAT, and also a rebounding animal.

The beauty of what appears to be developing is that we now have a cloud (did a quick google search to see if there was an official term for a swarm of gnats - and cloud it is) of gnats. I read as well that there are both biting and non biting gnats (freshman Nika was more the former, senior Nika more the later). The common trait is that they are all annoying as hell and you can just suddenly find yourself totally swarmed by them. Sounds like just the kind of defense Geno is looking for!

 

[The deacon]

Megan at 5'7" wasn't a star, but she was very solid. Decent 3-point shooter, excellent FT shooter, lots of assists. She helped ND beat UConn at least once.

Megan Duffy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'll add that, as one can see from that wiki article, Megan was on the high side of 'very solid,' Milford. She was a double-figure scorer for three seasons, peaking at 15.6 as a senior. That's pretty hefty stuff.

Personality and energy-wise, she might have played like Nika does now, but she was a real force as a scorer.

 

[CL82]

Megan at 5'7" wasn't a star, but she was very solid. Decent 3-point shooter, excellent FT shooter, lots of assists. She helped ND beat UConn at least once.

Megan Duffy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

She has Marquette playing like Notre Dame of old. Despite a comfortable win, they are a challenging team to play.

 

[RoadMaster]

It's been a while since anyone referred to her as the GNAT. On defense she still is the GNAT, and also a rebounding animal.

She has become, surely in the eyes of UCONN opponents, a gnatorious rebounder..

 

[Longtime fan]

Duffy has always praised Nika for her play ever since she has coached against her. Nika is a great defensive player that disrupts the opposing teams point guard, plus gets you defensive rebounds.

Nika is amazing. Her toughness and her endurance. Not to mention her ball distribution, and three point shot when open. We are so fortunate to have found her.

 

[BRS24]

Gifted article -

Nika Muhl evolving into new role for UConn women, other takeaways from resounding win over Marquette

Nika Muhl has had to adjust to a new role with the UConn women’s basketball team, meshing her skill set with Paige Bueckers and KK Arnold … and it’s beginning to Huskies’ ad…

www.courant.com

“It has been a really, really hard adjustment for her, no doubt about it,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “We took the ball out of her hands. Last year, she had the ball in her hands 99 percent of the time and now, all of a sudden, ‘we want you to throw it ahead as many times as you can, to attack the basket more.’ It’s not easy. But she’s become more aware of what my team needs me to be. That’s a hard lesson for a lot of kids.”

“Individually, in practice, it’s been a struggle for me, but as long as we’re winning games, I was just going to figure it out for myself and my teammates would help me. I’m just going to continue to help in any way I can. It doesn’t matter what I do, it’s just making sure the team wins and we play responsibly and we play with the pace. As a point guard, I feel that’s my job and I’m hoping to build on it.”

Somewhere, I thought I posted about Nika and Paige having to learn to play together again, especially after Nika running the whole show last year. Dammed if I can find it, however I think this article says it all.