Nika has really benefited from player injuries—she’s been pushed and challenged every year to be a different player based on what the team needs. Her attitude has served her well—she’s risen to the challenge and more. She’ll leave UConn with so much experience and versatility that will serve her well at the next level.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.
Nika
- Thread starter HuskyNan
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Remember this video from their freshman year:
The wcbb basketball world better watch out because their prophecy is becoming a reality.
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Love all these stats, but the key for Nika recently has been very few turnovers. I peg some of the TO problems she had earlier in the year to be due to the respiratory issues she appeared to have but in any case, when she is this solid, UConn is usually performing at full speed.
MSGRET
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Looking at both Nika and Paige in this picture vs them now both of them have matured and are in much better shape.
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Assists and turnovers are greatly influenced by consistency of teammates - the start of this year was a circus with lots of starting lineups, lots of substitutions, and a flux in players available. That has settled down over the past month and the team as a whole and Nika particularly have increased the assists and decreased the TOs significantly. Interesting to see that Nika is shooting 50% from the field and 41% from 3 even if she isn't shooting often. She has climbed to a 2.0 A/TO.
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Nan - nice table.
I suspect some of this is the result of her playing through the MASH years - the team has been less balanced and more PG-centric during the last two years, with the offense playing through Nika. That is pretty obvious in the fact all her listings above come in her junior year with no Paige and intermittent Azzi and Caroline. The points came from a catch and shoot Lou and a post up Aaliyah.
Uconn by necessity was playing more like Baylor or ND tended to, with their PG dominating their team assists column. In 2022-3 Nika had 284 assists while averaging 37 min/g and the next highest player was Dorka with 92. That 284 assists blows away the previous record by Sue of 231, while the team total of 695 is far down the team single year list (#10 season was 764 in the 1999-2000 season.)
I suspect some of this is the result of her playing through the MASH years - the team has been less balanced and more PG-centric during the last two years, with the offense playing through Nika. That is pretty obvious in the fact all her listings above come in her junior year with no Paige and intermittent Azzi and Caroline. The points came from a catch and shoot Lou and a post up Aaliyah.
Uconn by necessity was playing more like Baylor or ND tended to, with their PG dominating their team assists column. In 2022-3 Nika had 284 assists while averaging 37 min/g and the next highest player was Dorka with 92. That 284 assists blows away the previous record by Sue of 231, while the team total of 695 is far down the team single year list (#10 season was 764 in the 1999-2000 season.)
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In effect, if there are too many individual records being set, it doesn’t bode well for a UConn team.
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That's a little over the top in your analysis's. First of all comparing the 1999-2000 numbers to the 22-23 number is way out of wack. In the 1999-2000 team they had a two of the best ever PG's and other great passers that the numbers would be more evenly divided, while the 22-23 team only had most of the season only 2 PG's and one of those was a Freshman that arrived on the day before the beginning of classes.
1999-2000 Roster
Seniors
Hansmeyer
Sauer
Juniors
Abrosimova
Czec
Ralph
Rigby
Schumacher
Sophomores
Bird
Cash
Jones
Walters
Williams
Freshman
Johnson
You are comparing apples to oranges in your statements. Just with Ralph and Bird you have better point guards than what the 22-23 team had. They had most likely one of the best teams ever assembled in UConn history. They played most of the time at least 11 players in a game. Last year UConn was lucky if they had 7 healthy bodies for a game. So yes Nika's numbers would be out of proportion compared to the 99-2000 team because she was the only experienced PG on the team.