How Uconn mentally dealt with all its injuries
CLEVELAND – Uconn’s senior guard Nika Muhl talked Thursday about going through a period of shock then mourning when injuries started taking out her Uconn teammates during the season.
But despite that, the No. 3 Huskies ended up in the Final Four once again and will take on top-seeded Iowa in the national semifinal Friday at 9:30 p.m. at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
“As the time goes on, you kind of realize that you can either sit here and keep mourning forever, or you can just step up for your team and play for the people that are also on the bench that cannot play,” Muhl said. “Because, you know, we are very lucky and privileged right now to be able to play and be out there because we know how hard it is to not be able to, especially some people like Paige that have been in that position before.
“So, I’m sure we’re taking every second to, you know, appreciate our time on the court, and I’m sure it made us tougher in the end. I mean, we’re here. And nobody expected us to be here. And that only means that we used all of those things to make each other tough.”
Uconn coach Geno Auriemma said last June that he thought his team had a good chance of meeting South Carolina in the NCAA championship game. But as events unfolded and the injuries multiplied, he stopped feeling so confident.
“You have to look at your team, and you have to say, ‘Do we have an answer for everything that happens?’ And if the answer’s no, then you just have to cross your fingers and hope that thing doesn’t happen, or those two things that you know you have no answer for,” he said Thursday. “There’s a lot of things we don’t have an answer for in (Friday’s) game.
“Now, does that mean that we just wanted to hope we make the round of 64 and then see what happens? No, because our players will tell you this. They say playing at Connecticut is the greatest thing ever, but playing at Connecticut is hard as hell because if two guys foul out tomorrow, we’re supposed to be able to compete five against three because that’s the illogical, delusional expectations that exist out there.
“So there was always a, ‘Yeah, we can get there,’ but everything has to be done perfectly. And in my mind, I had a lot of plans for this weekend. It didn’t include this.”