New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Muhl’s breakout game a revelation
One day, hopefully as soon as next fall, Gampel Pavilion will be packed to the gills again with fans, and Geno Auriemma will be trying his darnedest to get Nika Muhl to play at a reasonable pace.
Because if there’s one thing we know about Muhl, it’s she knows only one speed.
“I’m afraid she’d be out of control,” the UConn coach said earlier this month about the prospect of Muhl playing in front of, say, 10,000 fans. “She’s in a really good place right now. She’s a really, really good car that’s idling in the fifth gear.
She’s nowhere near the red line.
“Once Nika gets to that red line, the car’s going to blow up.”
Muhl is still a relative newcomer to the college game, and there are areas she needs to improve — first and foremost, limiting her fouls on defense. Nevertheless, her contributions are growing as the top-ranked Huskies forge their path to March.
The freshman expanded her offensive repertoire Thursday against Creighton, scoring a season-high 19 points, 15 in the first quarter, in an 81-49 victory. She was 8 of 13 from the field
and — showing better range — 3 for 6 on 3-point attempts.
With Paige Bueckers and Christyn Williams drawing most of Creighton’s attention, Muhl found herself open quite often. And she didn’t hesitate to take advantage, knocking down three treys in the opening minutes.
“She’s like that in practice,” Auriemma said. “You know, she’s not afraid, she’s not afraid to shoot, she’s not afraid to take chances.”
Still, we hadn’t seen this
element of her game before. Muhl, a pass-first, defensive-minded point guard from Croatia, hadn’t hit more than four shots in a game. Her season-high in points coming into Thursday was 11 (Feb. 3 against St. John’s). She’s averaging 4.9 for the season.
Auriemma loves Muhl’s tenacity and drive. Word is, she’s one of the best conditioned players on the team, despite missing time in the preseason and multiple games with injuries. You can forget about her hitting the vaunted “freshman wall.”
That said, any offense they can get from her is a
bonus.
“I would say that’s true,” Auriemma opined. “She is going to get open shots because people are going to try to double some of our other players … and learning when to take advantage of those opportunities is going to be really, really important.
“The more she makes, the more confident she gets. The more confident she gets, the more she makes and the more she wants to take. All that’s really good.”
Auriemma — who not too long dubbed UConn the “Worst Shooting Team in America” — said he was surprised recently to learn
that the Huskies were leading the Big East in 3-point percentage (35%). They’ve since dropped to second — mere percentage points behind Seton Hall, at 35.4% — and rank 53rd in the country.
With a 51.7% clip from beyond the arc, Bueckers has been UConn’s most efficient long-range shooter. No one else really comes close. Williams has been heating up of late, but is still at only 31.3%. Junior Evina Westbrook, 2 for her last 26 from 3, is mired in a scoring slump, and sophomore Anna Makurat remains sidelined with a lower leg
injury.
The possibility of Muhl evolving into a more reliable shooter is tantalizing.
“That’s one more 3-point weapon, one more scoring weapon to your team to spread the floor a little bit better,” Auriemma explained.
UConn (19-1) has two regular-season games remaining — at Butler on Saturday before finishing at home against Marquette on Monday — before shifting its sights to next weekend’s Big East Tournament at Mohegan Sun.
Muhl has made eight consecutive starts and nine overall. She’s put herself in this position, Auriemma explained, not by scoring, but by working “really, really hard” at everything else.
Lately, she’s been spending extra time in the gym before and after practice with Williams.
“It’s definitely helped me shooting with (the upperclassmen) because they’re much older than me and much more successful at it,” Muhl said. “Having them and looking at them make shots, probably it’s contagious.”