Bueckers, Muhl and freshman class that energized UConn
As UConn awaits its next postseason run of games with the unveiling of the NCAA Tournament field Monday, freshman Nika Muhl has apparently not been wasting time — nor energy, for that matter — worrying about March Madness scenarios. Brackets?
“We had to explain to her the other day what a bracket was,” UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey said last week. “She didn’t know what a bracket was, what it looked like.”
Not that she needs to. The Croatian-born point guard already has enough on her plate.
Her focus is narrowed, easier when you’re a freshman.
“When you’re a young kid, you just go where the game is,” Dailey said. “You don’t get too caught up in anything more than that. That sometimes can be a great thing because when freshmen don’t know what they don’t know, it doesn’t impact them in any way.
“There’s an advantage to not knowing it. If you know it, you look at it and you start to go, ‘Ohhhh.’ ”
Which may be an advantage for UConn, a team relying heavily on a core of freshmen: Muhl, forward
Aaliyah Edwards, and guard Paige Bueckers, the best player on the team.
Charging into the NCAA Tournament on a 14-game winning streak that includes the Big East Tournament title run, the Huskies’ position is cemented. They’re a virtual lock for a No. 1 seed — maybe even the No. 1 overall seed — for the field of 64 in Texas.
They’ll find out where
they land when the bracket is released Monday at 7 p.m.
What happens from here is anyone’s guess, the Huskies now facing the unmistakable reality that this tournament, staged entirely in the San Antonio area, will look and feel completely different.
How far they go will largely depend on the resilience of the freshman class that head coach Geno Auriemma said has “reinvigorated everyone associated with our program.”
The Huskies (24-1) have seven freshmen, but three who play significant minutes in Muhl, Big East Player of the Year Bueckers, and Big East Sixth Woman of the Year Edwards. The trio has accounted for 40% of the team’s scoring, including 41.8% over three games in the conference tournament.
Those three — plus fellow freshmen Piath Gabriel, Mir McLean, Autumn Chassion, and Saylor Poffenbarger — have helped bring a youthful exuberance to the program that is both refreshing and energizing.
And the value of that can’t be overstated in this complicated season.
“There’s a silliness that you can appreciate,” Dailey said. “They’re still learning the difference between time to be serious and time to be silly, but there’s a silliness and a fun factor that is unique. It makes going to practice fun, it makes going to the gym fun, it makes going onto the bus fun. …
“I’m not saying that they haven’t had their moments where they needed to get away from each other. But that’s par for the course. I think there’s a closeness with this group. You can put any group of them together at a table for dinner or breakfast or any meal and not have any worry, concerns, anything.”
And that goes for the whole team, not just the freshmen.
Bueckers — who leads the Huskies in scoring
(19.7), assists (6.0), steals
(2.2) and minutes played
(35.7) — is a free thinker, known to playfully question almost everything. In personality, she reminds Dailey of UConn legend Diana Taurasi.
“I think if she wasn’t a lawyer in her previous life, she’s probably going to be one,” Dailey joked. “She can argue anything. You can turn it around and she’ll start arguing against herself if you stay with it long enough. She’s got a lot of Diana in her as far as that goes.”
Dailey isn’t kidding when she says everything.
“If I say it’s Tuesday, she’ll say, ‘No, it’s actually almost Wednesday.’ It’s just constant. In a fun way, though. There are some days that it can be annoying, but most of the time it’s in a fun way like Diana,” Dailey explained.
Bueckers’ classmate Muhl is of the same mold.
“I don’t know that it’s a freshman thing,” Dailey said. “I think it’s a personality trait. I think it’s a competitiveness. It’s a lot of things. I don’t know that it’s limited to just an age. A lot of our players, but those two probably at a higher level, they are like that in pretty much everything they do.”
Bueckers treats everything as a challenge. She embraces challenges, uses them to fuel her success. Again, in that sense, she’s just like Muhl.
“Nobody can put bigger pressure on me than I can put on myself,” Bueckers said. “I have really high expectations on myself.”
Edwards, a 6-foot-3 post from Canada who is averaging 10.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and shooting 68%, is just as fierce, just more understated.
“Very nice girl,” junior Christyn Williams said, “but on the court she’s a totally different person.”
Collectively, they’ll help forge the team’s path in March. What will that be?
Auriemma, now in his 36th season, usually has a good feel for the tournament. This year, though, is unique. He doesn’t want to get caught looking too far ahead given how unpredictable this season has been.
“We’re a pretty tough group of kids,” Auriemma said. “We go out expecting to win like everybody else does. We could lose our next game, but it’s not going to be because we’re not prepared.”