UConn players lament ending season early in Sweet 16
SEATTLE — UConn women’s basketball point guard Nika Mühl sat with one leg up on the locker room bench with her right arm resting on top. Her eyes already red and puffy.
She looked up into an empty locker room and saw a handful of reporters talking to graduate senior Dorka Juhász.
Maybe it was the realization that she would never get to play with Juhász again as a Husky or maybe it was the pain from watching the season end just minutes prior out on the court at Climate Pledge Arena. More likely, it was the heartbreak of both.
Mühl’s eyes began to swell up, unleashing another stream of tears. She buried her head into her arm, letting the tears run down her face hidden from the rest of the crowd.
“I’m just disappointed in myself,” Mühl said through tears. “I mean, it’s a terrible loss. It feels bad, especially the Sweet 16. We planned on getting a lot further than that so it just hurts a lot.”
Following UConn’s Sweet 16 loss to Ohio State Saturday afternoon, the Huskies’ locker room was open for media for the first time since 2019 (locker room access was closed during the pandemic, including last year’s NCAA Tournament).
It was a somber and quiet scene with all five starters trying to keep themselves poised through teary eyes, sniffles and cries while taking questions from reporters.
Azzi Fudd remained the most even keeled. That was until she was asked where she felt she had grown the most this season.
Her straight face broke. Her smile disappeared as she grabbed a cup of water from a nearby table and took a sip, trying to prevent herself from breaking down.
“Um. Oh. I don’t know,” she said before pausing. “It’s hard to think positively after a game like this. All I can remember are negatives.”
Aaliyah Edwards choked back tears as she was asked about playing with Juhász and Lou Lopez Sénéchal for the final time. Lopez Sénéchal said, with watery eyes, that she felt like she’d found a family despite only being a Husky for one season.
All season long, the Huskies showed they were capable of punching back and punching back harder than their opponents. UConn ended the regular season with 10 straight games, including seven wins, decided by 10 points or fewer.
Sure, they had been dealt another bad hand of adversity cards — only two players played in all 37 games — but they had come out on the other side to start the postseason.
UConn won the Big East Tournament by an average of 23.3 points in three games. The Huskies defeated its first and second-round opponents in the NCAA Tournament by an average of 31 points.
But on Saturday in Seattle against Ohio State, that Huskies team was nowhere to be found.
There was no collective grit, no resiliency and just too many turnovers. The Buckeyes’ press got the better of UConn but the Huskies’ own mistakes only made it easier.
“It definitely feels worse because we didn’t have the last punch,” Mühl said. “I felt like this time we didn’t even punch back. And that’s the worst part. It feels like we didn’t give each other, our team a chance to win this game.”
Meanwhile, Edwards and Juhász agreed there wasn’t one excuse or one person to blame. The Huskies, as a whole, didn’t show up Saturday. And it cost them the season.
“It was a really hard season and for us to make it to this point,” Edwards said. “Amazing. Great, proud of that. And I’m grateful for the team that I’ve been riding along with this whole season but at the same time, it’s very disappointing just because I wanted to get back to that national championship game.”