New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Taking the reins
Muhl’s game expanding as she leads nation in assists average
HARTFORD — Geno Auriemma joked earlier this season that the problem with Nika Muhl making her first 3-point shot in a game is that she immediately becomes more interested in attempting another.
Muhl made her first 3-pointer Wednesday as the UConn women’s basketball team rolled past Seton Hall 98-73 at the XL Center. She also made her second, third and fourth.
“She was fire from the 3-point line,” junior forward Aaliyah Edwards. “So we kept feeding her and she kept knocking them down.”
Muhl’s primary value to the Huskies is to pick apart opposing offenses as the best defensive player in the Big East, and to carve up opposing defenses by leading the fastbreak and passing to teammates.
The No. 9 Huskies (9-2) have enough perimeter scorers to take on the bulk of shooting responsibilities, both when they’re fully healthy and when they aren’t. But Muhl’s performance Wednesday was a reminder that there is little, if any, limit to what she can do in the flow of certain games.
She had 16 points and 11 assists, her first career doubledouble, and made five of eight shots — including those four 3-pointers before finally missing one late in the first half.
“I think they were good shots,” associate head coach Chris Dailey
said. “They came within the rhythm and they weren’t too fast. They came within the rhythm of what we were doing and they weren’t like five seconds into the shot clock, so I think I can live with that. Hopefully Coach can when he comes back.”
Auriemma, who missed his second straight game after becoming ill last week, had to be smiling while watching on TV. His point guard, Muhl, continues to develop as a versatile threat,
having become an invaluable on-and-off-the-court leader of a program through complicated times.
Muhl has been better every year, seemingly every month, since arriving as a freshman in 2020. This season has been a showcase for her growth into one of the most complete point guards in the sport. She leads the nation in assistsper-game at 10.1, well ahead of the 8.4 averaged by McKenna Hofschild of Colorado State.
“She definitely has a big role and she can also hit some 3’s when she’s open,” said Lou Lopez Senechal, a grad student transfer from Fairfield. “She’s a very unselfish player. She’s always trying to run the floor and find people, and she’s really great at that. She’s the energy of the team. Even off the court, she has great advice and is very focused.”
Lopez Senechal is shooting 51.6 percent on 3-pointers, which ranks eighth in the nation. Azzi Fudd, out three weeks and counting with a knee injury, is shooting 42.6 percent on 3’s (20 of 47).
Muhl is averaging 6.5 points and 34 minutes in 10 games. She is shooting 44.4 percent, and 40 percent on 3-pointers (12-for-30), both career bests. She is keeping defenses honest in their approach to guarding the UConn offense, even while her most valuable contribution remains setting up others.
A third of the way through the regular season, Muhl has set a foundation for what could be a year to remember. She has 101 assists, on pace not only to set the program’s singleseason record but to obliterate it. With, say, 35 games played at her current average, Muhl would have 353 assists.
Only five UConn players have had more than 200 assists in a season. Sue Bird had 231 in 39 games in 200102. Crystal Dangerfield had 225 in 38 games in 2018-19. Jen Rizzotti had 222 in 38 games in 1995-96. Diana Taurasi had 208 in 39 games in 2001-02. Moriah Jefferson had 204 in 38 games in 2015-16.
In short, Muhl is doing it all. She has 33 turnovers sure, a 3.3-a-game average she could cut down on, but her assist-to-turnover ratio
is 3.06-1, ranked sixth in the nation.
“I don’t think you can underestimate her value,” Dailey said of Muhl, who sat out a Dec. 11 loss at Maryland while in concussion protocol. “I think you saw when she was out, it was just one game, but it felt longer, because it was at practice as well. Nika is our energy. She has a passion for playing. She is the first one excited about what her teammates do. … She’s very unselfish, on and off the court. Everything with her is about our team. When you have someone like that, and she has the ball in her hands and really controls the tempo for us, when you don’t have her it’s pretty evident that we miss it.”
Muhl opened the scoring Wednesday with a 3 and the Huskies never trailed. The UConn lead was 10-2 on her second 3-pointer, 20-6 on her third, 35-18 on her fourth. She had seven assists by halftime and played just 13 minutes in the second half before rushing out of Hartford to catch an afternoon flight home to Croatia.
The Huskies will reconvene on campus Christmas day in order to practice Dec. 26 and travel Dec. 27 in advance of a game at Creighton on the 28th.
By then, Auriemma is expected back on the sideline. Fudd, arguably the best shooter in America, is likely to return sometime in January. And the Huskies should once again be as complete as the 2022-23 will allow.
Muhl, just like last year, has stepped in as the primary point guard in the absence of Paige Bueckers, whose torn ACL will keep her out until next season. She has done more than bridge gaps in her UConn career.
“She’s grown in all those aspects — leadership, being vocal and bringing the energy and intensity we need,” Edwards said. “I think she thrives off that. It really helps us in every aspect.”
Muhl has set standards, and more. Her 15 assists against NC State on Nov. 20 were a single-game program record, one more than posted at Butler as a freshman Feb. 27, 2001. It was the start of a torrid stretch for Muhl, who had four consecutive double-figure assist games, including 10 against Duke, 13 against Iowa and 12 against Providence.
She has two more in a row now, six total this season, after finishing with 12 against Florida State and 11 on Wednesday.
Muhl is scoring efficiently, too.
To think she was, upon arrival, the kid with attitude and energy and who knew what else. She was unrefined offensively, relentless on defense, embracing every collision and every opportunity to second-guess an official while playing a hockey-like brand of basketball.
Muhl, who idolizes Dennis Rodman, was entertaining from the get-go. Her specific skills and approach fit nicely with a team building around Bueckers and upperclassmen guards like Evina Westbrook and Christyn Williams in 202021, with another smooth and prolific scorer, Fudd, waiting in the wings as the nations’ top recruit.
To see Muhl knock down one 3-pointer after another Wednesday, four being her career high, might have made it easy to forget that she began her UConn career as a freshman scoreless and 0-for-10 through four games, 0-10 from the field through four, 1-for-14 through five and 3-for-21 through six.
Auriemma tried getting under Muhl’s skin as a way to motivate, at one point stopping a practice to call her the worst shooter in program history. Muhl’s defense never faltered, though, and by midseason of her freshman year, she was in the starting lineup.
Muhl shot 38.1 percent as a freshman, 34.4 on 3’s. She shot 43.1 percent as a sophomore, 34.2 on 3’s.
Now she’s lighting it up when the opportunity is there, nothing forced, anything possible.
Once a supplemental piece and a fiery curiosity, Muhl, the Big East defensive player of the year last season, has become an integral piece of a UConn offense.
She makes the simple pass. She makes the nolook pass. She makes the bounce pass. She makes the pass ahead of the pack. She’s also making more shots than at any point in her career. Muhl’s scoring average is a career high.
“She’s a great leader for the team,” Lopez Senechal said.