No. 11 UCONN vs CREIGHTON
When: Sunday, 1 p.m.
Where: Gampel Pavilion
Records: UConn (6-3), Creighton (10-3) TV: SNY
Radio: UConn Sports Network
KEEP AN EYE ON
The (limited) return of Nika Mühl: The Croatian sophomore returns to the lineup Sunday after missing the past three games due to a foot injury. Mühl will be on a 15-minute restriction but will help carry out point guard responsibilities to lighten the workload of UConn’s three healthy guards Evina Westbrook, Christyn Williams and Caroline Ducharme.
In the six games she’s played this season before her injury, Mühl averaged 2.0 points in 10.5 minutes per game.
“One of the things I worry about with Nika is that, going back to last season, she’s had a history of injuries. She struggled with that foot injury last season and it really hurt our team,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Friday. “She has an infectious quality about her, an energy about her, and the energy level that she brings is somewhat unique. You don’t have a lot of players like her. So having her in the lineup, having her available to play, I really think that’s gonna be one of the contributing factors as to how we can keep winning between now and when we get our whole team back.”
An even shorter bench: UConn listed eight available players for Sundays game — its third game out of its last four with less than nine players. However, Auriemma said Amari DeBerry, who is listed as being available, is not ready and will not play on Sunday due to recovering from COVID and other unspecified issues.
That brings UConn’s lineup to just seven players. But with the caveat of Mühl limited to just 15 minutes, the Huskies will really only have six fully healthy players available to play extended minutes.
“You go into the game and you try to use all your time outs as best you can,” Auriemma said. “You try to rotate people as best you can. Getting Nika back, even for 15 minutes, is a great opportunity because now we can rest for a little bit of time one of the other perimeter players. There is no magical formula that you can use to say this is how you deal with this, it’s just one of those things. You play it by year. You go into games, keep your eyes open and see what’s going on out there and see who looks like what and try to figure out how to keep everybody fresh.”
Notably missing from UConn’s list of available players is Piath Gabriel. UConn did not provide a reason for the sophomore’s absence.
Scouting Creighton: The Blue Jays are 5-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2004-05 season including most recently defeating Marquette, 62-45, Friday.
Creighton (10-3) is led by former Blue Jays’ men’s basketball player Jim Flanery in his 20th season at the helm. Sophomore Emma Ronsiek leads the team with 13.4 points per game and 14 total blocks.