Muhl’s ‘subtle’ game a recordsetter
HARTFORD — Nika Muhl added all sorts of pizazz and precision to the UConn women’s basketball team’s 91-69 thumping of NC State Sunday afternoon at the XL Center and checked out to an ovation with 1:04 remaining. She had 15 assists, the significance of which was not lost on another Huskies’ point guard.
Paige Bueckers hugged Muhl once, hugged her twice, then kept her arm around Muhl’s shoulders as they walked the sideline together, chatting excitedly.
“She told me I broke the UConn record,” Muhl said. “I was like, ‘Didn’t you hold the UConn record? I was like, ‘Oh, I broke your record.’ That’s what I was happy about the most.”
Muhl has been UConn’s comic and defensive bulldog since her arrival from Croatia two-plus years ago. She has made an impact and a name for herself mostly by being stubborn and tough and feisty and sarcastic and lovably annoying. Her favorite player of all-time is Dennis Rodman and former teammate Evina Westbrook used to call her “The Gnat.”
She has embraced that identity.
Even more so, it seems, Muhl has embraced the advanced requirements of her role this season. With Bueckers out, her responsibility has shifted from something complimentary to something central to the Huskies’ Final Four aspira
tions.
And there she was Sunday, playing with aplomb, making no-look passes, length-ofthe-court passes, simple passes, threadthe-needle passes, acting as the vision and engine to an offense that is humming along behind one great scorer, Azzi Fudd, and others rising up just enough.
Muhl scored just three points, making one of three shots. She played every second of the game until she was pulled, and finished with six rebounds, two steals and a place in the record book.
“There’s so much pressure on Nika right now, to be perfect every night almost, to handle the ball, to play the other teams’ best guard, to make sure she gets us into what we need to do, make sure our transition game is going, make sure the right people get the ball at the right time and stay out of foul trouble, which goes against everything she believes in,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “In spite of all that, she’s able to do what she did today. I just thought it was an unbelievable performance, just unbelievable. And I don’t think it was loud, either. I think it was subtle. She’s matured so much.”
Muhl was told about Auriemma’s comments.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “He said something nice about time. That’s an anomaly.”
Bueckers had 14 assists as a freshman at Butler on Feb. 27, 2001. Renee Montgomery (Nov. 2008 against Oklahoma), Laura Lishness (Jan. 1991 against Seton Hall) and Susie Sturman (Feb. 1980) against Vermont, all posted 13-assist games.
Muhl’s 15 came against the No. 10 team in the nation. She has guided the Huskies to a pair of victories over top-10 teams so far, playing the type of basketball that is a great example of the individual growth that can take place throughout a career.
Muhl is making passes she was not able to make as a freshman and sophomore. UConn isn’t just getting by with her at the point. It is thriving.
“I feel like it’s been a process, a long process, and it still is a process,” Muhl said. “I always said there are ups and downs, good and bad things, but I feel like I’ve gotten better at learning from my mistakes, which has been the biggest change for me . ... A lot of preparation goes into this. There’s still a long way to go.”
The day started with the most unsettling of scenes, with associate head coach Chris Dailey fainting on the court just after the national anthem and being led away on a stretcher. Muhl and teammates left the court and filed into the locker room, most of them sobbing out of concern.
“She was probably more shook up about it than anybody,” Auriemma said. “Those two fight like cats and dogs every single day. So she was more shook up about it. But she’s the most emotional kid, too. There’s something about that kid. It’s just infectious. Everything she does, she does it with her heart and doesn’t ever back down to anybody.”
After an additional 10 minutes of warmup time in the wake of the Dailey situation, UConn needed about 10 seconds to assert itself. Muhl’s first assist was to Azzi Fudd for a 3-pointer that made it 5-0. UConn led 9-0, never trailed, and played
with enough pluck to make it easy to forget that the Huskies were — as always, it seems — so shorthanded.
Bueckers and freshman forward Ice Brady are out for the year, and graduate center Dorka Juhász will miss several games with a broken thumb. The Huskies need players to do more, be more, accept more. Fudd has emerged as the go-to scorer and a potential national player of the year. And Muhl has found a number of other players, notably Lou Lopez Sénéchal and Aaliyah Edwards on Sunday, to spray the ball around to.
“Having so many injuries, having so many adversities, it gives me energy, gives me motivation,” Muhl said.
Muhl, who tied a career high with nine assists last Monday against Texas, had seven assists at halftime Sunday after feeding a streaking Edwards ahead of the pack for a fastbreak layup that beat the buzzer.
“Rim run,” Edwards said of the play, which started with a steal by Caroline Ducharme.
“We do it every day in practice,” Muhl said.
Muhl’s 14th assist to tie Bueckers’ record came on a post feed to Edwards with 3:17 remaining. Her 15th to break the record came with 1:19 left. She grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball to Lopez Sénéchal for a 3-pointer that made it 91-67.
Soon she left the court and one of her best friends, Bueckers, was waiting, open arms, with a UConn basketball history lesson.
“I don’t know what to say,” Muhl said of the record. “I feel like it’s a nice accomplishment. They always laugh at me for saying the same thing, but it’s my teammates that made the shots, that ran hard in transition, that set hard screens for other people. So I feel like it’s a team accomplishment at the end of the day, but I feel good about it.”