Geno Auriemma challenged Nika Mühl to improve. Now she's 'heart and soul' of UConn women's basketball

STORRS —UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma gave Nika Mühl an ultimatum this summer. Stop fouling or you’re not playing. It was as simple as that. The Hall of Fame coach didn’t care that he was down to just one available true point guard after Paige Bueckers’ offseason ACL injury. The team needed Mühl to be better. "I told her I was gonna bench her ass," Auriemma said. "… We went to breakfast one morning and I just said, 'Here's what's going to happen. You stay the way you are right now; I don't care if we went down to one guard, you're not gonna play. If you change the things that I know you can change and we need to change, then you're gonna have a phenomenal year. So, what's it going to be?' " Six games into the 2022-23 season and Mühl has not only kept her end of the bargain but she’s exceeded even Auriemma’s expectations. Mühl leads the country in assists per game with 11.0 (she’s the only player averaging 10 or more). She set UConn’s single-game assist record with 15 during the third game of the year and has become the only player in program history to record four-straight games with double-digit assists. She leads UConn on and off the court as a point guard should. She sets the tone on defense and paces the Huskies during transition. She’s the most vocal player during practices and games and is quick to direct plays, while also taking the blame for others’ mistakes. Sure, she’s still fouling here and there, but over the course of the past four months, she’s become a whole new player. While there’s no replacing Bueckers, Mühl has done more than filled her shoes on the court. In just a handful of games, Mühl has already created her own legacy as a UConn point guard. "I feel like it’s a been a process, a long process, and it still is a process," Mühl said. "There’s ups and downs, this and that, good and bad days, but I’ve gotten better. I’m learning from my mistakes which has been the biggest change for me. And just my teammates having my back, the coaching staff having my back, watching a lot of film, a lot of preparation goes into all this, so there’s still a long way to go but I’m happy with where I’m at." Replacing Paige Darko Mühl could hear his daughter crying from her bedroom down the hall. It was an early morning in Croatia, about 5 or 6 a.m. Darko thinks, when he walked down the hall and tapped on Nika’s door to make sure she was OK. She was on the phone with Bueckers, who had just told Nika that she wasn’t going to play this season after tearing her ACL during a pickup game. Nika was so upset for her teammate that Bueckers began to comfort her over the phone. "It was really heartbreaking for her because they’re so close and especially after last year and the games Paige missed and Nika missed," Darko said. "Everything was like a roller coaster and now you see it’s going on again. It sucks." It was early August. The team was three months out from beginning practicing, yet it was down to just Mühl as its lone true point guard on the roster. Mühl had filled in for Bueckers in the starting lineup for 19 games last season when Bueckers was sidelined with a knee injury. But Mühl wasn’t quite herself as she also missed time dealing with an ongoing foot injury. When Bueckers returned at the end of last year, Mühl was moved back to the bench and became a defensive spark for the Huskies. She ripped away passes and dove after every loose ball. She challenged opponents, getting in their faces and using her physicality to slow them down. Sure, that aggressiveness sometimes led to sloppy fouls, but she became a defensive weapon. In March, she was named the 2022 Big East Defensive Player of the Year. "Nika plays the game a certain way and she sets everything on fire," Auriemma said. "Like she’s that kind of player and the ball’s gonna be flying all over the place. She’s gonna be flying all over the place." But taking over for Bueckers for a whole season would be different. She was now the conductor of UConn’s offense and that came with more responsibility. "There’s so much being asked of her right now," Auriemma said. "There’s so much pressure on Nika right now to be perfect every night almost. To handle the ball, to play the other team’s best player most of the time, (their) best guard, to make sure she gets us in what we need to do, to make sure the transition game is going, make sure that the right people are in the right moment at the right time and stay out of foul trouble, which goes against everything she believes in." Growing up Mühl took Auriemma’s warning to heart. She’d been benched before because of too much fouling and she knew the team couldn’t afford to lose her because foul trouble this time around. So, she challenged herself to take on the new role. She was already a loud voice, but now she became the voice. It’s hers you can hear the loudest and most often during practices: Good job ... Come on, guys! ...Pick it up! She makes sure to high-five each player after good plays and even after simple warm-ups. She commands mid-game, mid-drill huddles and even yells out plays when she’s on the sideline. She’s supportive but also calls others out when they miss reads. When her teammates make mistakes, she takes the blame even if she had nothing to do with the situation. She knows by taking fault, she’s bettering herself too. "When you call people out, you’re actually calling yourself out because then you can’t make the same mistakes or people are gonna look at you crazy," she said. After UConn defeated Texas on Nov. 14, Auriemma walked into the locker room and asked the team what they learned. Mühl was the first to respond. She was honest, saying that the team was great when it was playing well, but bad when it was playing rushed and sloppy. "Nika’s made a lot of progress," Auriemma told the media after addressing the team that night. "She's matured a lot. She's grown up a lot. She's taking things to heart even more so than she did when she already did. She's taking more responsibility for everything which is great. …. I wouldn’t trade her. I wouldn't trade her for anybody today." 'She will never give up' Over 4,000 miles away Darko can notice the difference in his daughter. He watches as many of UConn’s games as he can find online the day after because of the time difference. And already, he can see Mühl’s skills on the court have grown. "I think she’s making better decisions, that’s the biggest improvement," he said. "… It’s not 100 percent perfect, but it’s improvement and that’s something that I really can see from the games. She’s feeling much more comfortable on the floor and that’s the reason I think she’s making the right calls at the right time." Darko said he’s also noticed Mühl’s improvement on defense. She’s learned to play tighter and knows when to engage and try to steal versus knowing when to leave room and avoid fouling. He sees her letting go of mistakes quicker instead of dwelling on them. "She’s always giving her best and I think that’s probably the thing that I’m most proud of her because she will never give up," Darko said. "She will die trying, that’s her." Mühl leads UConn, the Big East and the nation with her assist-per-game average. She tied her career high of nine total in a single game against Texas. Then increased her career high to 15 the very next game against NC State to claim ownership of UConn’s single-game record (Bueckers previously had it at 14). Since then, she’s recorded double-figure assists in the past four games. Her court vision has improved to the point where she’s making no-look passes look effortless and at any given point, she knows exactly where either Azzi Fudd or Lou Lopez Sénéchal is on the court. "I just thought it was an unbelievable performance. Just unbelievable," Auriemma said after the NC State game. " … She’s matured so much as a guard that she’s constantly got her head up and her eyes down the floor." And she’s brought even more energy on defense. She leads UConn’s guards with 14 defensive rebounds and 17 total. She leads UConn and is third in the Big East with 2.5 steals per game and 15 total. "There’s something about that kid, right?" Auriemma said. "It’s just infectious in everything that she does. She does it with her heart. Doesn’t ever back down to anybody. Doesn’t know any other way than the way she plays right now." Mühl’s teammates notice the difference too. Fairfield grad transfer Lopez Sénéchal, who has only played with Mühl for the past two months, recognizes the impact she’s made already this season. "I think having a point guard and just a player like that on the team is very special," Lopez Sénéchal said. "I feel very grateful to have a player that unselfish and who enjoys distributing the ball and it’s always enjoyable. You can see that she loves it. She loves when she passes the ball, and the other people score. Her energy is just contagious and it’s great." Mühl admits she’s seen a change in herself too, but she attributes her recent success to her teammates. "For an assist, you need two people," she said. "You need somebody to score and somebody to pass. So, I feel like I have a bunch of great scorers around me and a bunch of great people setting great screens, people cutting, people running in transition. So, I don't think it's that hard for me, you know, there's always somebody open." While the Huskies picked up backup point guard Ines Bettencourt in late August and Fudd has become another distributing option, Mühl hasn’t slowed down despite the depth now at her position. She took even more leadership when the team suffered another season-ending injury in losing Ice Brady with a patella dislocation. "Sometimes it tends to get a little bit overwhelming, which is obvious, but I’m ready for that," Mühl said. "… It’s been very overwhelming and rewarding at the same time. I feel like that’s a good thing to have. I feel like pressure is privilege and the more pressure the better." She later added: "I feel like just having guys out, having so many injuries, so many adversities, it gives me energy. It gives me motivation. I want to do it for them." Mühl wants to become the point guard her team can depend on. Those who know her, say she already has. "She's kind of the heart and soul of our team, right?" Auriemma said. "So that's not a bad person to be leading you." Maggie.Vanoni@hearstmediatct.com @maggie_vanoni

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