How Nika Escaped the Doghouse

a very long and lovely article by Dan Connolly in his paywalled newsletter. I'm trying to keep it short, but want to do it justice, so erring on the side of inclusion.

.....

Despite how it looked — with the yelling and the tears — Mühl revealed that Auriemma’s message during that infamous moment from her freshman year was much softer than it appeared on the outside.

“I'll never ever forget that,” she said. “He didn't even reassure me. It wasn't even like he was getting on me. It was just like a moment of like, ‘I'm here for you. It's okay. It happens. You're growing. You're a freshman. Allow yourself to do those things. I'm just trying to motivate you.’”

That — along with the ensuing benching against Tennessee — proved to be a turning point in Mühl’s career. She couldn’t be so headstrong if she wanted to make it at UConn. She had to listen to Auriemma instead of trying to do everything her own way.

“In that moment, I realized that every time he yells at me every time, he says something that I don't want to hear, it's because he loves me so much,” Mühl said. “He wants to trust me, he wants me to get better.”

“Nobody can help you until you realize it yourself.”

That epiphany provided the jump start she needed. Mühl got her first career start in place of the injured Bueckers just two days after the win at Tennessee ....

“When we inserted her into the starting lineup last year, that’s when the team changed and there’s a reason for that,” Auriemma said during the 2021-22 season. “What she brings is unique and she’s the one player on our team who has it.”

.....
As a sophomore, Mühl again started slow — in part due to lingering issues from that injury in the NCAA Tournament — and didn’t get her first start until after the new year. But once she returned to the starting lineup, UConn broke out of another slow start and quickly found its groove.

Still, Mühl wasn’t indispensable yet. In the second round, Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, she played a combined 24 minutes. Auriemma didn’t even use her in either overtime period of the regional final win over NC State.
.....

Then the injuries struck.
.....

Suddenly, Mühl found herself as the lone ball-handler left. There were multiple games where she and Lopez Sénéchal were the only guards on the floor.

.....

By the end of the season, an internal study by the team discovered that Mühl played the equivalent of 10+ more games compared to opposing guards based on her total number of minutes. UConn learned it couldn’t afford to have her on the bench for any extended period.

.....

Mühl has come a long way from crying on the bench, too stubborn to get out of her way as a freshman. Now, she’s the greatest passer to come through the greatest program in college basketball.

“Pretty hard to imagine when she first got here she would ever be in that conversation,” Auriemma said.

.....

Mühl has established herself as one of the greatest players in UConn history. She wasn’t an All-American and won’t end up in the Huskies of Honor, but that’s fitting for someone whose impact could never be properly quantified. Her biggest contributions were always the ones that never showed up on a stat sheet.

Still, it’s not like Mühl didn’t make her mark. In addition to all the passing records, she was a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, a two-time All-Big East Second Team pick, and earned AP All-American honorable mention nods in her final two seasons.

On top of the hardware, Mühl played her best basketball down the final stretch of her career. She defended the likes of Dyaisha Fair, JuJu Watkins, and Caitlin Clark during the NCAA Tournament and held them all to bad nights. In the Elite Eight, Mühl went the final 13 minutes without committing a fifth foul and helped get UConn to the Final Four. She did all she could in her final collegiate game, hitting a 3-pointer with 41 seconds left to pull the Huskies within one against Iowa.

.....

“What makes it even more amazing is that other groups that you just mentioned, how many Olympians were they passing the ball to every possession? Half the Olympic team,” Auriemma said. “So it's pretty easy to get 200 assists when every time the ball leaves your hand, it’s going to an Olympian. For Nika to not necessarily have had that opportunity, I think it's quite remarkable.”

Mühl is certainly far down the list of the most talented players to come through Storrs, she’s not the most athletic. Yet few players had more heart and played with more passion than Mühl. Throughout her four years, we saw the entire spectrum.

Auriemma built the program into what it is by pushing players out of their comfort zones to make them great. Nobody embodies that better than Mühl — tears and all.