Nika Mühl “counting the days” until matchup against her sister

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Nika Mühl “counting the days” until matchup with her sister

Nika Mühl stands in her Zagreb, Croatia home and introduces her family — her mother Roberta, her father Darko, and her “fat cat” Columba — to a camera as part of a UConn+ show. Only there’s one exception.

“The only person we’re missing is my sister but we’ll see her this year,” Mühl says.

UConn tries to set up homecoming games for seniors and has two such on the schedule this season: A matchup with Minnesota for Paige Bueckers and a trip to Toronto for Aaliyah Edwards. Mühl’s true homecoming happened this past summer when the Huskies traveled to Zagreb and played a team of Croatian All-Stars as part of their three-country European tour.

But as Mühl hinted, UConn will also have another homecoming-type game for the senior point guard during the regular season. On Dec. 6, the Huskies will host Ball State, featuring sophomore guard Hana Mühl — Nika’s younger sister.

“I'm counting the days for that game,” the elder Mühl said in June. “I feel like that's gonna be probably one of the biggest games of this year for me. I'm looking at it as a little homecoming game for me.”

Hana watched Nika play twice for UConn last season — she came to the Huskies’ games at Notre Dame and Butler — but those were both road contests. She’ll finally get to see Nika in her element once December rolls around.

“I can't wait for her to experience my environment over here and our fans and our students section,” the senior said. “She's definitely going to be nervous, I'll give her that. But hopefully, my parents will come in too. That's gonna be an amazing moment for all of us to share.”

It’ll also be a first for the sisters. As far as Nika can remember, she’s never played against Hana in an organized, official game.

“We've mostly been on the same things teams together. But we played 1-on-1, streetball games and stuff like that. We all know how that ends,” she said. “But when it comes to official games, no, we have never played against each other.”

While Nika is one of UConn’s most important players, Hana is looking for a bigger role in her sophomore season at Ball State. Last year, she averaged 8.9 minutes per game and only hit the 20-minute mark once. Still, it’s fair to expect her to get plenty of playing time against the Huskies given the circumstances.

So what’s the scouting report on her?

“We're very much opposites. I feel like she's much calmer than me. She thinks of the game in a mental way. She's a much better shooter than me,” Nika said. “So but there's definitely things that we have similar on the court, so I guess you guys will decide when you watch it.”

Until then, the Mühls will just have to wait for Dec. 6 to roll around. While it might still be a few months away and seven whole games into the regular season, Nika is confident the matchup will live up to her expectations.

“It's gonna be amazing,” she said.

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