UConn's win over Ball State turns into celebration of Nika Mühl

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Headlines

Game coverage

• UConn women’s basketball dropped by No. 10 Texas, 80-68

• Photos: UConn women’s basketball at Texas Longhorns

• Nika Mühl ready to battle her sister vs. Ball State: 'We are two polar opposites'

• UConn women’s basketball shoots past Ball State, 90-63

• Photos: Ball State Cardinals at UConn women’s basketball

News/other coverage

• Caroline Ducharme remains out with neck spasms

• Geno: "It just kills me to watch us play sometimes with one hand behind our back — again"

• Ashlynn Shade wants to be great but first, she has to relax

• Maya Moore to be inducted into Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

• UConn women’s basketball drops to lowest ranking since 1993-94

Last week’s Weekly:

• Behind Ice Brady's slow start

Elsewhere:

• Azzi Fudd underwent surgery to repair her torn ACL on Friday at UConn Health. According to Geno Auriemma on his radio show, the early prognosis is good: “Everything went great. The knee is strong and stable and she should make a complete, 100 percent recovery."

UConn's win over Ball State turns into a celebration of Nika Mühl

As Nika Mühl walked out onto the court for warmups on Wednesday, she didn’t let anything break her focus. Despite her parents being in the stands to her right and her sister putting up shots to her left, an unfazed Mühl stared straight ahead and walked calmly to the far end of the floor.

While the game might’ve been a “homecoming” of sorts for her, Mühl knew how important the contest was in the context of the season.

“We are coming from a loss and we needed this win and we needed a good game,” she said postgame. “I didn't want the whole thing to be a distraction for me.”

That might’ve worked pregame, but it didn’t last throughout. Mühl admittedly let her focus slip at times during UConn’s 90-63 win over her sister Hana’s Ball State squad in order to appreciate the moment.

“It got to me. I'm not gonna lie, it definitely did,” she said. “It was a little bit overwhelming. But I definitely took time during the game to say a couple of things to her.”

Yet despite all the attention on the matchup of the sisters — the first time such a thing had ever happened at UConn under Geno Auriemma — the two didn’t go up against each other much. When Hana first checked in the game, she boxed Nika out on the Huskies’ end of the floor. Then later in the first half, Nika matched up defensively and Hana blew by her from the perimeter before dishing the ball off.

But there was little more than that. No climactic moment between the two.

“I didn't really notice it that much. I don't know how many times they were matched up,” Auriemma said. “It didn't look like there were a lot.”

It’s not like that was by design, though. The two didn’t make an effort to go up against each other one-on-one, but Nika made it clear she didn’t shy away from it, either.

“I mean, I wasn't running away from that matchup,” she said with a laugh. “There weren’t many iso plays. I feel like we were just trying to run our stuff and different people got involved and the game went that way.”

Nika did find one way to slow down her sister, though. In the fourth quarter, Hana scored her eighth point on a jumper and one possession later, she went to the free-throw line. If she made both, she’d tie her career-high in scoring at her sister’s school with her parents in attendance. Instead, she only went 1-of-2 — and Nika took credit for the sabotage.

“She missed the second free throw because of me,” she said with a wide smile.

Ultimately, Hana had an impressive performance with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting and two assists. It was the first time Nika had a chance to see her sister play live in college and afterward, she came away a proud older sister.

“I told her after the game the way she played, she was fearless and she wouldn't let emotion get to her, “ she said. “She's so much better at that than me.”

Hana even caught Aaliyah Edwards’ eye.

“Yeah, she actually made a tough bucket on me,” she said unprompted. “I was like, ‘Damn.’”

Meanwhile, Nika had four points, three steals, three rebounds and two assists. While the action on the floor might not have been a true battle between the sisters, the entire game turned into a celebration of Nika and her family.

When her parents and cousin — Sara Deidden, a freshman at Wofford — arrived at their seats in Section 110, they quickly garnered attention. Fans came by to say hi, as did associate head coach Chris Dailey and Auriemma’s wife Kathy.

Her father Darko donned a Ball State top while her mother Roberta had layers upon layers of Nika’s NIL merchandise on. Deidden displayed a custom shirt (which all three had) that featured both the UConn and Ball State logos on the front with “Mühl 10” on the back. The “Mu” and “1” were red for Hana while the “—hl” and “0” were in national flag blue for Nika.

The family matched with the rest of the crowd. There were scores of Nika shirts and jerseys throughout — along with a few Croatian flags. The Mühls brought one themselves, but the student section had a couple as well.

“People brought Croatian flags. That was so dope,” Nika said.

Afterward, the two sisters embraced in the handshake line then after Mühl finished a postgame interview with SNY, they took photos with the entire family at center court and exchanged jerseys.

When Mühl stepped on campus as a freshman in 2020, it didn’t take long for her to become a fan favorite thanks to her energy, intensity, and emotion. But Wednesday night underlined just how much of an impact she’s made on the state of Connecticut over the last few years.

“I thought it was a great thing. Their coach and all their people, they were involved with it too — making this happen,” Auriemma said. “So I'm just really, really happy that we were able to pull it.”

For Mühl, she got a night that she’ll never forget.

“It's not anything that, honestly, words can describe. I mean, this moment was so special for so many reasons. Just see my family out there in the stands and emotionally they were… the highlight, playing my sister which was — It was crazy,” she said. “But once the game started going, I was like, ‘Oh, this is like the good old days.’ Nothing changed there. It was fun. It was a dream for me.”

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