STORRS — Nika Mühl says she asked for UConn women’s basketball associate head coach Chris Dailey’s blessing before getting her latest tattoo this summer.
At least, that’s Muhl’s story should Dailey ever ask.
While home in Croatia, Muhl got the word “loyalty” written in cursive tattooed on the right side of her neck. It’s her 16th tattoo.
“I’ve wanted this tattoo for quite a while,” Muhl said Thursday in Werth Champions Basketball Center. She laughed before adding, “I wouldn’t get a neck tat if I didn’t want it for a while.”
This is Nika Muhl.
She’s the fiery and aggressive yet chill 5-foot-10 junior point guard tasked with leading the Huskies this season while Paige Bueckers sits out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Muhl took over the role for 19 games last season while Bueckers was out with a tibial plateau fracture. This year, her role will expand even more.
“I want to lead this team. I want to be a good example,” Muhl said. “I want to keep working the hardest as I can in practice. There’s always going to be mistakes. I’m going to fail a couple times, maybe a lot of times; I hope not, but there’s definitely going to be failures, ups and downs. And I’m ready to embrace that, ready to take a bigger responsibility.”
Muhl was home in Croatia in August when she woke up at 5 a.m. from a text from Bueckers with the news of her injury.
She was heartbroken for her teammate and immediately tried calling Bueckers.
The two connected via FaceTime and Muhl began to cry.
“I just literally started crying, like I was bawling my eyes out,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
While she expected Bueckers to also be upset about the news, it was Bueckers consoling Muhl.
“It’s supposed to be the other way around,” Muhl said. “I’m supposed to be making her feel better and she was like, ‘No, Nika, don’t worry. It’s going to be fine.’ That’s the first time I was like, ‘All right, wow. She’s got this.’ Like she got me.”
The two are close friends off the court. Muhl calls Bueckers her sister and they often refer to one another as “twins” on social media. During that early morning FaceTime, Bueckers told Muhl it was her turn to lead the team.
“We kinda talked about what that’s gonna look like and how I can help her and how I can do everything I can to just sorta support her, because I know it’s hard playing the point guard,” Bueckers said. “Her role is obviously going to be bigger, she’s gonna have to look to shoot more and she’s gonna be the playmaker on the floor, the leader on the floor.
“It comes with a lot of pressure and a lot of weight on her shoulders and I know that she’s gonna carry it well, but anything that I can do to help, she knows I’m here.”
Last season, Muhl averaged 3.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 21.7 minutes per game. She played the first three full 40-minute games of her career while stepping in for Bueckers.
While there’s no replacing Bueckers, Muhl knows that she’s capable of stepping up.
Muhl’s aggressiveness got her in foul trouble often during her freshman year. Coach Geno Auriemma would bench her if she got called for too many too early and corrected her when she said the fouls were never her fault.
Yet it’s in the physicality that enables her to thrive on defense.
She was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Year last season after leading UConn’s underclassmen with 47 total steals.
One aspect of her game she’s worked on this summer is her shooting, especially her mid-range game.
Muhl, who played in 33 of 36 games last year, averaged a 43.1 shooting percentage, ranking her ninth on the team (out of players with 100 shot attempts or more).
While she doesn’t need to be the team’s lead scorer every night, she understands she needs to contribute more offensively.
“I’m not expecting myself to transform to a different player. That’s not going to happen overnight,” Muhl said. “But I have been working on things that I need to work on. And I’m confident in that right now.”
Stepping into a bigger role also means embracing a bigger spotlight.
“I don’t know if I would call it pressure,” she said. “I mean, even if it’s pressure, it’s good pressure. I embrace that pressure. You know, pressure is a big privilege for me here. And I always try to embrace it.”
But if there’s one thing to know about Muhl is that she’s loyal. Just like her tattoo says.
“That’s something that I cherish the most in people, whether it’s family, friends, whatever, any relationship, I just cherish it the most,” she said of the word now inscribed on her neck. “I feel like loyalty is even bigger than love for me.”
She works hard for those in her corner. She celebrates their wins and pushes them out of their comfort zones. Last spring, she helped convince Bueckers to help a fan ask his girlfriend to prom through TikTok.
Muhl’s left hand and wrist are decorated with multiple small tattoos honoring her family. She has “I love you” in Croatian written in her grandmother’s handwriting on the inside of her wrist. She said while most of the time the action of her getting a tattoo is spontaneous, each one is meaningful. She has one on her ankle and others that are “hidden” — she’ll laugh at you if you try to ask where. Per the longstanding team rules, Muhl covers each one with tape during games.
Tattoos last forever. So does the bond that forms between teammates.
Muhl feels ready to step up for her team and support Bueckers through her recovery.
“She really is my best friend, my sister,” Muhl said. “… As a teammate, I feel like with her approach to her injury right now, she gave all of us super, like a lot of, hope. We all know we lost the best player, the best scorer, the best passer; she’s just the best player on the team. So seeing her deal with this, so confidently and with so much maturity, definitely gives us the same feeling for our season that’s waiting for us.”
