UConn women’s basketball star Nika Muhl announces this will be her last season with the Huskies
Four black-and-white photos posted to social confirmed that Nika Muhl’s historic career as a UConn women’s basketball player will come to an end at the end of this season.
The Huskies’ senior posed in a black convertible Mercedes alongside coach Geno Auriemma, both wearing sunglass and putting on straight faces for the camera. The fourth and final image was a smiling Auriemma embracing Muhl in front of the Werth Family Basketball Center in Storrs.
“Last ride with my G,” Muhl captioned her post, adding a heart emoticon. “(Peace) out UConn Nation, I will miss you so much!”
Muhl, a second-team All-Big East selection in 2023-24, is averaging a team-high 6.4 assists per game plus 7.1 points and four rebounds while shooting a career-high 48.3% from the field and 41.4% from 3-point range. She is a two-time conference defensive player of the year (2022 and 2023), and she is one assist away from her second consecutive season with at least 200. The senior currently ranks fourth all-time in the program record book with 632 career assists, trailing only Jennifer Rizzotti (637), Diana Taurasi (648) and Moriah Jefferson (659).
The native of Croatia will likely enter the 2024 WNBA Draft where she is projected as a late-round pick, though she can also pursue professional opportunities closer to home in Europe.
“Her first couple months of freshman year I didn’t think she was going to get six assists, much less 600,” Auriemma during the Huskies’ Senior Night. “Her passion for the game, her love of the game, the intensity level that she practices at every day … She took a big risk coming all the way over here, and I’m thrilled for her. I root her her. To be where she is right now, it’s a real blessing to her family, and to us as coaches to coach her every day. It’s pretty amazing.
Muhl is the first of UConn’s four seniors to announce plans to leave following this season, leaving Aaliyah Edwards as the only one who has yet to announce a decision. Star guard Paige Bueckers will return to use her redshirt season after missing all of 2022-23 with a torn ACL, and Aubrey Griffin also plans to come back for a fifth season after suffering the same injury against Creighton on Jan. 3.
Edwards, who has said she will not decide until after the season is over, was named to the All-Big East first team for the second season in a row after averaging 17.9 points and 9.5 rebounds during the regular season. The No. 9 Huskies kick off their postseason against Providence in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament on Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville.
