UConn WBB Weekly: How Paige Bueckers and Nika Mühl became “twins”

Welcome to the UConn WBB Weekly, a recap of everything that happened in the world of UConn women’s basketball over the past week.

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Headlines

From the UConn WBB Weekly:

• Recruiting Update: UConn offers top 2023 prospect, in top-12 for another
• Film Room: What went wrong in UConn’s Final Four loss to Arizona (Part one)
• What went wrong in UConn’s Final Four loss to Arizona (Part two)
• UConn in the WNBA: Napheesa Collier’s latest milestone puts her in good company

From The UConn Blog:

• Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers patiently waiting to play together as UConn teammates
• How UConn women’s basketball is handling NIL
• Paige Bueckers, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart take home honors at 2021 ESPYs

Last week’s Weekly

• UConn WBB Weekly: Evina Westbrook no longer just “Momma E” for the Huskies

Elsewhere:

• How Geno Auriemma used Vanderbilt football to sell women’s basketball job to Shea Ralph (The Tennessean) — An interesting anecdote about Auriemma and a good breakdown of what Ralph has to do at Vanderbilt.

How Paige Bueckers and Nika Mühl became “twins”

After UConn’s Feb. 5 win at Marquette, Paige Bueckers and Nika Mühl sat together on a Zoom call with reporters when they were asked about playing together. They both smiled and Mühl threw her arm around Bueckers.

“I mean, this is my slime, this is my twin,” Mühl said of Bueckers.

“We might not look alike — I might be blonde — but she’s my twin,” Bueckers chimed in.

“We’re twins, it’s not that hard to play together,” Mühl added.

It didn’t take long for the joke to catch on. A few weeks later, Geno Auriemma even got in on the fun — even though he had no idea what he was saying.

“She’s my slime, man. What can I tell you? They tell me that’s like the ultimate...That’s my slime,” he said about Mühl. “I just heard from my players that that’s really, really cool.”

As it turns out, there isn’t much of an origin story behind the nickname. It just began organically and managed to stick.

“The twin thing? [...] I feel like just on the go, we just started calling each other twins, realized we’re similar in a lot of ways like very competitive, very stubborn — very stubborn — so I feel like it just started from there.”

Although the twin joke specifically relates to Bueckers and Mühl, it’s also a product of the overall team chemistry, which was aided by the fact they weren’t allowed to socialize with anyone other than themselves because of the pandemic.

“You guys saw me and Paige a lot but I feel like we’re all like that. We’re all like that,” Mühl said. “We’re just so open with each other, and of course she’s my twin, she’ll always be, but my team is just — this is something different. We have a different vibe. We’re just so connected.”

That’s carried over into this year even with three new freshmen in the mix.

“For freshmen, they’re a great group of people,” Mühl said. “They’re so fun, they’re so open too so it’s not hard to get along. Everybody’s just very nice and knows how to have fun. That’s what’s most important.”

The Huskies also added Ohio State transfer Dorka Juhász, who’s originally from Hungary. As a native of Croatia herself, Mühl appreciates the presence of another European.

“She’s funny. It’s just us Europeans, man,” Mühl laughed. “I love Dorka.”

Best of social media

A behind-the-scenes look at UConn in the weight room:

How to find the entire team on Twitter:

Paige Bueckers made her first endorsement: