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

Mühl explained the origin behind a running joke about her and Bueckers.

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NCAA Womens Basketball: South Carolina at Connecticut David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

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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.”


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