2024 WNBA DRAFT: NIKA MüHL SELECTED 14TH OVERALL BY SEATTLE STORM
For the second time, a UConn point guard who wears No. 10 is heading to the Pacific Northwest. On Monday, the Seattle Storm took Nika Mühl with the second pick in the second round, 14th overall, in the 2024 WNBA Draft in Brooklyn, following in Sue Bird’s footsteps from Storrs.
“It’s huge shoes to fill,” Mühl told ESPN.
The point guard departs UConn as the best passer in program history. She sits atop the program’s single-game, single-season, and all-time assists lists and is the only player to pile up 200+ helpers in multiple seasons.
Mühl got drafted because of her defensive prowess, though.
She typically guarded opponents’ top guard and usually forced them to have a bad night. During the NCAA Tournament, she faced Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair (third on the women’s college basketball scoring list), USC’s JuJu Watkins (the highest-scoring freshman in the history of the sport), and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (college basketball’s all-time scorer, men’s or women’s) — all three had sub-standard performances.
Mühl’s effort against Clark — holding the superstar to a season-low point total — in the Final Four helped push her up draft boards.
“In terms of Nika specifically, I had one person say to me they’ve never seen somebody’s draft stock rise so much because of one performance in a loss,” ESPN analyst and former UConn great Rebecca Lobo said.
The Zagreb, Croatia native was a two-time pick for Big East Defensive Player of the Year, all-conference second team, and AP All-American honorable mention. Mühl is the 47th UConn player drafted to the WNBA.