There are times when Nika Muhl tries to unnecessarily thread a pass somewhere it has no chance of landing. Or she adds just a little extra flourish to a layup that she then misses.

It has caused UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, for whom Muhl is his junior point guard, to wish that Muhl would try to play like herself and not like she’s Diana

Taurasi or Sue Bird, two of the members of UConn’s Mount Rushmore.

Only then there was the week Muhl just finished.

She broke Bird’s single-season assists record, sitting at 236. Without national player of the year candidates Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd — both injured — to help her in the backcourt, Muhl averaged 36.5 minutes per game, lifting the Huskies as they won the Big East regular-season title.

“You don’t want to take that rambunctiousness, you don’t want to take that feistiness, that chip on your shoulder, wants to fight everybody every day, you don’t want to take that away from them because it’s part of their identity. But you have to show them how to manage it.”

UCONN COACH GENO AURIEMMA ON POINT GUARD NIKA MUHL

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Headed into today's Big East tournament opener against Georgetown at Mohegan Sun Arena (noon, FS1), Muhl was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season and to the all-league second team.

It's a fine line for Auriemma between not wanting Muhl to act like she's Bird, only needing Muhl to have Bird's personality, self-confidence, grit and ingenuity.

“I think the thing you have to be careful with when you have players like Nika is you don't want to take from them the things that makes them who they are,” Auriemma said Friday before practice at the Werth Family Champions Center.

“You don't want to take that rambunctiousness, you don't want to take that feistiness, that chip on your shoulder, wants to fight everybody every day, you don't want to take that away from them because it's part of their identity,” Auriemma said. “But you have to show them how to manage it, how to use it successfully to benefit them and our team.”

Auriemma went on to call Muhl “invaluable” to the Huskies, 26-5 and seeded first in the tournament.

Muhl is averaging 7.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, as well as 7.9 assists (second in the nation) and 1.3 steals per game. She joins another program great in Nykesha Sales as the only member of the Huskies to earn the Defensive Player of the Year nod twice in a career.

UConn's Aaliyah Edwards and Lou Lopez Senechal each earned Big East first team honors this week. Both broke into wide grins when asked about the 5-foot-10 Muhl's accomplishments.

Listening to Muhl's comic retelling of the story regarding a congratulatory FaceTime session this week with Bird, gives you an idea why her teammates smile at the mention of Muhl, who wear's Bird's famed No. 10 jersey.

“I don't usually answer unknown FaceTime calls ever. She was lucky that I answered,” Muhl said, her hands behind her back, facing the media Friday. “I never answer. This is probably the first or second one I answered in my life.

“So I answer and I'm like, `Who is it?' I'm in my robe. I have a towel on my head. I'm, like, straight out of the shower. I answer and it's Sue Bird sunbathing somewhere tropical. I'm like, `Wow, this is crazy.' So she congratulated me and she told me how proud she is. We had a nice little chat. I really appreciate that. I told her `I respect you so much.'”

Muhl, who hails from Zagreb, Croatia, set UConn's single-game assist record this year with 15. She has recorded double-digit assists nine times this season, the only Husky to accomplish that more than three times in a season.

In fact, following South Carolina's victory over UConn on Feb. 5 at the XL Center, opposing coach Dawn Staley revealed that her game plan was for Gamecocks defender Raven Johnson to seek out Muhl.

“We wanted somebody else to initiate their offense just as some sort of disruption and then when we got into the halfcourt, she didn't ever touch the ball without her actually feeling (Johnson),” Staley said.

“When Muhl doesn't have it, that's the country's leader in assists. She can't really make people better if she doesn't really have the ball.”

Muhl has spent much of the season lauding her teammates, talking about other people's superlatives, shouldering much of the blame for UConn's turnover problems.

Before Friday, she hadn't talked much about herself. Even then it was brief. She had approximately seven minutes with the media before practice.

“I mean, I was just talking to my dad the other day,” Muhl said. “I told him `If you told me at the beginning of the year, if you told me all that would happen, I would think you're crazy.'

“There's been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of unexpected things coming my way that I never thought. I never looked at myself as being that player receiving awards or individual recognition. I was always more focused on my team and the way I can help my team.”

Muhl said that in the past, she believes she was “uncoachable” due to a stubborn streak.

“Of course, I would be nowhere without (assistant coaches) Morgan (Valley), CD (Chris Dailey), Jamelle (Elliott) and coach (Auriemma),” she said. “They never gave up on me.”

“I've always said ever since I got here in the summer that she's the core of the team that brings the energy and the leadership that everyone needs and she's bringing it the whole year,” said Lopez Senchal, a graduate transfer. “I know especially around this time that she's going to keep bringing it. Her character and personality on the court, she's not letting anything go through her.”