“It felt like a month to me, it was great. The Huskies weren’t allowed to travel home for winter break in 2020 due to COVID-19 but this past winter, Nika made the trip even if it meant just two-and-a-half days at home.
When she goes home to Croatia, Darko jokes that his daughter is hardly home since she’s always out catching up with friends. Nika cherishes her relationships and likes to be surrounded by close friends and family. “They really make my days here feel like I’m at home.” Prioritizing her people “My teammates and the people here, they have been the biggest thing for me,” Nika said. Her teammates were family while hers remained overseas.
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They tried getting her to share their shoe obsession and even taught her how to not crease a sneaker when walking. They introduced her to mac-and-cheese and how homemade - specifically McLean’s - is always better than the box version. Quickly the teammates became close friends. Along with Saylor Poffenbarger - who enrolled early - they made up over half the 12-person roster. Nika’s freshmen class included Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Piath Gabriel, Mir McLean, and Autumn Chassion. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with it, but I managed to do it and I had a lot of people help me deal with it.” “It was definitely a scary thought, and it was scary when I came here. I’m staying here.’ My mom and dad looked at me crazy, like laughing at me. “I was crying, I was going crazy,” Nika said.
Sure, she’d been away from family and friends for weeks at a time - but never as long as nine months. She was used to being away from home from growing up playing club basketball throughout Europe, but three days before her first flight to Connecticut ahead of her freshman season she was filled with nerves. She spends her cross-Atlantic flights searching the plane for empty seats to lay out and sleep. There’s no direct flight and oftentimes Nika’s travel back home can take up to 22 hours. While she had to learn how to tame her physicality on the court to avoid fouls, she’d find her role as the team’s backup point guard.Ĭroatia is over 4,000 miles from Connecticut. Coach Geno Auriemma flew to Croatia to recruit the 5-foot-10 guard in person. It was that stubborn and energetic personality that made her competitive and led to Nika committing to UConn. Like, that was what I was gonna end up doing.” “They wanted me to try other things, but I was pretty stubborn and at the end, I was like, ‘I enjoy playing basketball with boys outside more than I enjoy my volleyball practice in the evening,’” Nika said. It wasn’t long before she knew she only wanted to play basketball. She always thought about basketball and listened to all the stories her parents told her about their careers in the sport.
Nika tried swimming, triathlon, volleyball, and even spent a week trying out tennis.īefore practices, she’d spend her days playing basketball with boys at a nearby playground.
Whether it was because sports played such an important role in his life - both he and Roberta are former basketball players - or as a way to find an outlet for Nika’s endless energy, the activities became important. From Croatia to Connecticutĭarko got his daughters into sports early. She’s matured and grown through her first two collegiate seasons on the court, but it’s her priority in the relationships she’s made along the way with the people who support her the most that have made the soon-to-be junior ready for her upperclassman years. Off the court, the 2022 Big East Defensive Player of the Year is still that same genuine kid she was many years ago when she ran through the parks of Zagreb. Her aggressiveness is shown in her physicality, ripping balls away mid-dribble from opponents and continually sparking her UConn women’s basketball teammates. Instead of running away from her parents at parks, she’s weaving in and out of defenders on the court, chasing and diving after every loose ball. All these years later, Nika is still that energetic.