Paige Bueckers Supports Nika Muhl After Her Second ACL Injury Announcement

Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings are preparing for the 2026 WNBA season, opening on the road against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. The Wings are looking to improve on their 2025 campaign, when they finished 10-34 and missed the playoffs. But Bueckers still impressed in her rookie year, averaging 19.2 points, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Before Bueckers was an All-Star in the WNBA, the guard made a name for herself in college with the UConn Huskies. From 2020 to 2025, she earned three unanimous first-team All-American honors, while winning the AP Player of the Year in 2021. And during her senior season, Bueckers finally led UConn to a national championship win. However, one of her former Connecticut teammates recently had some unfortunate injury news to share.

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Nika Muhl spent four seasons alongside Bueckers at UConn, becoming a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year. She was selected by the Seattle Storm with the No. 14 pick in the second round of the 2024 WNBA Draft and has spent the last two seasons there. Muhl didn’t see much action in her rookie year with Seattle, averaging just 0.1 points and 0.6 rebounds in 16 games.

However, ahead of the 2025 WNBA season, her second with the Storm, Muhl suffered a torn ACL in her left knee while playing in Turkey, forcing her to miss the entire year. And just as she was preparing for the 2026 season, Muhl announced on Wednesday that she had torn her ACL yet again, this time in her right knee, which will sideline her for the entire year.

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“October 2024 & March 2026,” Muhl wrote on Instagram. “(Expletive) happens twice but so does the get back. Thank you for all the love 💘”

Bueckers took notice of Muhl’s recent post and offered some words of encouragement for her college teammate in the comments: “Two new and improved knees incoming 😝😝😝.”