By Susan Harman

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Iowa coach Lisa Bluder was adamant that Friday’s NCAA semi-final game between Iowa and Connecticut was not “Paige vs Caitlin.”

Good luck selling that to national television broadcasters who have spent the whole week hyping the game as just that and all the reporters that crammed into interview rooms to see both UConn’s star Paige Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.

They are the celebrities in the game, for sure. Bueckers won the Naismith Player of the Year as a freshman before suffering injuries that cost her much of her sophomore season and all of her junior season. Clark won the Naismith award as a junior and senior and every other award for someone playing her position.

This year in the NCAA tournament games Bueckers is averaging 28 points, nine rebounds and is shooting .435 from 3-point range. She is a deft ball-handler, accurate shooter and good defender. Her injuries derailed her chances to pile up multiple POY awards. She was the big deal before Clark seized the spotlight.

Bluder was among the many coaches who trekked to Minnesota to see Bueckers and recruit her.

“What’s always impressed me is her ability to stop on a dime and elevate with her shot, and she’s already got great size, but I would say like Caitlin, she’s grown in her team aspect,” Bluder said. “Having really good players around them and relying on those other really great players and not having to do everything yourself. The last five games she’s averaging almost five assists a game, so she’s giving up the ball as well as her scoring has increased.”

“We know they have Paige on their team; we’re not going to keep her to zero points,” Iowa’s Kate Martin said, stating the obvious. “But I think we’re going to change up, different defenses, throw some different things at them, keep them on their toes.

“But really at this point in the season it’s really more about us than who we’re going against. We’re going to continue to focus on things that we focused on all year and play Iowa basketball. I think that’s the main thing is executing what we need to do.”

And that was the Iowa message Thursday. No hints about offense or defense or analysis of matchups. Both teams acknowledged the obvious, that UConn is primarily playing six players and has little relief on the bench after another series of injuries took out five players.

The Huskies have 6-foot-3 second-team All American Aaliyah Edwards in the post, and 6-3 freshman Ice Brady as backup, but their key is 5-10 senior point guard Nika Muhl, an honorable mention All American.

Muhl, from Zagreb, Croatia, is so intense on the court that she undoubtedly serves the role as a classic UConn villain. In reality she is a charming, introspective, hard-working player that will cause your team fits.

Muhl was asked about her reactions after UConn upset 1 seed Southern California in the Elite 8 game.

“It was a very rewarding feeling of gratefulness, just being blessed that I’m able to be here and share these moments with my team, but also just super surprised and shocked that we pull this off even as much as I believe in our team, and I always believe that we can win every game,” she said. “There’s always a little part of you that still knows that you’re the underdog.”

She said UConn “played our butts off” in the exhausting effort. “I was ready to go to bed immediately right there on the court,” she said.

She was tired because she was charged with guarding USC’s freshman phenom, JuJu Watkins. Watkins was just the last in a long line of star scorers that Muhl has had to defend. Clark is next. Third-team All American Dyaisha Fair of Syracuse came in the second round. Fair finished her career third among the NCAA’s all-time scorers behind Clark and Kelsey Plum.

“I love guarding players that are so great at what they do,” Muhl said. “I feel like it’s a great challenge for me; I enjoy it. But at the end of the day every time we face teams like that it comes down to team defense and nothing else. I’m having a lot of fun. Those are definitely three great players, three great scorers on all three levels. It’s been a fun ride.”

Muhl guarded Clark last season in a Thanksgiving tournament game in Portland, Ore.

“I feel like she’s just one of a kind,” Muhl said. “She’s the only person she reminds me of, the person I played last year. She’s very specific, unique. It’s hard because she has both scoring ability and great court vision. It’s going to be a really great matchup for me. I feel like it’s going to be fun for me to guard her.”

She said she takes pride in these assignments. “And it kind of feeds my ego a little bit, if I can selfishly say that,” she said, laughed.

“I’ve always loved defense more than offense, I guess because I was so much better at it. I enjoyed guarding good players, and I had to learn so much on the defensive end. So much goes into it that people don’t really understand. That’s what drives me. I take it personal.”

Muhl’s only issue has come with foul problems. She said part of the issue was that in Europe the game is more aggressive, and she had to adjust to the way it’s called here. She was able to stay on the floor at the end against USC with four fouls, and that was key to UConn’s success. Earlier in the season when she fouled out against Notre Dame (and the Irish won) she said it took her three weeks to recover from the disappointment.

“It felt like someone ripped a piece of my soul out of me, but that’s what it’s supposed to feel like,” she said. “Because when you’re passionate about the game, when you love it, and when you disappoint your team, that’s what it’s supposed to feel like.”

It’s not Clark vs Bueckers. But it might well be Clark vs Muhl, and that will be as combustible as it gets.