Like Mike Tyson reportedly said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Renée may have had a bit of the same stuff Mike was made of.
Bingo!!!
"Stepping on necks" thereby depriving your opponent of life giving breath (and any hope of a come back), is one of the components of having or exhibiting a killer instinct. That was always he hope and desire of Michael, Kobe, Tarausi and as Bone Dog suggests, Renee Montgomery, to thoroughly and completely take all of the hope and will from their opponents. None of these players ever asked for any quarter, and never gave any, regardless of the score. 
one of the common threads of a killer instinct is the hope/desire to quickly demoralize the opponent, preferably by halftime.
How can a player that had 7 TO's and only 3 points in the biggest game of the year even be in the discussion?
Some people do not have a clue, even after all this time has gone by. We played about 37 games, maybe we can pick a few games that dispute your characterization of Nika. Tunnel vision, geeze
Well said about that great team, Matty, and I'll narrow it down to say, if this were a thread about all-time UConn 'killers,' I'd have Shea right near the top of the list, and we never got to see the best from her.
I don't think they have had a killer instinct since Stewart. To me there is a big difference between being clutch and being able to put a team away earlier in the game, the killer instinct. With that said I think Paige has shown she is clutch in big games but other than her I haven't really seen anyone step up when the game needs to be taken over and actually can do it.
I've been pretty consistant about not giving any weight to performances that come against against the JV.
Then consider Nika’s performance against top teams last season, like Texas, NC St, Iowa, Tennessee and SC. These were not JV squads. SC in particular designed their game plan specifically to stop her.
They got smoked in a Sweet 16 game, not a Final Four game. That's not UConn BB. And I don't mean to be critical Muhl, she's trying and working hard. I'm critical the folks here peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining.
With all due respect, you might be peeing on your own leg and think it's others if you believe it doesn't appear that, as you say , 'you don't mean to be critical of Mühl'. That loss was a team breakdown and team loss. Nika had her worst game of the season in that loss but her performance in that loss was an anomaly within the exceptional season she had. Last years squad as a team did not show a killer instinct but unquestionably exceeded any expectations and I would venture that had they not fallen to tOSU, even with all they had to fight through all season, they very possibly could have won it all.
Nika made some mistakes but with Edwards out she was playing with 4 other players who couldn't play physical enough to break a press. The lacked the ability to catch a pass and they certainly didn't attack the basket when they did break the press. But the biggest weakness to me was early in the game when they had several open 3's that would have put them up by 10 and they couldn't make one of them. That is the killer instinct mentioned in this thread that was missing.
Mr. Positive, please don’t ever change. I always enjoy reading your comments. I may not always agree with you, But I enjoy the balance you bring to the table. This would be a very boring and unimadgenitive board if we all agreed on every topic. Blah.
I don’t think the loss to tOSU was Nika’s fault. Some here think that but watching that game, I come to a very different conclusion. So, if that’s your main reason for dismissing her, I can’t agree. But you said she’d only done well against JV type opponents. Well, I showed you some top 10 opponents she played exceptionally well against.
Let's get this straight, I'm not blaming Nika for the loss. I'm not saying the loss was her fault, it was a team loss. I'm saying I disagree with the killer instinct claim. And my "peeing on my leg" part comes from my experience with the "our girls" contingent on the board overrating players and clustering like army ants over any criticism. I went through it with KLS when I dared to say that the Big 3 was really a Big 2 based on performance against the varsity. Of course, subsequent perfromance as a professional has validated my point.
I'm much closer to you on this than you might have thought. I didn't list Nika as a prime killer in my post -- for me that's Paige and Azzi, because they drop the daggers. I do think she is a fierce competitor. But that's not the same thing. And I certainly don't think she's the best pg out there, much less on the huskies.
I've said this before, I'll say it again, Edwards sitting on the bench with foul troubles was huge. How many times did she park herself at mid-court to help break the press during the regular season? Who helped Nika against tOSU? Who filled in for Edwards? I'll give you a hint, it was a nice round number, like zero. Did Nika turn the ball over, well she took the stats, but it was a team thing. You disagree? Go rewatch the game.
Strange at this point to come to KLS' defense four years after her final UConn game, but a defense of KLS is called for.
