Tyler Polley 2P%

[upstater]

Boatright came here when Calhoun was head coach. Ollie helped recruit him. Someone already cut this up for you in another thread, but not a big difference from Junior Year Boat to Senior Year Boat. Great player, just a higher plateau.


But, even if we wanted to just ignore reality and say 'sure, i'll give you Boat' - then literally that's probably it. Almost everyone was a disappointment, plateau'd, bailed, or got better the second they went anywhere else be it another college or the NBA. Like literally almost every player.

So no one's going out of their way to slag him. He stunk. Great dude, great ambassador for UConn basketball for a lot of reasons. Absolutely terrible basketball coach who did a ton of damage to the program and the brand as a whole. Full stop.

Amazes me that you forget Boat's senior year when he improved greatly. Shot at a higher volume for similar percentages. Ran the offense.

Bazz improved, Giffey improved, Daniels (a kid who was stuck on the bench) improved.

I'm not going to argue with you that he was a bad coach--because he was. But to say these 4 guys didn't improve under him is just inaccurate and reaching. Hell, Phil freakin' Nolan improved!!! That's 5.

 

[tykurez]

Boatright came here when Calhoun was head coach. Ollie helped recruit him. Someone already cut this up for you in another thread, but not a big difference from Junior Year Boat to Senior Year Boat. Great player, just a higher plateau.


But, even if we wanted to just ignore reality and say 'sure, i'll give you Boat' - then literally that's probably it. Almost everyone was a disappointment, plateau'd, bailed, or got better the second they went anywhere else be it another college or the NBA. Like literally almost every player.

So no one's going out of their way to slag him. He stunk. Great dude, great ambassador for UConn basketball for a lot of reasons. Absolutely terrible basketball coach who did a ton of damage to the program and the brand as a whole. Full stop.

You’ve triggered Tenspro’s alert system.

 

[gtcam]

Why is Ollie getting mentioned?

Polley will be a good 4-year player and is turning out to be a good zone buster.

Because some folks have nothing better to do and are hoping for likes
The guy is gone - Rodney, Bazz, Giffey, Boat and others will tell you that they thought the world of KO and considered him a good coach - that's all I care about
But they will also probably agree to some extent (definitely not Bazz or RP) that KO should have had better results in the wins/loss area. Both Bazz and RP feel that if AG was healthy that the results would have been different and have stated that openly
As far as Polley - he has lots more confidence in his offense but is a liability on D - plain and simple
Has Cobb really improved overall and consistent? Yeah he lost weight and is more agile. Love what he did vs Cuse and Iowa BUT what about since then - against "cupcakes"?
I will say that Dan Hurley is a very good college coach and glad he has cutback on his antics (I think his Dad got to him). He is much more suited for the college game vs KO. But let's remember, Dan Hurley has been a head coach before and this isn't his first gig and he isn't replacing a HoFer
Glad Dan Hurley is at UConn and glad that the team is experiencing Health (knock on wood) and a winning attitude.
Let's leave KO out of every discussion

 

[ctchamps]

How much did he improve after Bazz left?

The converse can be said about how much has Jalen improved having Alterique and Tarin (that is five guards versus three last season). There are lots of contributing factors to results.

There is a lot I give Coach Hurley credit for this teams play and a lot for which I felt KO contributed to poor play. But there are people in this forum who would go out of their way to blame climate change, war in the world and pestilence on KO just to slam the guy.

 

[ctchamps]

I beg teams to play zone vs us with Polley in the middle. He actually have reliable 3 pt shooting and big men who can catch. Polley can hit the mid range or drive. He’s pretty decisive and makes good decisions. I also like Cobb there but he still makes me nervous. Tries to make the spectacular play or just whips at someone who is 2 ft away. Cuse inexplicably let Jalen into the middle of the zone a few times and he’s virtually unstoppable from once he gets there.

We've demonstrated at this early stage we are a better half court team against the zone than man to man. Going into this season, given the guard situation, I would never have guessed that. Against New Hampshire Polley was money from the foul line against their zone. Dan Hurley was effective in that role but primarily because he had the option to lob to Brimah.

The thing I would like to see him develop is the ability to stop and pop. He's only been called once this season for a charge, but I get nervous every time he drives in the lane.

 

[JimHurley]

Polley’s game is coming along nicely. I still think he is a natural 3, not a 4 and cannot defend the 4 but he’s given us everything we’ve needed thus far. He’s shooting well and always gets out and runs on the fast break. I’m looking forward to 2.5 more years of him

 

[Scrutineer]

Amazing how some here are anointing Giffey as someone Polley should aspire to emulate. He already has if you look simply at scoring average.
Giffey was a nice four year player who did it at both ends, but he only averaged a little over 2 points per game his first two years, 4+ as a junior and 8+ as a senior. Polley averaged 2+ as a freshman and is just under 9 as a sophomore. If Polley continues that trajectory we'll need to compare him to Daniels. Now if he can improve the defense and rebounding who do we compare him to?

 

[Stainmaster]

Amazing how some here are anointing Giffey as someone Polley should aspire to emulate. He already has if you look simply at scoring average.
Giffey was a nice four year player who did it at both ends, but he only averaged a little over 2 points per game his first two years, 4+ as a junior and 8+ as a senior. Polley averaged 2+ as a freshman and is just under 9 as a sophomore. If Polley continues that trajectory we'll need to compare him to Daniels. Now if he can improve the defense and rebounding who do we compare him to?

Senior Giffey contributed to games in ways far beyond a box score -- his ability to successfully guard 4s and 5s, for one.

Even if you do stick to the most basic of statistics, Giffey was an outstanding rebounder for his size. Polley isn't close yet.

 

[MuchoDogYears]

to say these 4 guys didn't improve under him is just inaccurate and reaching. Hell, Phil freakin' Nolan improved!!! That's 5.

Phil Nolan improved? I must have missed that game...that half?...that time out?

 

[upstater]

Phil Nolan improved? I must have missed that game...that half?...that time out?

I thought there was no hope for him. Sure enough, he improved his senior year. 3 years of flatlining, then some improvement.

 

[tzznandrew]

Senior Giffey contributed to games in ways far beyond a box score -- his ability to successfully guard 4s and 5s, for one.

Even if you do stick to the most basic of statistics, Giffey was an outstanding rebounder for his size. Polley isn't close yet.

A lot of people on the board do overrate Giffey. That said you won't find many players in college basketball who affect the outcome as much as Giffey did while averaging under 10ppg. Great, flexible defense, off the charts 3-point shooting that gave Bazz, Boat, and Daniels the interior space to drive/post-up, smart passing, crazy hustle, solid rebounding.

He was the fourth best player on that title team, but his PPG just can't possibly account for what he really did.

 

[Waquoit]

Giffey also played 24 minutes as a freshman in the 2011 NC Final game.

 

[stick]

A lot of people on the board do overrate Giffey. That said you won't find many players in college basketball who affect the outcome as much as Giffey did while averaging under 10ppg. Great, flexible defense, off the charts 3-point shooting that gave Bazz, Boat, and Daniels the interior space to drive/post-up, smart passing, crazy hustle, solid rebounding.

He was the fourth best player on that title team, but his PPG just can't possibly account for what he really did.

Giffey made a huge leap from his junior year to his senior year. I think no one expected the jump he made and i don't think his senior year should be so easily discounted. He nearly doubled his scoring in nearly the same amount of minutes and suddenly became a nearly 50% 3 pt shooter. He also greatly increased his overall FG% while playing great team D and play minutes at almost 4 positions.

 

[Scrutineer]

Senior Giffey contributed to games in ways far beyond a box score -- his ability to successfully guard 4s and 5s, for one.

Even if you do stick to the most basic of statistics, Giffey was an outstanding rebounder for his size. Polley isn't close yet.

I get all that, very well understand Giffey's overall contributions to the team, and was a fan of his starting in Maui his freshman year. I also thought it was obvious my focus was on how good a player Polley could become.

A fair number of people here are touting Wilson (who's a mystery right now) and may be overlooking how much Polley has improved in just one year. Since this thread was about his shooting, I mentioned he is already emulating Giffey "if you simply look at scoring average", and then summarized their averages by class to illustrate that Giffey did not contribute much, offensively, in his first three years. After acknowledging Giffey's contributions on both ends of the floor, I said we may have someone really special on our hands if Polley improves his defense and rebounding. He seemed to gain confidence as last year progressed and he's night and day better than the first six games of last year so if his development continues on that trajectory who knows how good he could become?

 

[Chief00]

Improvement in general has been pretty minimal over the past few years. The last player that I remember really improving was Deandre Daniels. Maybe Shabazz. Maybe Boatright. Kenton Facey improved at the tail end of his career. All the transfers didn't help. It's tough to gauge who's improving when 2 players/year leave. Brimah didn't improve much. Rodney Purvis didn't improve much. DHam left really early. I suspect he didn't see himself improving much. Sorry for turning this into a KO bashing thread, but this season may open our eyes a bit. On how much we were lacking as far as player development. This should probably be a separate thread.

Suddenly we have 2 player (and maybe more) that clearly have improved. Polley looks like a contributor and Cobb lost a ton of weight and is player very good.

Bazz improved a lot.

 

[Chief00]

Giffey made a huge leap from his junior year to his senior year. I think no one expected the jump he made and i don't think his senior year should be so easily discounted. He nearly doubled his scoring in nearly the same amount of minutes and suddenly became a nearly 50% 3 pt shooter. He also greatly increased his overall FG% while playing great team D and play minutes at almost 4 positions.

Part of that leap was KO playing him more.

 

[stick]

Part of that leap was KO playing him more.

You mean 4 minutes a game more. He went from 21 minutes per game to 24.7 minutes per game. Giffey was a complete nonfactor as a 3 pt shooter to being nearly 50% as a senior.

 

[jibsey]

This morning’s Courant article has quotes from Carlton and Vital who both referred to Polley as “the best shooter in the country”. That is not a light comment from guys who play at this level, teammate or not, especially when you consider the number of talented shooters they saw last year who are still out there. If Polley gets even more aggressive and becomes a primary scoring option he could put up big numbers, especially if he goes to the line where he doesn’t miss much.

 

[dennismenace]

This was one of the things I was keeping an eye on to improve this year. His percentage last year was so bad that you knew he was going to improve because it just couldn't be that bad again.

Next I'd like to see Alterique improve in the same category. He shot about 36% last year from 2 and is only up to 38% this year. As he learns how to score amongst the trees and make better decisions in the paint that number should go up.

Kind of reminiscent of many of our point guards in their early years.

 

[awfuldan]

Polley checks out 3 for 3 from 2. Some beautiful drives from him tonight.

1 - 4 from 3. Had a couple I thought were going in that didn't. Could be worse though!