Tyler Polley | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Tyler Polley

David 76 said:
It's not just the numbers, it was the fight
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This. The softest player on the team went in and hit people in the mouth. He's 6'9", not all that slight and can jump. Maybe he took something away from how guys with no particular talent exerted their will against UConn in the USF and Cinci games. Now we just need that from everybody but Vital, who needs to tone it down and be a little smarter.
 
Where the heck did this player come from???Normally I say he has a good game when he shoots well but last night he was aggressive, played good D, went after rebounds, and finished at the rim. This literally looked like a different player than we’ve seen the first 2.5 years of his collegiate career. If last night was any indication of what he’s capable of we MIGHT have something special.
 
I'm not getting my hopes up.

They overshifted all night. He was left wide open and drove and took higher percentage shots. Loved the intensity to get in the lane and go for rebounds but he can be intense all he wants against Houston/Memphis/Wichita and it's not going to make the difference it did tonight. They didn't box out at all and we got way too many second chance shots.

What i'm saying is - the way this Tulane team is constituted and how they play is exactly the kind of team Polley should be wrecking.

I 1,000000000% hope i'm wrong. But this is the kind of performance that fools people.
 
19 and 11 against the brighter lights of the AAC would be great, obviously, but I'm not holding my breath. I will be holding my breath to see him continue to be aggressive on both boards, and look for his shot both at the 3 point line and taking it to the basket. There's no reason he shouldn't be 12 and 5 routinely.
 
UCfor3 said:
I kind of disagree but that's ok. I doubt it was their strategy for him not to rebound last year when he played the 4 almost the entire year. I think he's not glued to the bench because he's a junior and he could shoot and Sid is a bit mercurial. I don't necessarily think he was suddenly released to rebound tonight. I think he just decided to mix it up and not shy away from contact. His desire and aggressiveness was something we have not seen from him before. He was like a man possessed. It also probably helped a little that Tulane is not a great rebounding team or overly physical but I don't want to take away from his effort in any way. I hope it carries over.
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I'm definitely not disagreeing with the notion of some of his minutes per game are based on no one on the bench pushing for minutes. And not just bench players, but lack of any displeasure from Hurley on his performances, either in game or during pressers.

I think we can mostly agree something happened to make him play like he did and we'd all like to see more of it. Effort and aggressiveness are tools a player can bring to every game even when jump shots aren't falling.
 
Polley played so freaking angry. You can tell when he slapped the floor with like 5 minutes to go or something when he was on the ground. Maybe he got mad at his barber for the haircut which I think looks nice anyway. Come on polley keep up your TOUGH play and grab those boards, we need all guys in when it comes to relentless rebounding and UCONN BASKETBALL
 
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JimHurley said:
Where the heck did this player come from???Normally I say he has a good game when he shoots well but last night he was aggressive, played good D, went after rebounds, and finished at the rim. This literally looked like a different player than we’ve seen the first 2.5 years of his collegiate career. If last night was any indication of what he’s capable of we MIGHT have something special.
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Tulane is 308th in DReb% and 261st in OReb% so I think a lot of last night was based on the matchup. That being said, we’ve played against bad rebounding teams before, and it still wasn’t Polley who stepped up and owned the glass. Last night was encouraging. Hopefully, like a shooter seeing one fall, Polley saw the dividends of his aggression and will be more confident playing that way going forward.
 
UConnStats said:
Tulane is 308th in DReb% and 261st in OReb% so I think a lot of last night was based on the matchup. That being said, we’ve played against bad rebounding teams before, and it still wasn’t Polley who stepped up and owned the glass. Last night was encouraging. Hopefully, like a shooter seeing one fall, Polley saw the dividends of his aggression and will be more confident playing that way going forward.
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Nah. You could put the regular Polley out there against 4th grade girls and he'd still stand on the 3 point line and watch shots go up, and fall, without ever going after them. I'm not sure the way he played before he could out-fight a chair for a board. He only showed energy when finishing 3's on the break, and on defense (sometimes). The rest of the time he looked like he needed a nap.

Something got through to him and he changed his approach last night. Now will TP, even with that approach be 19-11 against better teams? No, he will not. But he didn't play harder because Tulane wasn't good. He's faced a lot worse teams than Tulane.
 
After the game, Polley was interviewed and said basically that. He went with what the defense allowed him on offense and took advantage. But, not sure where the anger/intensity came from - maybe was just tired of loosing in the AAC.

Basically the team needs to copy Polley and take better advantage of various team/individual situations against opponents going forward.

Towney007 said:
I'm not getting my hopes up.

They overshifted all night. He was left wide open and drove and took higher percentage shots. Loved the intensity to get in the lane and go for rebounds but he can be intense all he wants against Houston/Memphis/Wichita and it's not going to make the difference it did tonight. They didn't box out at all and we got way too many second chance shots.

What i'm saying is - the way this Tulane team is constituted and how they play is exactly the kind of team Polley should be wrecking.

I 1,000000000% hope i'm wrong. But this is the kind of performance that fools people.
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Chin Diesel said:
I'm definitely not disagreeing with the notion of some of his minutes per game are based on no one on the bench pushing for minutes. And not just bench players, but lack of any displeasure from Hurley on his performances, either in game or during pressers.

I think we can mostly agree something happened to make him play like he did and we'd all like to see more of it. Effort and aggressiveness are tools a player can bring to every game even when jump shots aren't falling.
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I read the players had a team meeting. Yeah, I know. 99% of the time this kind of thing means squat. Maybe between that and the fact Hurley said that they dedicated practice to getting back to playing like they did earlier in the year defensively and effort wise and the players responded. There have also been a few articles about the team transitioning to the younger players more if the upperclassmen don't respond soon. Maybe all 3 of these things combined lit a fire under a few guys, specifically Polley. It was now or never time so to speak. The thing I am skeptical about is maintaining it. Mediocre and subpar teams tend to show glimpses of stuff but are just not consistent enough with it to be a winning squad. They tease us just enough to suck us in again and again. I love UConn basketball so I will knowingly allow myself to fall for the trap. Can't quit them.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Nah. You could put the regular Polley out there against 4th grade girls and he'd still stand on the 3 point line and watch shots go up, and fall, without ever going after them. I'm not sure the way he played before he could out-fight a chair for a board. He only showed energy when finishing 3's on the break, and on defense (sometimes). The rest of the time he looked like he needed a nap.

Something got through to him and he changed his approach last night. Now will TP, even with that approach be 19-11 against better teams? No, he will not. But he didn't play harder because Tulane wasn't good. He's faced a lot worse teams than Tulane.
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I don't think his point was that he played hard because Tulane isn't good.

The point is - Tulane does a lot of things poorly on defense that lend themselves to Polley's strengths.

Energy level was COMPLETELY different obviously. But a lot of the production I feel is tied up in how they play.
 
Towney007 said:
I don't think his point was that he played hard because Tulane isn't good.

The point is - Tulane does a lot of things poorly on defense that lend themselves to Polley's strengths.

Energy level was COMPLETELY different obviously. But a lot of the production I feel is tied up in how they play.
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Yeah my point was that both things above are true and you have to hope the energy/aggressiveness:
1) sticks going forward
2) translates against teams he doesn’t match up quite as well against

You can’t expect Polley to be that productive night in and night out, but hopefully we see an uptick in rebounding and slashing going forward. It would make him a much more complete player, especially important on nights where his shot isn’t falling (the previous 2 games for example).
 
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Tyler proved last night he can be more that 3 pt specialist and even when he’s off from long range he can contribute. Let’s hope he brings the same energy against WSU. I’m going to be harder on him now that he’s shown he got game
 
Lets all calm down a bit. This board is so overly reactionary which is typical of any fan base but lets relax. He could have 7 and 2 against Witchita St and not sniff 10 rebounds again the rest of the season or he could turn into 2014 Tourney Deandre Daniels for all we know. lets just see if he can put up a string of similar games before we start blaming people for holding him back as a player.
 
I’ll be happy if he averages 4 rebounds per game from here on out. That would be enough to get us another win or two. The 1 and 0 rebound games have to go. Bottom line is that you need to be relentless on the boards. You don’t try for the ball once, you try until someone gets it. You tip the ball if you can’t grab it and keep it alive. We haven’t seen anyone but Vital and occasionally Bouk be relentless on the boards. TP can really change his career path by being relentless. I’m sure his football player dad can explain a thing or two about that to him.
 
"New Look Polley" is a beast, reminded me of a young Kobe. He still has one more year to develop into a lottery pick. ;)
 
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HuskyHawk said:
This. The softest player on the team went in and hit people in the mouth. He's 6'9", not all that slight and can jump. Maybe he took something away from how guys with no particular talent exerted their will against UConn in the USF and Cinci games. Now we just need that from everybody but Vital, who needs to tone it down and be a little smarter.
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Maybe he doesn’t like playing 15 minutes a game. He was sending a message to his coach “hey look at me “ Kids don’t really play for the fans or even their school. They play for their coach and teammates.
Also if Hurley was going to make a change in starters
it would be either Gaffney for Gilbert or Bouknight for Polley or Vital.
Hopefully Everyone gets the same motivation.
 
Towney007 said:
I'm not getting my hopes up.

They overshifted all night. He was left wide open and drove and took higher percentage shots. Loved the intensity to get in the lane and go for rebounds but he can be intense all he wants against Houston/Memphis/Wichita and it's not going to make the difference it did tonight. They didn't box out at all and we got way too many second chance shots.

What i'm saying is - the way this Tulane team is constituted and how they play is exactly the kind of team Polley should be wrecking.

I 1,000000000% hope i'm wrong. But this is the kind of performance that fools people.
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Whose getting fooled
The Important point was not that Tulane gave him certain opportunities, no it’s that he was able to take advantage of what was available.
Every team you play gives you opportunities what you do with them is the key to success.
 
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