Where was Polley?

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

He was on the bench, probably waiting to catch another pass out of bounds

 

[alphasigko]

It seems to me that you need both stops and points.... It's not one or the other.

 

[alphasigko]

The book is out on how teams should defend Sanogo: Double/triple team him as soon as he gets the ball and he ether travels, tries to dribble and loses the ball, or tries to throw up a weak/impossible shot that easilly misses and becomes a rebound for the opponent. All four of our last opponents did this and 3 were quite successful in limiting his effectiveness.

 

[auror]

No . Sanogo should’ve been out not Whaley.

I think this is easy to say in hindsight, but generally I like when we play our best players. He had been struggling a bit, but he had also gotten a bunch of offensive rebounds and did score a couple easy ones down the stretch off nice entry passes. We're desperate at times for easy buckets in the half court, and he's by far our best option for those. With Whaley in for Sanogo and Cole being blanketed, there's not a ton of a great half court scoring options.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I think this is easy to say in hindsight, but generally I like when we play our best players. He had been struggling a bit, but he had also gotten a bunch of offensive rebounds and did score a couple easy ones down the stretch off nice entry passes. We're desperate at times for easy buckets in the half court, and he's by far our best option for those. With Whaley in for Sanogo and Cole being blanketed, there's not a ton of a great half court scoring options.

Whaley and Sanogo are really good on defense but our offense suffers with them in together. It also doesn’t help that Jackson isn’t an offensively threat, yet.

 

[Waquoit]

I think the lack of a dagger shooter hurts us in the close games. The closest we have is Polley, he needs to be in there. He was in the last time we played Nova, and we won.

 

[8893]

I think the lack of a dagger shooter hurts us in the close games. The closest we have is Polley, he needs to be in there. He was the last time we played Nova, and we won.

 

[Chief00]

We needed offense

Agree, we are losing games due to poor shooting this year.

 

[Kolumbo]

I don't understand why Sanogo refuses to dunk or use the glass. It's always a shot straight at the rim. Otherwise I don't like to criticize him. We were desperate for a bucket and Jackson ran down the court and shot putted a weak effort, an awful shot in that situation, and Sanogo was there to muscle for the rebound and put it back in. That's his game.

We just don't have a closer. Cole at times, but that's it.

 

[Chief00]

I don't understand why Sanogo refuses to dunk or use the glass. It's always a shot straight at the rim. Otherwise I don't like to criticize him. We were desperate for a bucket and Jackson ran down the court and shot putted a weak effort, an awful shot in that situation, and Sanogo was there to muscle for the rebound and put it back in. That's his game.

We just don't have a closer. Cole at times, but that's it.

He dunk more early in the season but perhaps that was due to the competition level. Also, the book on us is out now and Danny has not adjusted to the opponent’s game plans.
Trying harder and being tougher are both great traits, but we need to have the brains to make adjustments and let go of stubborn non productive habits.

 

[August_West]

I think this is easy to say in hindsight, but generally I like when we play our best players. He had been struggling a bit, but he had also gotten a bunch of offensive rebounds and did score a couple easy ones down the stretch off nice entry passes. We're desperate at times for easy buckets in the half court, and he's by far our best option for those. With Whaley in for Sanogo and Cole being blanketed, there's not a ton of a great half court scoring options.

At the very end of the game when we were down 5 and Hurley FINALLY inserted Polley and we had the ball, Hurley inserted Polley for Whaley , not Sanogo . Do you agree with that substitution? When time and situation dictates that we are most likely shooting a 3 ball? ( which we subsequently did) considering Whaley can actually be a 3 option too, I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

 

[Tenspro2002]

The problem with Polley is that while, yes, he can shoot, he's a liability in virtually every other aspect of the game.

He's easily exploited on defense, doesn't rebound for a 4, and doesn't really set up other players with the dribble or pass.

 

[DMIL]

Nova didn't score in the final 5:02 until we had to foul with seconds left. The defense gave us our chances to score and Whaley was the biggest part of that with 2 huge blocks. You put Polley in and you're taking Whaley out, Wright was targeting Polley. Sanogo missed another couple layups, Cole shot an airball wide open three, Tyrese missed a wide open 3. Refs missed a foul on Sanogo's rebound which would've put him on the line for 2 ft's. We had plenty of chances because of our defense at the end of the game. It just didn't work out.

Valid point here and Whaley did provide a couple of key defensive stops. However how many wide open 3’s did he give? 4, 5? Understand it was part of the defensive game plan but you also have to account for the trade off. How many points did his man have against him and how many points did Whaley have? This game was very winnable with a little better execution on offense and on the defensive boards. We left plenty of plays on the court. They defended Polley reasonably. On the other hand he was underutilized and this was a glaring missed opportunity. Villanova is a very well coached, experienced team that you cannot afford to leave plays on the court and expect to win. We left too many on the court.

 

[UconnU]

I believe he was legitimately sick. He was throwing up in the locker room pregame.

 

[tentoes4rings]

The book is out on how teams should defend Sanogo: Double/triple team him as soon as he gets the ball and he ether travels, tries to dribble and loses the ball, or tries to throw up a weak/impossible shot that easilly misses and becomes a rebound for the opponent. All four of our last opponents did this and 3 were quite successful in limiting his effectiveness.

Right, but we rarely run anything off those double and triple teams and that’s a problem. Jackson, Martín and even Whaley should be cutting to the hole more when he’s double teamed, instead of just camping outside. I still can’t understand why Hurley doesn’t do more of this. If we had 4 legit three point shooters with Sanogo I’d understand the strategy but we’re still far too easy to defend at times when Sanogo is in the game.

 

[Marat]

I don't know why Polley wasn't put in a few min earlier. It worked out in game 2 vs Nova.....

Anway Polley's 3 that went in the basket but didn't count cause he stepped on the sideline turned out to be big in 3 pt loss. It seems these little things come back to haunt us when we lose since we usually only lose close ones.

 

[August_West]

I don't know why Polley wasn't put in a few min earlier. It worked out in game 2 vs Nova.....

Anway Polley's 3 that went in the basket but didn't count cause he stepped on the sideline turned out to be big in 3 pt loss. It seems these little things come back to haunt us when we lose since we usually only lose close ones.

It not only worked out against nova, but do people do even remember the end of Auburn game in regulation and OT?

 

[8893]

It not only worked out against nova, but do people do even remember the end of Auburn game in regulation and OT?

#ReturnOfDaggerTreyTy

 

[UConnSwag11]

It not only worked out against nova, but do people do even remember the end of Auburn game in regulation and OT?

Even if Polley isn’t making every three, having him in still spaces the floor for Martin, Sanogo, Cole

 

[ClifSpliffy]

2,812 minutes. 134 games.
250 boards. 56 assists. 40 steals. 50 blocks.
21/22 season 3 %, 35%. worst of his career.

sum of youse got it bad. real bad.
on the udder hand, along comes hawk. noice.


i really, really, hope that he has one of ur now years long predicted break-out games very soon. it would help.
any port in a storm, an all that.

 

[YearoftheHusky]

No you couldn’t. When you are behind points, you need need to score points to catch-up.

Simple math.

Doesn’t matter how many you score if you don’t stop them from scoring as well.

 

[Brandon86]

And if you put Polley in you're taking out Whaley who kept us in the game with his defense. We're now looking for storylines on why Hurley screwed up. His in game coaching and feel for the game is clearly getting much better.

Agree with you, his only thing was he should of switched to playing some of that zone WAY before the last 3:30 of the game.

 

[Brandon86]

Valid point here and Whaley did provide a couple of key defensive stops. However how many wide open 3’s did he give? 4, 5? Understand it was part of the defensive game plan but you also have to account for the trade off. How many points did his man have against him and how many points did Whaley have? This game was very winnable with a little better execution on offense and on the defensive boards. We left plenty of plays on the court. They defended Polley reasonably. On the other hand he was underutilized and this was a glaring missed opportunity. Villanova is a very well coached, experienced team that you cannot afford to leave plays on the court and expect to win. We left too many on the court.

I completely agree with you. We have way to many plays where we end up having to kick the ball out to Whaley for a 3 too. We have way to many plays where Whaley is making the entry pass to the post from the 3 point line, and his man just completely leaves him to help in the paint. It seems some people just don’t get it. We should t be playing him an Sanogo together as much. Matter of fact when we play Villanova they have been our biggest problem on defense. With them two on the court at the same time, they constantly get switched onto people that blows by 1 of the 2. That’s why we be giving up so many wide open shots to Villanova. They literally broke our defense down the majority the trips down the court.