Jalen Returning for Senior Season

[KembaStepback]

Look out for Tyler Polley next year. The kid is our 2nd best talent after Adams. Underrated and way underutilized last year.

He will be more confident this year and has the trust of Hurley.

I don't disagree that Polley was underutilized...but he is not our 2nd best talent. I'd probably put him around 6th...After Adams, Gilbert, Wilson, Vital, Carlton

 

[Huskymagic]

Polley is coming. Right now Polley is a better player than Sid overall.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Exactly.

Polley is coming. Right now Polley is a better player than Sid overall.

Looks like Anthony Davis

 

[UconnU]

Polley is coming. Right now Polley is a better player than Sid overall.

I'd like to see him put on 10-15 pounds of muscle. I'm sure staff is working on it.

 

[Stainmaster]

Polley is coming. Right now Polley is a better player than Sid overall.

Nope.

 

[bigknight3]

He was the worst rebounder and the weakest player on the team physically. He played more like a 2 than a 4 last year. Not sure how much bigger we can expect him to play next year.

Like a 2 that was timid looking for his own offense. (Admittedly I must have missed the end of the season when he turned into a knock down 3pt shooter that hit 40% on the year. I did read other posters say that happened right?)

I don't remember seeing an effective efficient scoring Polley last season.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Ran into Corny Thompson at dry cleaners many years ago when he just got back from Italy. I asked him why he usually waited until the 2nd half before he started scoring. He told me if he didn't get Alexsinas scoring early that Chuck would just go through the motions for the rest of the game.
Don't know if this is what Jalen was doing but maybe.

Jalens primary job was to get other team members involved early . The more scoring options you can establish the easier it is to run offense.More likely than not his attempts failed because of a variety of factors
Unfortunately we couldn’t establish a third option until Polley started to hit shots .its not a coincidence that Carlton began to score with this event. As it opened the floor. All basketball offense is dependent on spacing .
There is little in basketball that’s not dependent on some other factor.

Look out for Tyler Polley next year. The kid is our 2nd best talent after Adams. Underrated and way underutilized last year.
I think KO not sticking with Polley was a huge mistake.
The third option actually gave you four options in addition to opening the floor for a great player like JA. Most casual fans don’t understand this dynamic with but simply put with no exterior baseline threat you allowed teams to choke off any interior game. Taking our 5 out of the game also.
I actually understand his thinking because after Gilbert went down and our lack of team D was exposed he became obsessed with D. The reality was as bad as Polley was there was no one that much better. All the subs were so bad offensively that
Our inability to score effected our defensive effort.
Kids will tend to try harder on D when they show an ability to score.
If you play your butt off and get a stop ,but fail to convert there is a limit Maintaining intensity.
He will be more confident this year and has the trust of Hurley.

 

[UConnStats]

Polley had the worst +/- out of every wing and guard on the team last year. I like the fact that he shot 41.7% from 3, but that was all he had going for him this year. If he’s our second best player currently, we are way up the creek.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Polley has a lot of potential and could become an extremely good player. Hopefully he is putting in the work and Hurley can get him to reach his potential

 

[Huskyforlife]

Polley being your 6th best talent is a solid place for a head coach to start.

 

[UconnU]

Polley had the worst +/- out of every wing and guard on the team last year. I like the fact that he shot 41.7% from 3, but that was all he had going for him this year. If he’s our second best player currently, we are way up the creek.

You think Wilson playing the 4 is a real possibility? Seems to be our weakest position right now.

 

[Waquoit]

He told me if he didn't get Alexsinas scoring early that Chuck would just go through the motions for the rest of the game.

The Morris Mountain was literally and figuratively the biggest stiff in the history of the program.

 

[3rdbass]

You think Wilson playing the 4 is a real possibility? Seems to be our weakest position right now.

We will probably see a mixture of Diarra, Polley and Wilson there. I don't think Williams has enough skills to play there. We need a guy who can score and those 3 are all better options than him.

 

[intlzncster]

Look out for Tyler Polley next year. The kid is our 2nd best talent after Adams.

Underrated and way underutilized last year. He will be more confident this year and has the trust of Hurley.

I mean, if you completely leave Gilbert, Vital and Wilson out of the equation, we can start to have a discussion.

 

[intlzncster]

Polley is coming. Right now Polley is a better player than Sid overall.

Have you seen Wilson play lately?

 

[intlzncster]

You think Wilson playing the 4 is a real possibility? Seems to be our weakest position right now.

Dunno, I like Diarra though. I see no reason he can't hold it down if he gets his foul issues under control. Better coaching should help.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Polley is coming. Right now Polley is a better player than Sid overall.

I usually find myself agreeing with a lot of what you say, then you have a one liner that is just so wrong it's not even funny.

How can you even rate Sid right now? Dude is a top 100 4* recruit who hasn't played a minute of college ball yet. You're only saying that because we've seen Polley for a year and haven't seen Sid yet.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Adams, Vital/Gilbert, Wilson, Polley, Carlton is a small lineup that I would love to see firing on all cylinders come January. I think we'll see more of Adams, Vital/Gilbert, Wilson/Polley, with Cobb, Diarra, and Carlton rotating in the 4 and 5

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

You think Wilson playing the 4 is a real possibility? Seems to be our weakest position right now.

We have a really strange roster balance. We've been calling for guard depth. Well now we have it, and then some. We have like 40% guards, 40% bigs, and 20% somewhere in-between. Ideally I wish we could trade in a back up big for a Griffey type.

 

[Kenny11]

We have a really strange roster balance. We've been calling for guard depth. Well now we have it, and then some. We have like 40% guards, 40% bigs, and 20% somewhere in-between. Ideally I wish we could trade in a back up big for a Griffey type.

Yeah, we need a wing with size that is competent with the ball. Last year we had Larrier who is the worst ball handler of all time and Polley who played scared when he had the ball until the end of the season. Polley and Sid both have a lot of length but they need to be able to make quality basketball moves, whether it be helping the guards with pressure, driving and kicking, passing and cutting to score, dunking instead of soft layup attempts, spotting up or even an occasional post up. I’m hopeful that they can but we’ll see.

 

[champs99and04]

Kinda feel bad for Adams. He's one of the most talented players I've ever seen in a UConn uniform but was stuck with inferior coaching and a watered-down roster for the majority of his career.

Agree with the bad coaching part, but there was plenty of talent on the first two teams he played on.

Make no mistake, he holds a share in all that has gone wrong. This isn't Kevin Garnett with the Timberwolves. He's been an average defender at best, his jumper is unreliable, he doesn't get to the line, and his assist to turnover ratio is on the wrong side of 2. He's helped us drown as much as he's helped us stay afloat.

 

[ctchamps]

Adams, Vital/Gilbert, Wilson, Polley, Carlton is a small lineup that I would love to see firing on all cylinders come January. I think we'll see more of Adams, Vital/Gilbert, Wilson/Polley, with Cobb, Diarra, and Carlton rotating in the 4 and 5

Not that I’m dismissing the other players on your list but the guy I most want to see playing in January is Gilbert. For obvious reasons.

 

[Fishy]

Dunno, I like Diarra though. I see no reason he can't hold it down if he gets his foul issues under control. Better coaching should help.

I think all of the front court guys will benefit from a more stable rotation as opposed to the insane jackassery we saw last year.

Diarra, I think, will benefit most of all.

 

[StepbackCity]

You think Wilson playing the 4 is a real possibility? Seems to be our weakest position right now.

Wilson would be best fit for the 3 in college. He's very bouncy and athletic, but not strong enough to play the 4 at a high level. Him coming off the bench would be good too, as we would have scoring off the bench with Vital, and of course less of a rebounding issue.

 

[Son of Robert]

I think all of the front court guys will benefit from a more stable rotation as opposed to the insane jackassery we saw last year.

Diarra, I think, will benefit most of all.

Very true statement, I had not really considered it this way. Beneficial to everyone, plus the addition of a proven bigs coach in Kenya Hunter, as well as his fellow coaches with what surely looks to be a much improved coaching staff bringing a fresh new outlook to the program. The morale could not have been good amongst these players last year.