Tyler Byrd Ignites Notre Dame With Soaring Dunks

Chattanooga-(WDEF) With a last name like Byrd, it’s only fitting that Notre Dame’s Tyler Byrd can fly above the rim.
The senior forward has energized the Irish many times over his career with his soaring dunks.
Tyler Byrd attacks the basket like he has a vendetta with the rim.
Said Byrd,”I mean, I love dunking the ball. It’s just something fun to do. I take a lot of anger out too.”
Said head coach J.P. Nerbun: “I happened to be a walk-on at The University of South Carolina, and I played with some incredibly athletic players. These guys were known for being able to get up, so I’ve seen some really big dunkers. Tyler’s up there with them.”
One of Byrd’s dunks has become legendary at Notre Dame.
Said Nerbun,”Well, semifinals last year of the district, we were playing Signal Mountain, and we were down 20 points at the half. Tyler had a dunk in the second half that was in the middle of a run that just kept the run going.”
Said Byrd,”It was a big moment in the game. We were coming back, and that just ignited the crowd. After that, our momentum just went up.”
Said Nerbun,”We actually have a picture of it. We put it up on the big poster up here in the gym here. We came back and we won in overtime. It was an incredible comeback.”
Coach Nerbun says it’s hard not to take advantage of the high-flying Byrd.
Said Nerbun,”We actually have a call for when we want only lay-ups. It’s late in the game when we’re up. We’re always joking as coaches because we make the call, and there’s been three games so far that we’ve made that call, and we end up throwing an alley-oop to Tyler, and it wins us the game.”
Reporter-“How many alley-oops have you thrown to him?”
Said guard C.J. Greer: “It has been a few.”
Byrd is one of the top scorers in Chattanooga, averaging over 20-points a game.
Said Nerbun,”He’s that silent scorer. I think it’s most days you go, ‘Man, he had that many points tonight?’. Yeah, he’s had a few dunks and a few plays here, but it’s just not as loud of a scoring as everybody else.”