Jim French Stepstool

Foxwell can score but is also trying to get everyone involved, which is obviously important for a PG. In that sense he's much more 'traditional' than Boyd. Outside of some FT hiccups he's been good so far. I watched a little of PU-Valpo. Valpo looked decent, but if you had told me they were going to win that one, no way. I guess if you're in a close one late & you no longer have Braden Smith to make decisions, it can be an issue. Daniel Jacobsen, who many thought was coming to Madison, isn't a banger but looks really smooth for 7'4" or whatever he is.

So UW wins by 9, which should be taken with a grain of salt since they were up by 18-19 & saw half of the lead evaporate once the game was decided, which for some odd reason seems to happen a lot in recent years. The most significant thing to me was that the team played much better on both ends w/a small lineup using only one big. It feels like Winter & Rapp just aren't in sync yet, although this probably isn't the best team for them to match up against, especially when your offensive sets make any size advantage you have immaterial most of the time. Delawares' ball-man movement was good, and they made almost 50% of their 3pt shots. A lot of the time Onuetu was the lone big in the 2nd half. I still think their best option is to never let him touch the ball when he may need to dribble more than a maximum of one time, but he started to get a little feel for finishing around the rim. The hands still concern me. His defense around the cup has looked great though. I don't see Foxwell giving them the Boyd-like type of production, but they're going to need him to score the ball some & I think he'll be able to distribute & still give them 12-15 PPG. Elmer has been pretty solid, I just want to see him defend ALL the time; he's good enough to be able to do that. In the mish-mash for backcourt minutes, I thought Janicki & Jackson Ball both looked very, very solid. Janicki was always going to be relied on for minutes, but Ball appears to be ahead of some of the others, too.

So in the 1st half vs Delaware, it looked like UW was content to force the outside shot. Some of them were great looks, some semi-contested, but after they made about half of their first dozen or so UW finally extended, Delaware put the ball on the floor & drove and Onuetu started blocking shots w/o fouling & Elmer picked up a block or two as well. So funneling stuff into the paint looks like it might be the way to go, at least tonite. Many of the Badger 1st half looks on offense are coming from the typical 5-out look, which is fine except people are seldom driving, and the cuts to the rim are rare too. When you shoot a lot of threes (eighteen in the 1st half) it can look ugly when there's no semblance of inside-out passing. The only aspect of that seems to be Foxwell driving & kicking. Once they extended I thought the defense looked pretty strong. But as is the case in early November, work to be done.

Nice article, @Matthew Trueblood. While I agree the Red Sox had incentive to make a deal for Durbin, what might've enhanced it was the season Durbin had. He's no flash in the pan, but at the time he was coming off a very nice rookie year & there might've been some 'selling high' element to it from the Brewers perspective. The same element MIGHT exist re Mitchell, but only if the Brewers feel the K issues won't be reined in. As good as he was, IMO there's a ceiling there if he continues to strikeout at a 30% rate or whatever it was. But it would have to be a pretty damned attractive overpay as Lara is still a baby and Adamczewski & Payne are still a little ways off.

UW is claiming that Colton Joseph has been dealing with injuries and is "not himself". I suspect you could say that about the majority of CFB players in the early days of November. This is probably much more about wanting to see what Hopkins can do, and choosing a home game vs an opponent that has allowed over 36 PPG this season vs teams not named Howard in which to do it.

I don't follow the NFL, but let me get this straight-----the message being sent is that it's OK for sub-par officials to work a game that's not on prime-time, but the prime-time games are much too important for that? I wonder what feelings are going through the minds of teams that don't have the big names, big hype, less merchandising pull, etc. Or do some of those teams get a turn at the prime-time slots as well? Like I said, I don't follow it. Just sounded a little strange to me.

In that scenario Adams probably gets some DH ABs that Yelich doesn't (vs LHP), but yeah Bauers certainly gets ABs vs both hands. If Bauers is gone it'll be real interesting to see how they view Fischer/Burke. There's nothing there to indicate either is ready. In that event I'm not so sure Adams doesn't make the team even though it would mean there's no L-R platoon at 1B. Having a RH option that can DH might be the hidden nugget in all this. Of course Adams has to put the injury bug behind him.

As did I when you talked about Bauers having to change his shorts.

Along with my comments above, a huge part of the reason it wasn't a more comfortable spread was 6-26 from 3PT, and 7-18😮from the FT line. All I'll say is I'm pretty sure they're better than a 39% FT shooting team, and they made 18 threes & shot over 40% from out there vs Oklahoma St in the final exhibition. It felt like one of those games, from three & from the line, where someone misses, someone else misses, and it becomes an epidemic. I thought most of the 3s were decent looks. Jones & Janicki each had 3PT attempts I wasn't nuts about, and I wouldn't mind it if Winter shelved it vs a team like this where he has an advantage inside.

I think the biggest message from tonite's game was that when you put together a nice run of basketball, your opponent isn't usually going to tuck their tails & allow you to bask in it. Keep going. A stretch where you skate, coast, whatever you want to call it keeps some of these non-con teams in the game. Later on, in the B10, it'll put you down 18. Lesson learned, I'm going to assume. Among the stretches of sloppy play, fouling instead of moving feet & communicating, and sometimes settling for lesser shots, I thought Carrington (15 PTS on 13 shots) played a pretty good, veteran-type game. There was a lot of either-or from others. Foxwell did quite a few good things, but obviously he can't go 1-5 from the line & needs to stay out of foul trouble. You can't criticize someone (Winter) too much when they gather 14 boards & pick up 4 assists, but he needs to be more of an offensive presence inside (3-7 from inside the arc won't usually cut it). Ian Elmer I thought was quietly solid, pretty much like I expected. But I keep seeing the offensive rebound he gave up in the 2nd half, which looked quite embarrassing. Again, all the time. Forty minutes. There are enough vets on this team that that should be understood, and quickly corrected. Janicki, as per usual, gave GG what he was looking for. He had one shot attempt I really hated, though. I thought Rapp wasn't bad, given the time he's missed. Onuetu looks like he can help. But he has to learn to defend w/o fouling, and I'm still concerned about his hands. The reserve wings looks like it's still a mish-mash. Was really disappointed in Kinziger; it was like they just looked to hang on long enough to get Foxwell back in when Kinziger was running point. Three days of correction coming up , for sure.

My BIG+ broadcast was fine; no glitches. Sorry you had issues. And, you're welcome😀. I enjoy doing it.

IF Fickell is jettisoned, it'll be just about impossible avoid rumors about Eck. And if I compiled my own personal short list he'd be on it. But AFA local ties-type guys go there are a couple I'd put in front of him. The first guy I'd explore to see if there's any interest is Jake Dickert at Wake Forest. He brought Wazzou into Madison a few years ago & came away with a win & has had success at WF since moving there. I also like Tim Polasek. He's at North Dakota State, so folks who remember Don Morton might learn that fact & run off screaming.

Struggles in the post-season aside (and that isn't supposed to count for this award anyway), I wonder if Ortiz would've been in the running at 3B had he been the primary 3B all year. In an alternate universe where Pratt was up all season and Rengifo had signed wherever the Rengifos of the world otherwise sign?

I'm still somewhat intrigued by Adams (as a 1B, not at 3B). He's flashed power, and the K-BB ratio and OBP is something you notice, even without the ridiculous propensity to get plunked. I just wish he'd have been able to stay on the field more in '26. I imagine only 67 AAA games in his career makes him a longshot in '27 so it'll be interesting to see how the organization juggles him, Burke & Fischer.

So after 3 exhibitions the season starts for real on Monday with a game vs the University of Denver. Thoughts so far: I think Rapp should settle into his spot in the starting five eventually, maybe by Monday. Victory Onuetu appears to have the inside track on Will Garlock for bench minutes but I think that's still somewhat up in the air. Garlock is nursing an injury that isn't considered serious. Onuetu looks athletic enough & should help out on the boards, but his hands aren't the best from what I've seen & he so far has had an issue of defending w/o fouling. Jack Janicki has been starting in the exhibitions. That surprises me, but it really comes down to minutes played & I think that number will be similar to what he receives if he were coming off the bench. It might be simply a case of going with a dependable, known quantity while the others sort themselves out. Braeden Carrington has been productive & shall we say very unbashful about shooting. I think Trey Autry, Hayden Jones, Jackson Ball & Zack Kinziger are all sort of in a race to see who can do what Greg Gard wants on both ends, and show the most consistency doing it. Right now It might be Kinziger, who is earmarked as the backup PG but can easily play off the ball. He's done so at times in the exhibitions, playing along with Owen Foxwell. I still feel someone among the wings is going to be very disappointed with his minutes once things shake out. As for Foxwell, He appears to have a good handle on the offense & feel for distribution. His shot looked OK to me. He has shown a real ability to get into the lane, and I think he'll be able to do that vs B10 opponents as well. My only concern is finishing around the rim once the competition heats up. Denver is moving to the WCC, which is a step up for them even with Gonzaga leaving that league. They have quite a bit of size that's mostly unproven. In games like this, it's nice to have an opposing player who can put the ball in the hoop to test the man-to-man defense & Denver has that in Carson Johnson, a guard who was around 20PPG last season.