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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    Two more random thoughts: I was concerned about Hayden Jones on the defensive end, especially vs a team like this. But to me he appeared to be mostly solid. Maybe Carrington more-or-less replaces Janicki as a defensive stopper off the bench, but Jones has nice size and reach & for two games in a row now, so far so good. Winter, on the switches where he's stuck out on the perimeter checking a guard, has been better than I've ever dreamed he would be. I once wondered if he could guard 4's. Nevermind. His lateral movement for a man his size is very impressive.
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    Mission accomplished, against a team that runs some really good stuff in the half court.
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    The Rapp charge in the 1st half certainly was questionable. Stirtz slid in well, but it was so-so at best IMO. The call probably looked worse because it came on the heels of Rapps' foul on the blocked shot, which was a horrible call.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    I mentioned awhile back how rough it is facing Indiana now, because you can't just wait around for them to do something dumb. Same with Iowa, and Minnesota for that matter. McCollum really makes Iowa tough to beat. Switching on Stirtz was a pretty good idea since they don't have a big size advantage inside, but he still makes so many good decisions that he still gets a lot done.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    Iowa made some not-too-easy looks, and I thought we looked better defensively in the final 8-10 minutes of the half. But overall yeah, need to put a stamp on things on that end.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    Iowa plays at a slower pace but scores at a pretty good clip. Watching them operate on offense you can see why. The screening, off the ball movement & precision passing is very impressive, and had UW a step slow until we seemed to adjust a handful of minutes in. Actually saw a rare post up (and finish) from Winter in the 1st half. He has an edge down low; might need to see more of that. Blackwell again taking himself out with two fouls, although this time the charge was the 1st foul. Hopefully his presence is felt from here on out. Rohde dug deep defensively & made a couple great defensive plays late in the half. That would be a nice lead for everyone to follow.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    Jack Janicki is unavailable. He had wrist surgery & there's hope he could return before the end of the season, but if he does it'll be awhile. His defensive versatility will be missed. Sunday for example, he'd be more than a capable matchup for either of Iowa's two double-digit scorers, Stirtz & Banks. Carrington, Blackwell & Rohde have the ability to guard the same spots on the floor at a high level as well; they'll need to. At first glance this may mean more minutes for Hayden Jones, who mostly played well in Columbus. But Bieliauskas & Garlock were ineffective that day & Rapp sat out so Jones played as a bit of an undersized four. And Iowa has 6 or 7 people in the rotation who can take you beyond the 3PT line & do damage, so we'll see.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    Memories of a (at the time) 6th-grader----- Many folks were excited about young power hitter Danny Walton, but I was all hopped up over Tommy Harper because he stole all those bases the previous year. Turns out he almost had more homers (31) than steals (38). Opening day wasn't a bad day, weather-wise. In class, hearing we were trailing 6-0, hoping it was an ugly rumor. It wasn't. Rushing home to listen to the rest of the game on the radio (Tom Collins & Merle Harmon, I think?). Funny how you remember random crap. The only memories I have of the broadcast were journeyman Bob Meyer coming in to pitch, and Sandy Valdespino pinch hitting for someone. Oh, and I'm sure in the spirit of wanting to turn the page, mention of Marty Pattin going in the next game. I'm sure it was a hectic time for the players, trying to find places to live. And apparently, stuff to sit on. My dad worked at a local furniture warehouse, and mentioned they had an order for a sofa from pitcher Bobby Bolin.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    Thorough butt-kicking. This won't be the last time a team with their backs to the post-season wall come out at home & play really well. I remember a possession in the 2nd half--UW crawled to within twelve and still had enough time to make a game of it. They came out of a TO in a 1-3-1 zone. Now, you could argue the wisdom of that---I thought it was a decent idea for one possession---but I'm almost positive UW hadn't done that all game and Ohio State recognized it like we'd been doing it all night, got organized & attacked it just about perfectly, finishing with a 3PT hit from I believe it was Thornton. To me that illustrated just how well OSU played. You could point to a handful of guys for UW that didn't play well, and maybe I'm too hard on him in this instance, but after the crappy start you crawl to within 6, are playing much better, and Blackwell--who was a catalyst in cutting into the lead--commits the off-the-ball foul. At the time Boyd was being throttled, Carrington hadn't heated up yet..........you just cannot take yourself out of the game like that. And looking to the bench, pleading with Gard to leave him in isn't the answer. It's one of the brain cramps that creeps into his game from time to time. With the ineffectiveness of Garlock & Bieliauskas and Rapp being sick, I thought Hayden Jones showed some nice athleticism & settled in well once he bricked the FTs.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    The defense was lacking early & then picked up, which happens quite a bit before adjustments. But Bynum & Royal hurt them bad. Combined 10-14 from the floor, & 4-6 from three (they both shoot under 30% from deep for the season). It's those two, plus the TO bug returned. It looked like Blackwell was shrugging off a mediocre start, but then committed his 2nd foul on a call off the ball, effectively making OSU's job much easier for the last 6 minutes of the half. Boyd is being defended well, but either way Blackwell just can't afford to be taking himself out of the game like he has been recently. Be smarter. Missing from three (1-8), but not enough attempts to really point to that as the main culprit. Just get more stops, try to get out & run, and it would be nice if Bynum & Royal came back to earth.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    It feels to me like they're hoping for some combo of a healthy Mitchell/Perkins/maybe Lockridge to man CF. I know that doesn't excite folks, and I don't blame them. But I agree with @Michael Trzinski, I'd rather see Chourio anchored in LF. And I feel the same way re Frelick in RF.
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    Fair enough. I'll maintain I've seen it called right at 20 though. Thanks. I guess the 'trigger' was the culprit in Champaign. When it appeared to me that Rapp finally (to my eyes) secured the rebound, the shot clock was already at 28.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    Nice to be back in the popularity poll!!! Really, the opportunity to get back to 4-5-6 seeding territory is right there in front of them, especially when considering the BTT. But notice I said OPPORTUNITY. Getting a little too satisfied is all it takes to slip, even on the northwest trip. Heavy loss for OSU, losing Mobley Jr. But Taison Chatman will (I assume) absorb a lot of his minutes, and he had arguably his best game of the season in Madison. UW has put some impressive feathers in their cap, now it's gotten to where WE'RE the feather to other teams. And OSU needs feathers. It'll be a battle.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    Agreed. I'm surprised this still has legs. But FWIW I've seen many games where the violation is called right at 20 secs if the ball hasn't crossed midcourt. If 20 is 20.0 and NOT 20.6 or whatever, that's how it should be called, too. But as you said the timer really seemed to jump the gun in starting the shot clock.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    I'm not sure if this fits the thread as it isn't being shown I guess the term would be 'commercially', but last night we attended a showing of "A Road at Night", a documentary detailing the automobile accident that left University of Wisconsin assistant basketball coach Howard Moore severely disabled and took the lives of his wife & daughter. It's being shown through February 19th in Madison with all the proceeds benefitting Coach Moore's ongoing care. The hope is to eventually get the movie shown somewhere in the Milwaukee and/or Chicago areas (Coach is a Chicago native) & someday get picked up by a streaming service. To say the movie is extremely powerful is an understatement. I would greatly recommend it to anyone in the Madison area over the next four days. If not, hopefully it can reach a wider audience very soon.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    ...A big plus, the stadium, compared to the situation in Seattle & Montreal---even DFW, which tried to shoehorn their way into the discussion at the time. I give Bud a lot of credit for getting the Chisox to come up here for those 20 games, in addition to a few exhibition games he arranged. I suspect the White Sox-Twins exhibition in (I think) 1967 went a long way toward that--it drew well over 50,000. Finley certainly was a headache for a lot of people.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    I went to many of the White Sox games in Milwaukee in 68-69, thanks to an older sister. Unfortunately the Pilots-White sox game wasn't one of them. It was kinda surprising that Symington had the pull to bump up the Royals' start by two years, leaving KC without baseball for only one season. When you look at the hoops Selig had to jump through in comparison............although I'm sure the lawsuit from the locals in fighting the Braves' departure caused quite a bit of animosity from MLB.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    So if the shot clock in the gym was wrong then that isn't really on Boyd, or anyone else bringing the ball up court. They might feel it getting close (9) in their head, glance up & see 3 or 4 secs left.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    It's been 20, ever since they started using the clock to measure 10 sec violations, as opposed to the ref counting out 'by hand'.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    I think you're a little optimistic on the timeline re Lara. Otherwise pretty darned accurate.
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    Fun fact, which I believe illustrates the great team defense, on & off the ball-----Jeremy Fears had twelve assists tonite. The rest of the MSU team combined for 1.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    Early in the season, it looked to me like our physicality around the hoop was Winter, occasionally Garlock (physical enough but still raw), and guys like Boyd, Carrington & Janicki who give up size to a lot of people. Boy, has that changed. Even Bieliauskas, who never looked comfy offensively tonite, had five boards & three blocks in 18 minutes. Kudos to Gard & the staff for cultivating all this growth.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    I hear what you're saying, but I just have a difficult time saying anything negative about Rohde even if it's occasionally deserved. His defensive versatility is so vital when you have a defender like Boyd, who you might not want to have guard an opposing PG. He can guard 1-3, and his back-to-back threes right off the bat kinda set the tone in that MSU had to come out & guard him. Some of his TOs are head-scratching, but he's only averaging one TO per game.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    Mentioned to the missus about the night we were in the KC & watched Tonje light up Arizona. Boyds' performance reminded me of that night.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    I absolutely love how they answered the MSU run & bumped the lead back up with Blackwell on the bench. John, John, John, you really didn't need to pick up that 2nd foul. Nice job of competing on the glass vs a very good rebounding team. And an impressive first half for Pete Maravi---I mean Nick Boyd. If some of those makes didn't evoke a throw-up-your-hands, what else can we do response from MSU, nothing will. Not much to complain about. We'll see how the whistles go in the 2nd half.
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