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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    Yep. If you believe in the coming infield talent in the organization, the tradeoff is you basically upped your pitching depth in exchange for a possible one-year reduction in 3B play. And depending on whether the effects of the wrist injury lingered, Rengifo might be a nice bounce back candidate. I remember 2-3 years ago wishing we would've looked into picking him up to beef up the INF.
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    Things are definitely looking up for the post players---Winter is having a really solid season and Bieliauskas & Rapp have made strides defensively & on the boards, with Rapp also on a major offensive heater. They'll be tested big-time tonite. Michigan State is one of the better rebounding teams you'll find, on both ends of the floor. And they do it largely on the backs on veterans who weren't 5-star kids or seven-figure mercenaries from the portal but who developed toughness. Tom Izzo is easily my favorite non-UW coach in the B10. I'll be interested in who guards Fears. I wouldn't be surprised if it's Boyd but I'm not a fan of that. Either way you need to try to turn him into a jump shooter; actually that should be the goal for everyone on their squad save for Ugochukwu & maybe Kohler. And stay between Carr & the bucket, lest you allow him to create his at-the-rim pyrotechnics. Should be a great atmosphere. Wish I was going. Hope the KC is boisterous.
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    Not only for the theatrics, but I miss Fran every time I see Iowa play since McCollum took over. Much tougher team to play now. Same thing w/Minnesota, Indiana, & Michigan.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    As I mentioned earlier, Rapp had the ball secured after the tangle under the hoop for the rebound, and the shot clock already was at 28. So yeah, it appears the shot clock (on the screen) jumped the gun.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    I think you nailed it w/Boyd. Sometimes it might seem that way simply because he isn't a great defender, but on switches/screens yeah the energy level isn't always the same as on the offensive end. IMO Rohde is a workhorse on both ends, but a lot of the time he defers to really concentrating on getting the ball in the hands of others. To a fault? Maybe. But with backcourt mates avg'ing close to 40 a game I get it. We'd all like to see the shooting % higher & see him finish more at the rim, but his overall floor game has been pretty solid.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    If/when they get to 100% health there's no doubt they're a FF caliber group, and could get to Monday.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    I remember Koenigs' violation. Total brain cramp. Vs Florida maybe? I agree, in hindsight Illinois should've done more posting up & feeding the post. We weren't doubling (which I mostly agree with), and if we did you're talking about skilled bigs who can kick out to a step-in three. It's almost like an unwritten rule in CBB---you have a high-volume scorer in the backcourt, he HAS to have the ball in his hands halfway through the clock in a close game, and never give it up. Not saying it's dumb when you have a Wagler (or a Boyd, or Blackwell), but those are some talented bigs that Illinois was kinda freezing out. Agree in the last possession strategy. Unless you feel like Boyd has a huge advantage on a switch or something, the ball in Blackwells' hands works for me. Just keep the head up in the lane; in Bloomington he might've had Winter.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    I couldn't find the entire sequence yet. But I saw the front end of the play, frame-by-framed it, and by the time Austin Rapp cleared traffic & secured the ball the shot clock was already at 28, and the game clock btwn 34 & 33. Seems like an awfully quick start to the shot clock. But if they crossed midcourt around 23-24 then yeah, it sounds iffy.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    Just you🤪. Mirkovic & Wagler were both shooting over 80% from the line coming into tonite. They shot a combined 8-14. After Saturday's game, thank you very much, basketball gods.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    I think Rapp was on Wagler some, too. And you're right, they did about as well as you could ask. As for Carrington, it's so valuable to have a veteran willing to accept the role he fills. He almost HAD to know he was coming off the bench when he came here. Terrific piece to the puzzle. Glad you mentioned Janicki's shot. There were four scorers on the floor with him, and sometimes he's just gonna wind up with that look. Unless you're really early in the clock yeah, he has to hoist that. Winter---four points, no makes from deep, yet maybe the play of the game. A lot of heroes.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    Didn't notice that (or didn't want to lol). I'll have to look at that again. If so, I'm surprised Underwood didn't throw a few verbal grenades.
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    How in the world did THAT happen? First, more shots at the rim for UW (76-60), due mainly to Bucky only being outrebounded by 2 vs a huge team, and crushing the TO battle (only 4 to Illinois' 13). I think I heard 23-6 in favor of Wisconsin in PTS off TO. Also a big thank you to the home team for going 11-19 from the line. I don't know what UW shot from deep in the last 5 minutes + OT but it had to be impressive. At one point in the 2nd half Illinois was over 50% from three, and UW wound up virtually matching them (16-36 to Illinois' 15-33). Austin Rapp, AGAIN. 18 pts w/5 boards & 3 assists in 31 minutes---and zero turnovers. He & Carrington are becoming 2nd to none in the conference as a bench duo. Boyd & Blackwell combined for 49 pt & shot a combined 50% from three. Considering the size he faced, I thought Bieliauskas competed really well & is slowly causing the empty 'non-factor' minutes to become fewer & fewer. And he gets criticism, but other than not providing a lot of points I think Rohde is playing some really solid ball. Like at Michigan, no way did I expect this. But damn, they deserved it---especially after what happened in Bloomington.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    UW is mostly doing a lousy job defending the screen-and-roll. But when you're facing 7-footers who have skills, a very good PG, and they shoot 50% from 3PT range I'm not sure what you can do. UW also needs to contest better on threes, but guys sometimes shoot less than 50-50 in an empty gym, too. Just a real talented team.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    Yes. 44-38 Illinois at half.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    After looking at the available FAs I thought these were the most likely two if they choose to go that route. And as you get closer to the opening bell for spring training you'd hope the price would drop as well. Whether it's a FA or a trade it's pretty apparent you're looking at someone for one year, which probably increases the chances that they do neither. But if we've learned anything from this organization it's to not assume any of these options are ahead of the others on the leaderboard.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    Illinois is good enough as it is---seeing them in the FF wouldn't be shocking---but they're returning home after a tough loss & that doesn't help matters any. Izzo didn't do us any favors. Obviously the size is an issue. They out-rebound their opponents by almost 11PG & average btwn 4 and 5 blocks per outing. Not a super deep bench but the couple they rely on (Humrichous & Davis) have been playing at a high level. You'd like to force their bigs away from the hoop w/Bieliauskas, Rapp & Winter hitting some shots, otherwise Boyd & Blackwell will find the going extremely difficult on penetration. The biggest key is probably Wagler. The kid is very talented & plays well beyond his years, but he shot poorly at MSU. He's important to what they do, even moreso with Kylan Boswell still being out. If UWs' bigger guards can rotate on him & make life tough you might be able to hang around.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    The 'lost a blowout' category hasn't really reared its' ugly head since early January but yeah, other than that it's been a season marked by inconsistency--even within the 40 minutes of each game. I would love to see them come out better in the first 10 minutes, especially defensively. But they seem to make their adjustments & settle in eventually. For sure, you can show 8-10 minute stretches of the season, both good & bad, and find it hard to believe it's the same team.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    If that doesn't sound like Keon Broxton..........
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah, I think it's entered the thinking of a lot of fans---and a lot of front-office people in MLB. For the bulk of a season I think it's workable if maintained, but the 'win today' approach you alluded to would probably creep in way too often. When it's the 2nd guy of the piggyback, the tendency would lean heavily into going with matchups once you get into the last 3 innings or so, and when that happens regularly you need more than three late-inning arms. Nowadays the key is finding as many starts of 6 innings or more as you can. If that happens with some regularity, a quality BP with depth can be managed pretty easily. The day a manager can comfortably go to a guy in the 5th or 6th inning & say "it's your game to win or lose" and stick with that more often than not is the 1st step towards seeing something like this tried.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    I'll say it once more: I was behind the idea of trading for Jansen to beef up the depth at C, but didn't like that it cost Areinamo. MINF was getting pretty crowded in the system but that felt a little steep.
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    I liked always Wilson when he was in our organization, thought he had the versatility & enough of a bat to be a nice bench piece. I'm a little surprised he cleared.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    Roberto Pena (70-71) says.......ah, never mind, I don't think he says anything.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    Great point. Wilkin missed a lot of developmental time due to injury weirdness-----getting hit in the face with a pitch, hurting himself in a post-game celebration-----and it's intriguing to imagine where he might be on the ladder had that stuff not happened. If all goes well, mid-season readiness isn't a pipe dream.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    Agree 100% with the first two points. As to the third, I think they like Durbin quite a bit (although perhaps some organizations hold him in even higher regard after last season). I think it's more a case of liking Harrison too much to turn it down, as you said.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    He's never played 3B as a pro so I don't see that. Flip side, no one twelve months ago saw Durbin being a starting 3B at the major league level so who knows? Unless a trade happens Williams getting reps at third could certainly be thrown in the hopper.
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