Jim French Stepstool

For the life of me, if I can only find the person who created the rule that they have to wait several minutes before guarding anyone when on the road........ In fairness, this is what Ware is capable of. Of course, I've seen many times where he isn't nearly this engaged on offense, and his teammates forget he's out there. Murphys' Law, neither happened today. He's much more talented than Crowl, and most other college centers for that matter, but that doesn't excuse the poor start. I'm so sick & tired of seeing opponents look comfortable on offense. Gard even had Winter & Crowl in tandem, which I've never seen work. Just searching, searching, searching. At least most of the mountain has been scaled, 6 pt game at half. Klesmit & Hepburn HAVE to make the perimeter guys uncomfortable.

So, Indiana tonight. The short form is that this is a team that hasn't played consistently all season & has looked downright lousy at times, and it should be a UW win. I think it will be if Klesmit & Hepburn get into their guards defensively, making post feeds difficult. Reneau scored almost at will in the game in Madison & Ware, who sat out that game, can disappear at times but is very, very talented. Bigs gotta stay out of foul trouble. Would like to see Hepburn stay on his roll. He's been scoring more while staying smart & not forcing many bad shots. After watching Illinois at PSU & Purdue at Ohio State in recent days, I'll take anything that results in us having more points at 0:00.

I don't know if this is rare to have a fan board actually having access to spring training (I'm assuming it is), but it's greatly appreciated. Great work so far!!!

Since it was Duke, I'd have loved it if the Wake fans simply stayed put, then as Duke was leaving the floor chanted at them "NO BIG DEAL!!!! NO BIG DEAL!!!!" Now THAT would've twisted the knife a little. I was surprised when UW fans took to the floor after beating MU. Yeah, they were ranked #2 at the time, but maybe having beaten them the last couple years played into my thinking a little. I agree it should be reserved for the ultra-special. Like the 1st time UWM ever reached the tourney by beating Butler in their conference final. Hell, something like that, hang from the rafters for all I care.

That's my point. If players we hadn't heard of had been injured in a court storming, it should be just as valid a reason to curtail it than if it was one of the games' sacred cows. More publicity, more pressure to do something if it's a "name", sure. That's understandable, and predictable. But it bothers me. I'm probably a little too idealistic.

Don't know if I'm reading the right tea leaves but if Black finds a defensive niche here I think it'll be on the right side of the infield.

That's been my #1 question re Wilkin---will he stay at 3B? He obviously profiles as someone that can move to the other corner if needed. But like you said, all the comments so far from the brass is that he's looked good at third. All the better. Anyone know if Frelick had any plays come his way while he was in there?

So, it looks like there's enough hue & cry that there will soon be some sort of anti court-storming rule in college hoops. I have no problem with this, there certainly is a safety factor involved. I'm just amused at the timing, and what's bringing it to the forefront. Kyle Filipowski gets injured, and there was also an issue recently with Caitlin Clark. The cynical part of me can't help but wonder if this whole issue would be on the fast track if the mishaps involved the 9th man for some mid-major. I wondered the same thing when Buster Posey was hurt & there was a rule change. Would the same thing have happened if it was Chris Iannetta?

As long as he isn't teaching bunting, or giving a seminar on the willingness to learn to do so. Fortunately for him he's coaching in an era where that art is an afterthought.

That, and the K rate are my biggest concerns re Mitchell. With his foot speed & baserunning ability, I feel like he's cheating himself & compromising a big part of his skillset if the swing-and-miss doesn't get reigned in. I DO like the idea of getting him some work in RF. He certainly has the ++ arm for it.

A dive into the lane is usually available, IF someone actually dives and IF you throw it right away. Crowl usually does an adequate to good job passing out of doubles IMO. Last night he definitely did not.

I think what happened there, was the refs were anticipating a flop because that was pretty much Marylands' last hope, to get that call. So unless Klesmit pulled a gun on the defender he probably wasn't getting whistled. From where I was sitting, I just saw the defender go down, didn't see enough to have an opinion. I know the refs were wearing pretty thin with both teams. Never could figure out what the 1st half "T" on Willard was all about.

Late to the party. 8:00 games suck when you're in the studio audience. More proof that at the collegiate level it's still a guards' game. Klesmit & Hepburn were both really solid late, handled what was some pretty good full court pressure in the 2nd half, made good decisions. I thought Hepburn did a good job making Young work for his points. They closed out the game really well. Could've easily been an 8-9 point spread at the end, except a team that made two 3pt shots the entire game pulled three of them out of their shorts in the last minute. Yeah, we should've done a better job running them off the 3pt line, but still..... I thought Ilver gave us pretty much what Gilmore does, except HIS misses were from outside rather than 2 feet. But he does force people to pay attention to him so if he's outplaying Gilmore in practice, and guarding people, I'm all for giving him Gilmores' minutes. It was interesting--and correct---that Blackwell was in the game for Storr late (until he fouled out). Much more reliable in helping to deal with the press. And when he had his chances guarding Young I thought he did a terrific job. Damn, that kid is valuable. Nice to be able to work around poor games from both Crowl & Winter. They were both defended well, but 5 turnovers from Crowl....ugh. Good thing Wahl was such a strong presence again. Moment of silence for Larry Petty before the game. Very nice.

I have a feeling Cam is gonna be on their OD roster.

Unless he's an absolute monster throughout the month of March, I'd lean pretty heavily towards him starting out in Nashville. Of course the LH-heavy OF & Taylor being gone plays against that.

RIP Larry. He had a lot of issues early in his career--deaths in the family, conditioning, weight--that hindered him. By his last one or two seasons he was a solid college post player. Petty was in Bill Cofields' second recruiting class along with Matthews, Claude Gregory & a couple others. Cofield amassed a mess of talent his 1st two years here, but I remember a quote from somewhere that he could bring in great raw talent, and within a couple years you'd have...........great raw talent. He just never seemed able to develop & refine that talent into a consistent group. But you're right Jimbo, it was a fun group to watch. We owe Cofield one big debt of gratitude. He brought Bo to the state, first at the College of Racine (now defunct) & later to UW as an ass't. I remember listening to a radio broadcast of that UW-DePaul game. My dad hadn't yet bought in to the newfangled cable thing; it may not have even been available in Milwaukee at the time.

Interesting thought. When you look deeper into the numbers it makes some sense, but I'm not sure how Blackwell would hold up w/the increased workload in his freshman year if he was getting 11 more mpg. But he's certainly the more well-rounded player. Of course Storr has the albatross of having spent his first developmental year as a collegian with Rick Pitino.

Pretty good guess except I'd think the 1st year is no more than 2-3mm. Didn't want to get my hopes up but I thought this was the place he'd like to be, to try to come back from this. Glad he's still in the organization.

They're still pretty solid in the measurables that matter a lot more, but yeah. I don't know if I remember a team dropping as far at this point in the season. I think their true value is somewhere between the two extremes. Saturday was yet another game where a few well-placed minutes of defensive energy from Kamari Mcgee might've changed the outcome. Hope he's getting close.

You're right. He's spent a lot of time as a backup catcher in the minor leagues. I'll stand by my prediction for his potential role at the big league level.

I heard someone bring up something recently about some sort of analytical thing. It's called Luck Quotient, I think. I don't know what goes into it but supposedly it rates UW as one of the more unlucky teams. After Purdue & todays' game with all the midrange shots going in I tend to believe it. AFA officiating is concerned, it was really lovely to take back the goaltend call & take two points from Crowl several minutes after the fact. It certainly wasn't a goaltend, but not blowing your whistle in the first place gives Crowl the rebound under the hoop. Now that's taken away too. For the sake of mental health I'll just believe that crap evens out, even though Bill Schroeder says it doesn't.

UW needs to do a much better job of moving their feet, maybe forcing the 10-12 FT shot, but in general I agree with you. It didn't help today that we just can't seem to pack the lane like we did under Ryan, and on the other side Iowa never seems fanatical about defending.

It was a huge game for an Iowa team playing for their tourney lives, and they played like it. Even so, over the first 33 minutes of the game, if we defended during any 5-minute stretch like we did during the last 7 minutes we probably win. So sick of the on again-off again guarding, but they really clamped down late to get it to OT, so credit there. Otherwise it's the same story--when you DO force a fairly tough midrange shot it always seems to go in, and when you get a miss you choose that time to not box out. Frustrating. Wahl comes out of nowhere in the OT, makes a couple & puts Iowa in a bind of having to guard him now--possibly opening up things for others--so of course shortly afterward he fouls out. Of course. Not sure--maybe six FT misses in the 2nd half? In an OT game that speaks for itself. Bottom line, it's great to make threes & get off to a hot start but it felt all along it was going to reel back in due to the pace & defense that was a little too disinterested. Nice game from Crowl. Hepburn deserved a better fate with his late play.

His value as a catcher on a major-league roster is that he can do it if you happen to get stuck & need a 3rd guy to go back there. He took a big step forward as a viable prospect in '23. No reason to mess with that by putting more on his plate.

Agree with all of this. My one qualifier though is----are we sure Turang isn't a better SS than Ortiz, if it comes to that? I'll defer to those who have seen Ortiz play, as I have not. I know he's reputed to be a strong defensive SS. Also, if Turang plays in a platoon situation I suppose you'd rather platoon the 2B position, than SS. If Black settles into a regular defensive job I'd be shocked if it wasn't one of the corners.