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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    After PSU, for sure there are no road games we can take for granted. If Hepburn can guard his tail off & bother McDaniel that would be huge. If the way Edey shot FTs the last two games was the norm, I'd love to just use up 13-14 fouls on him. But like we saw, they likely don't win w/o the other contributions, especially Jones. I guess another way of looking at it was that we only turned it over IIRC 5 times-----we almost HAD to shoot 16% from three to NOT win.
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    It would've been interesting to try to do something to get Edey out of the paint. Like you said, tough to take Wahl out though. We were outrebounded by like 12-13, I'd hate to think what those numbers would've been w/o him. One idea I heard brought up, was maybe try Ilver instead of Gilmore when Wahl sat. He could potentially draw Edey out of the paint, and he's certainly willing to shoot it. Maybe we'll see the day when Winter can play the 4, but right now I don't think he can guard anyone but a traditional center. Unless, ironically, it's a 4-man like Wahl or Gilmore. I liked the shot Gard got for him late out of the TO. Thought he was gonna stick it. The refs were IMO OK. I thought they developed a case of "makeupcall-itis" in the 2nd half though. But that's been going on for years.
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    My wife has to get up in the morning much earlier than I do, so she usually goes to bed first & falls asleep to old "Alfred Hitchcock" reruns. Sleeps like a baby. I peruse Brewerfan, turn in, and usually toss & turn for awhile. There's a moral there somewhere.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    Just be glad he isn't calling Clarke a legitimate option for 3B & call it a day.😉
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    Good points. My one contention is that I think they can, vs a lot of teams out there, score in the post often enough to keep them sufficiently multi-dimensional. They did a poor job dealing with the post-double vs Nebraska, that needs to get better. But Wahl came up with a 20-point outing against a defender the likes of which few, if any teams have. And Storr......when (if) he gets better at picking his spots as to when to attack the lane, can be very effective & live at the line. You're right; he wasn't good today. Hoping Blackwell has enough in the tank to finish strong. He can score with versatility but probably needs more muscle. Can't argue re the defense. I think the parts are there. But AFA getting late stops, yeah, it happened vs PSU also.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    After seeing Purdue in person today, the thought I came away with was that this is maybe a top 20 team WITHOUT Edey. Just a lot of parts that fit together really well. Lance Jones was superb today on both ends, & Smith is a very impressive PG (was surprised to see he finished with 5 turnovers though). Even when we (sort of) got things going late, they came up with a big bucket numerous times to stem the tide. And having Edey play sort of a one-man zone while ignoring Wahl on the perimeter was a great bit of strategy. Obviously we needed to shoot better from 3 to win. Some were well-defended, some were forced, and the good looks just didn't go in. Some bad forces by Storr, but when he's going well a lot of those seem to go in. Jones had a ton to do with that. Three plays I thought really helped do them in: down by (I think) 2, Edey misses a FT & we get outfought for the rebound. A possession or 2 later we get another miss, the rebound caroms to Hepburn & it bangs off him & out of bounds, Then we get the steal on the press but we can't finish on the runout. He didn't make a 3PT shot, but I saw some things from Essegian that may help him earn some more trust. Subbing him in for Storr late was a good move that just didn't bear fruit. Wahl was a warrior.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    Never knew this was such a wayward home for former Buckyvillians😄. I was never kicked off but simply lost interest in posting there. I don't know if there's a team-specific modification for home court, but I never paid much attention to the generic 6-point thing. Such a huge difference between playing, say, Duke on the road (or Nebraska for that matter) & travelling to play a MAC or Horizon League school on a Monday night. Of course, refs are only human, too. After what happened in the Purdue-Northwestern game w/the foul discrepancy & the revived talk about what Edey does or doesn't get away with, I'm looking forward to seeing how the zebras handle things in Madison on Sunday.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    Dude, first off, welcome to the board. I've read some of your posts. I really think your grievance is with the financial structure of the game, not the Brewers. They're pretty much doing what they have to do.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    I said he's still quality, and an upper-rotation guy. There has been some regression, and if those numbers pointed out earlier in the thread were slightly better over the last three seasons rather than the opposite, it may have made a difference in the return (although only getting the guy for one year factors in heavily). I won't deny that at the end of the day he's still one of the top pitchers out there. I don't know if he'll get 300M, that's a byproduct of the system more than anything. Let's face it, you can be an elite talent, regress slightly, and still get that kind of money from one of the usual suspects.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    Seriously, the most relative points I saw through these many pages are 1) The propensity to overvalue someone who is on the last year of his contract and 2) The regression of Burnes over the last few seasons--still a quality upper-rotation guy, but a regression nonetheless. There are no secrets; teams see that stuff. These two points are what kept us from being able to slather the hot corner with Mayo. My guess is we aren't done yet.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    There you go again, taking the time to think things through. Do we actually need to TEACH you how to jump off a bridge??
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    Nebby can get real hot from there. What I didn't see coming was Mast hitting a couple big ones late, And Tominaga hitting none late, early, or in-between. I guess the same applies to us. Thirty-one attempts from out there is too many. Their post double was very effective, but still. Yet I have a tough time berating Crowl. They did a good job limiting his attempts, and he had 13 rebounds & did a decent job passing out of the doubles. Two TOs in 37 minutes.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    My thinking is if he does, it's merely to absorb 2-3 fouls vs Edey, hopefully before they're in the 1 and 1.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    I should've included Hoiberg. Nebraska got on one of their rolls in the 2nd half but IMO they don't win w/o Hoiberg & Garys' performance in the 2nd half on the defensive end. It sucked, but wasn't at all surprising, that they made a run. What was horrible about it was how we responded. A really ugly string of possessions for about 4-5 minutes fueled their push. When we responded later thanks largely to Klesmit, I really felt once up 6-7 points we were one more stop from settling in & taking control late. Never happened, unfortunately. I thought it was huge when it was 67-all, we got them to miss, but Wahl couldn't secure the rebound. Would've put us in a last-shot scenario in a tie game, and I think we'd have found a way. Them going big w/Gary at the 3, Gotta give Hoiberg credit for that. We saw both the beautiful & the ugly about Storr taking matters into his own hands, all within 45 minutes. Hopefully it'll be less of the latter moving forward & he gets better at reading defenses.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    it'll be a challenge for sure. Everyone plays better at home than on the road, but with Nebraska it's really pronounced. They shoot just over 30% from 3pt range on the road; In Lincoln it's almost 50%. Plus when guys like Mast, Allick & Gary (if he's back) play with energy & do the "dirty work" they're that much tougher. Despite the relative rankings of the two teams I'd consider this a really nice win if they can get it.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    It isn't easy to effectively play ten. I think he's doing about as good a job of it as you can expect. In McGees' absence, going with Lindsay in the 1st half to absorb a few minutes has worked out really well so far. Looking forward to seeing what they do with Edey on Sunday (and seeing how the game is called, after what happened in their game last night). I wouldn't be shocked to see Ilver get a minute or two in the 1st half, or even Hodges, especially if Edey shoots FTs the way he did vs Northwestern.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    That's interesting. I've seen guys more-or-less "shoved" to where they need to be, but never that. As long as he has the right idea, I guess...... I have seen him try to plow through screeners a time or two lately, which obviously won't fly. I agree that this staff will get him there if he keeps working.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    He's actually shot the ball pretty well lately. And I agree that he's giving an effort defensively, and has improved on that end (but still can get better, particularly playing/fighting through screens). It's really nothing more than a case of him having to earn minutes from people who have been, frankly, better. He has Klesmit, Storr, and Blackwell to contend with for minutes. And Klesmit (until now) hasn't had to move to PG to spell Hepburn because McGee has been a solid backup. Last year his competition for minutes was Klesmit, Jordan Davis & Isaac Lindsay. Big diff. The role you're describing for him is kinda what he's been providing lately, except it's been more like 6-8 minutes than 15. Considering the disappointment in the reduced minutes his attitude & effort seems to be good. He's provided a spark in a couple recent games, I hope that's enough to keep him engaged. He can still be an integral part of the team. I get how some people think he might be tempted to go somewhere where he can play 30 minutes, score 18ppg (and maybe give up 20). I just hope his desire is to be as complete a player as possible. In that event he's in the right place.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    He sure did. Terrific talent. But the bigger story was his coach "going off" in the closing seconds. I don't blame Collins when you look at the foul discrepancy, and the offensive foul that wasn't called. But it was fun to watch. I guess he just isn't used to his team getting the short end of the stick late in a close game after playing at Duke for four years.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    The beat goes on. Top five teams North Carolina & Tennessee lose tonight. The Vols' loss was at home to South Carolina. Former UW assistant Lamont Paris has the Gamecocks at 18-3. Might as well throw darts at the board when filling out brackets this year.
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    In the top 25 poll that came out today there are two teams from the state of Wisconsin ranked among the top ten. I'm too lazy to dig into it but I'm guessing that's never happened before.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    Oh yeah, it would be a directive from the bench for sure. And it's smart. Most miracle type comebacks in the final few minutes are fueled by quick empty possessions, missed FTs or turnovers. The "playing not to lose" complaints from fans are largely nonsense.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    I think what they were doing at that point was trying to shrink the game; still get good shots, but take 20-25 seconds. Which I think is a sound strategy. But you're right. You can do that & still get the ball inside, and they went away from that. It's a fine line to take a little more time & still execute and they didn't do a great job of it. Still, the lead never got below twelve, IIRC Hepburn was out for a portion of that time, which may have had something to do with it.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah. Hopefully that's in the rear-view mirror. MSU tried for a late push yesterday & couldn't get closer than twelve, which I guess is a good sign.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    A team with an athletic 6-5 to 6-7 guy who can score in different ways--in other words, a Storr--would be a tough matchup. It would cause some shifting around since Storr probably wouldn't be up to the task defensively.
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