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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    What I specifically loved about yesterday: Gard likes to shotgun some breathers so starters can be fresh/not in foul trouble come crunch time. So yesterday, eighteen first-half points from the bench. Terrific. Hepburn made Tyson Walker work REALLY hard for his (I think) 11 points. If there's an award for MVP in a league while averaging single-digits in scoring he'd be one of the front runners. I think the relentlessness Wahl shows around the cup is starting to rub off on Crowl a little. He still gets outfought sometimes but it's getting rarer by the game. From his quotes it sounds like Gard is going to live with some of the questionable shots from Storr, because of his ability to make enough of them to get on a roll. Some of his takes make me cringe, but fortunately a lot of them are of the "NO-NO-NO-YES! variety. Gotta talk to the ticket holders in our row. About half a dozen MSU fans wound up with the seats. Oh well, as long as they're kept quiet..........
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    It seems to me that college BB is reverting back to home court being a huge factor, even more than recent seasons (no #s to back that up, just an observation from watching games this season). UW didn't shine vs Arizona, but those guys played awfully well in front of the home crowd that day. Providence & Penn State were real clunkers defensively. They have individuals that can guard, and guard pretty well. I think they're still trying to develop it within the team concept (switching properly, going under or over screens, etc) and just fighting for the consistency on that end. Gave up 66 last night & it could've easily been 6-8 points less as MSU made some fairly tough 2s in the 1st half & got a couple friendly rolls. I think the D is on the right track.
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    So, unfortunately it sounds like Kamari McGees' injury is more serious than originally thought. The ankle is immobilized & he's on a scooter to put zero weight on it. Not expected to miss the rest of the season, but "out indefinitely" is the phrase they're using. One of the players was referring to "a few weeks" absence. Obviously right now no one knows for sure. I think we'll see Isaac Lindsay soak up some minutes in the 1st half of games like he did Tuesday. Klesmit can handle pg duties, but with all on his plate on both ends of the floor I think Gard will try to limit that added responsibility as much as he can. I assume Tyler Wahl will help bring the ball up, especially when Hepburn gets a blow. Makes a tough task a little tougher tomorrow. Michigan State seems to finally be putting some things together.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    I think it's kinda the best of both worlds. As mentioned, you weren't getting him for one year, and really don't want him for three IMO. If he stays for the 2nd year great, but I could see a scenario where it's no catastrophe if he doesn't. Guys like Wilkin, Black, Clarke & Martinez are still potentially very important, just no longer with the same sense of urgency. Which is good. As to what's next, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last "biggie" of the off-season.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    To me that was a toughness, veteran win. Hepburn with great defense when we were up 1, forcing an air ball. Wahl with the tough boxout, drawing the foul, and hitting both throws. Down one, Storr taking matters into his own hands to draw the foul ala a Finley or Davis, and making both. Not as splashy as his last 3-4 games, but I thought Klesmit was solid again. While spelling Crowl during a crucial point in the game, Winters comes up with a tough rebound in traffic. Another step forward. Other than a cold shooting 1st half & being poor from the line, I thought Minnesota played us pretty damn well. My biggest disappointment was the halftime wraparound minutes. We got up by 15 in the 1st half, then the last 3 minutes ran our offense like we expected to be up 15 the rest of the night. Then the energy jolt from Minny coming out of the locker room, which we responded to poorly. Missed McGee. He would've been useful spelling Hepburn chasing Hawkins around. Any road win in the league is big. Got three of 'em now.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    I knew it was bad but.........wow. Didn't realize that. I would guess the answer is no. Fortunately it didn't cost them, but when Hepburn & Klesmit both sit & McGee isn't available it can look pretty ugly. Hopefully McGee isn't hurt seriously. It's nice to use him to spell Hepburn w/o having to slide Klesmit over.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    Told my wife after the ejection & McGee taking a couple tumbles that this looked like one of those games where the zebras were going to do their over-reaction thing the rest of the way. At least we knocked down just about all the FTs.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    Really strange 2nd half. Klesmit & Hepburns' defense in the 1st half & quite a bit of the 2nd was about as good as you can ask for. The last 20 minutes, I don't know if I've ever seen a Badger game with as much hot-to-cold fluctuation, especially on the defensive end. Being able to do absolutely nothing to slow down Reneau didn't help. I felt kinda bad that the stage was set for the end-of-bench guys to get a minute or two & it didn't happen. With Hepburn sitting & McGee down for the rest of the night, the ballhandling got really ugly. Storr & Blackwell attacking the rim is a thing of beauty. I was trying to remember if I ever saw a more complete performance in person from a UW player, than what Klesmit turned in. In Bo's 1st year I saw Kirk Penney drop, I think, 33 on Marquette. That might be about it.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    Crowl & Storr were effective. Wahl had his worst game in some time IMO. Agree re Ilver. Even against a team with subpar rebounding numbers, five boards in limited time is no joke. Everyone that lobbied for him over Gilmore points to his offense, but if his floor game going forward resembles what he did Tuesday that's what may finally inch him ahead of Carter. For some time now we've heard how Ilver & Essegian are practicing well. Starting to see proof.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    It was the type of loss where you can certainly get a teams' attention in practice in the days to follow. Guards suddenly couldn't stay in front of people. As Gard said postgame, PSU was very comfortable offensively & we did nothing to change that or disrupt the pace of the game. Of course after being clobbered at home the same night, I'm sure Woodson has his teams' attention too. The good news is college BB is still largely a guards' game, and I don't think the IU guards are capable of what PSU turned in Tuesday. Yeah, if I'm Bucky I can't wait to get back on the floor. Particularly #s 5 & 11.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    Kept waiting for that, too.
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    Long story short, if you give up 87 your chances of winning aren't good, Those chances go down to zero if you throw in 14 TOs or whatever the number was. I actually thought we defended slightly to moderately better in the 2nd half despite giving up more points & getting virtually no critical stops. A greater % of PSUs' shots in that half were tougher takes IMO. But I just kept waiting for the 4-5 minute dry spell that never came. Obviously no could stay in front of their man consistently. Then when he doesn't get into the lane, Ace Baldwin shoots 4-5 from deep. Coming into the game he was at 26%. Go figure. Obviously tough nights for Klesmit (defensively at least) & Wahl. Their pressure was well-constructed, but we have way too much experience to get that flustered. Hopefully Crowl is back to 100%. It was hard to tell b/c they didn't have anyone to stop him anyway. Indiana becomes a real big one. Purdue cleaned their clocks tonite so i'm sure Woodson & his staff will be getting their attention.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    I hope Klesmit & Hepburn have a lot in the tank tonight. They'll probably be the primary defenders for Clary & Baldwin, and those two put up over 40% of Penn States' shots. Clary in particular, when I've seen him, never seems to meet a shot he doesn't like. Crowl was obviously hampered vs Ohio State, and only seemed moderately better Saturday. Hope to see him closer to 100% tonight.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    Is it possible Santana wants more than one year so they're looking at alternatives? I have no interest in Votto, just wondering if there's a scenario where this is actually a legitimate rumor. Hope not.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    I know that after Haidet left, they went through four ADs in the span of about 4-5 years. That was around the time my interest started to wane so I'm not up on the details, but a couple of those guys seemed to be heavily in over their heads. The current AD has been there now for over a decade. It seems to me most of the discontent seems to be directed at the administration by the fan base. After they moved away from Rob Jeter, rumors are that they had TJ Otzelberger all but signed but the chancellor overruled the AD & gave the job to Lavell Jordan. Jordan lost over 20 games & left after one season. I believe the rumors because it sounds like the type of thing that would happen there. Otz is now at Iowa State, where he's gone 53-30.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    In the newest AP top 25 poll, Gonzaga is nowhere to be seen for the first time since 2016. That's 143 weeks' worth. I actually thought it's been longer than that.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    I thought Jeter was the obvious choice at the time, and a good one. He didn't sustain the same level, but may have been judged a bit unfairly since he immediately followed Pearl. He certainly was given a long leash-----8,9 years?? IMO they dropped the ball on two fronts: When they had the success under Pearl, they could've foreseen the upcoming changes in college sports where schools change conferences like we change our socks. I'm not a fan of the conference-hopping, but the Horizon was a strong mid-major league that had its' guts ripped out----Butler, UIC, Loyola & Valparaiso all jumped. The Missouri Valley would've been a nice target for them at that time. Secondly, Paul Plinske would've been a terrific AD Hire, but as far as I can tell they showed little if any interest.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    For sure, they deserve a lot of credit. Defensively they remind me of some of the UW teams under Dick Bennett, not only in scheme but focus & tenacity. I suspect the focus & tenacity part hasn't been a problem since the Chicago State loss. I just fail to remember a boatload of games in FB & BB where we played a clean game vs them. Some bad TO's yesterday & a few too many OReb's IMO.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    Agreed. He's a real swiss army knife on defense, and can beat you in just about any way imaginable, save for the perimeter jumper. Giving the guards a break by bringing it up the floor vs man pressure is something Gard sometimes goes to. Smart. And the FT improvement has really fueled his efficiency. In his last four games, 58 points on only 26 FG attempts. That's outstanding.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    I was in the ballpark the day he homered in his first three ABs vs Montreal (2001). It was pretty exciting having a chance to witness a four HR day; alas he K'd in his fourth AB.
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    Theoretically yeah, but moving it to Saturday would've probably helped more in that regard. Except I'm sure CSU didn't want to do that as they have a noon Sunday tipoff at UWGB. I think that factored in.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    It seems like it's in the UW Athletic Department by-laws or something, that in FB and basketball, whatever your full capabilities are when playing your best you have to be 30-40% below that whenever playing Northwestern. You have to give them credit though. Collins came right back to the post double from last season & it worked really well. He's made them a tough team to beat. But some ugly turnovers, just a few too many times going under screens, etc. We DID get them into some foul issues though, which was key.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    Going in to this one I would've had Klesmit on Buie. Boy was I wrong. Ty Berry had 6 points today, 3 on a putback-and-one off a miss, and a 3-pt shot that hit every piece of glass & metal in the building before somehow dropping through. He easily could've wound up scoreless. Klesmits' defense on him was a massive factor in the win. Oh, BTW, he also scores 24. Just running out of superlatives for the way he's playing right now. And the offense is coming at times when they most need it. Salud, mia compadre. Fantastic job digging out two extra shot clocks w/ offensive rebounds in the final minute. That's the "little things", except there's nothing little about it. He's turned himself into a real good coach & gets his teams to do all the things necessary to give them a chance to win, but Collins just strikes me as one of these guys I'd love to go off on, if I was within earshot of his bench. Loved how Storr didn't let frustrating results get to him. He was huge in the last 6 minutes or so.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    Lots of wailing & gnashing of teeth among UWM fans (those which still exist) about their 7PM game in downtown Milwaukee tonight being moved to 2PM due to the weather. I'm not there, but I hear there are around 150 fans at the game. Not that they draw well anyway, but in a 10,000+ seat arena that's pretty ugly. That was once a fun program to follow & I used to go to some of the games as my nephew was a HS teammate & pretty good friends with a former player. Don't know how much of this decision was theirs & what input the Horizon League had, but I don't see what this accomplished other than trying to "guess right" regarding the weather pattern within a 6 hour window. Either way, that school seemed to have a terrific chancellor & AD in the era just before & after the turn of the century and now seem to be stuck in a traffic jam at the corner of Apathy & Incompetence. Too bad.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    I agree. Not a lot of opportunities for Gard to pick & choose his spots last season. They get all of 3 games out of Jacobi Neath before he has to pack it in, so that leaves Jordan Davis & Isaac Lindsey for competition. I think he's slowly trending upward, but the PT last season was sort of "fools' gold" for sure.
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