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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    I hope to avoid them too. But I can't tell you how many times over the years I've heard the "not built to catch up" line. There have been multiple times they've made up double-digit deficits over the last couple decades w/o having to do one thing differently as far as shooting quickly, pressing, etc. I feel that's something talking heads recycle without thinking it through. Now today, vs this team, playing as well as they were playing? Yeah, they weren't going to get nearly enough stops to catch up.
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    I thought we were jobbed on a few calls inside. But I thought the majority of them came after they opened it up.
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    Me too. That surprised me. Not much opportunity for ball reversals, or anything. They had a week off, and certainly seemed to have this one circled.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    Nope.....twenty-five.😁 Today, at least. With all they do well on both ends, you can't have them nailing all those threes in the 1st half. But if you try to take that away.......I don't know if I've ever seen a team that can get into the lane, then do the late developing lob & dunk, like making the pass from 10-12 feet out, like this group. We let the pace get out of hand & certainly made mistakes on both ends, but I really think it was like 70-75 percent them just having waves of talent & executing.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah. For the most part I was OK with the defensive philosophy in the 1st half. It's very hard to slow them down, pace-wise. You kinda have to pick your poison, and when they make 6-7 threes, or whatever it was, you're kinda screwed because you can't let them get into the lane. We tried to take that away, but they got on a roll from outside. Then that leads to the pace getting to them.....turnovers, and Wahl & Crowl missing a few in close, then some ill-advised shots. If you're not careful it snowballs real quickly vs a team like this. Even Blackwell, despite the made threes, let the pace of the game get into his head a little. Maybe Crowl needs to get up the set shot from three. They'll give it to him.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    I remember how daunting things looked a couple games ago. There were Badger fans that would've gladly taken a 1-2 record in the three-game stretch ending tomorrow, and I can't say I blamed them. With what's obviously the toughest of the three, at least on paper, coming up in Tucson it's a great feeling to continue the winning streak & put sort of a "nothing to lose" feel on the Arizona game. Coming in loose but still focused could be a dangerous weapon in the arsenal. That being said, Arizona just comes at you in waves in the frontcourt. Lots of size & talent. UW will have to stay out of foul trouble. As solid as Gilmore has been in doing what they ask of him, and even though Winter is slowly trending upward, they're going to need Wahl & Crowl to be good AND give 30+ minutes. Getting off to a decent start from the perimeter would help, because as good as Blackwell & Storr have been driving the ball you need to spread 'Zona out for that to work. Barring the extremely unforseen we're looking at no worse than 9-3 when they go back into the league. That didn't look likely after Providence.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    From a former coach to a current one....nice debut, rookie😉. I think Hoskins would look really good in a Brewer uniform. But with Black on the cusp & Wilkin looking like he might be fast-tracked (I still think 1B is a possibility for him), I don't see them wanting to go more than two years on a deal, and I think someone else would offer three.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    Lots of good stuff here. 38-42 from the line the last two games. Whatever their ceiling is as a 3-pt shooting team, I think they'll reach that by continuing to do what we've seen---touch the post & drive the ball. In the face of a dry spell & a 16-point lead shrinking to one on Saturday, they righted the ship & pulled away with nothing made from behind the arc. As long as they don't revert back to where it becomes a necessity I think they'll be OK. I said earlier, if we catch the defense in a switch where Wahl has a 6-2 guy on him I'm fine with him backing down. But you're right, it should no longer be a recognizable part of what they do.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    You're right. It appears they were on the floor together for about 9 minutes. I don't know how that comps to the other games, but it seems like more than usual. As Storr gets better at guarding people, the chances of doing this increase. And it makes it easier to slide Klesmit to the point if Hepburn is sitting & the situation calls for him over McGee. Of course, Gard is giving Essegian chances to jump-start, too. Just a ton of options.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    Storr & Blackwell make a huge difference w/their ability to penetrate, for sure. But while the offense was stagnant & the shooting mediocre vs the Vols, they still scored 70 (& gave up 80). I just feel this is becoming a team that really feeds off defensive effort & can give that effort consistently due to the depth. If they guarded Tennessee the way they did vs MSU they might've won, despite the limitations you pointed out. But yeah, #s 2 & 25 make a heck of a difference. And your point about Crowl & the 3s is spot-on.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    I'm just over-the-moon speechless about the halfcourt defense tonight. Spectacular. Hall was under the weather for them, but still..........57 points, and that's with the 3-4 minute stretch where they got in a great rhythm from beyond the arc. Was actually hold-them-to-50-caliber defense IMO. Hitting the offensive boards certainly paid off again tonight. Loved the clock management with the late lead that the Orebs allowed for. Great floor games from the bigs, along with the points. If Crowl starts knocking down that set shot with regularity, it's an X factor. Didn't see the stat sheet yet, but I thought I saw Crowl with 5 assists. Overall assist-to-bucket ratio for the team had to be impressive. I thought Winter was surprisingly physical on a couple rebounding situations. Great to see. No points, but McGee made a couple plays in the 1st half as well. And nice to see Essegian knock one down. This bench contributes, even when it isn't with points. John Blackwell-------AGAIN. 'Nuff said. Terrific performance.
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    I think it was a combination of his being banged up, and the staff viewing him, when healthy, as more of a deep threat in this offense--and they really don't throw deep all that much. Either way, the "fit" certainly didn't appear to be there. If he is 100%, I could see him piling up a lot of catches somewhere else. Just not sure how many P5 opportunities will be out there.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    I like the toughness shown in this winning streak from Crowl & Wahl, and in particular Wahl attacking while facing up rather than the backdowns (I don't think those should totally go away, but limit it to when he has a severe advantage due to a switch). Also the attack-the-rim mentality shown from Blackwell seems to be rubbing off on Storr as well. That's great to see. Two guys who are solid FT shooters inviting contact. Need to avoid the runouts tonight, even after made baskets--I'm sure Izzo still likes to exploit that if you don't get back quickly. MSUs' guards are capable of playing at a pretty high level; this'll be a good test to see if Hepburn & Klesmit can continue to trend upward. I get the feeling if/when Essegian breaks out, it may be on the road. Maybe tonite?
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    He's done some TFL business at Syracuse, with a few sacks. Sounds like a little bigger & hopefully a little more physical Darryl Peterson.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    I don't know why Jackson Acker was unavailable for the finale, but we're talking over five weeks between games so hopefully it'll be him & Yacamelli, who actually ran hard vs Minnesota. Certainly would be nice if Allen hadn't quit the team.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    If they lose, he's already working on a "playing past Christmas even though we lost eight games" design.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    Now that the B10 is just one whole league (no more B10 West) & he might be sensing more attrition than addition due to the portal, I think he's going to regret that his 32 wins from 2019-22 didn't lead to him getting a different gig. I think the day is coming when his schtick wears too thin (it already has with some up there). Or maybe they keep him around, due to the expense of changing the brand from all the oar & boat nonsense. At least that would have some comic relief value.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    I don't believe this is one of their better rebounding teams, but it looks like Izzo got their attention after losing to James Madison. They're big enough & certainly capable. It'll be a physical deal, going over there. One thing they haven't done is shoot well from 3 PT range, but they also defend the three well. The worst thing UW can do vs MSU is to start relying on jacking up threes, hopefully they don't fall into that trap.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    Agree. A buzzer-beating 3 by Dickinson in Ann Arbor, and the circus-like shot at the end of the Kansas game. Minus those two plays, they win 19 in the regular season and, even with the other late-game failures, probably make the tournament.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    I guess this is why you emphasize the "unexciting" stuff like fundamentally sound position defense, taking care of the ball, touching the post and rebounding. Outside of Klesmit, we were 0-10 from three for the game. Wasn't a killer because they did a terrific job of getting to the line & limited the runouts. You kinda knew they'd make a push. They're too good not too. What sucked was their best stretch on both ends---first 5-6 minutes of the 2nd half---coincided with probably our worst segment, where we stopped touching the post & got too loose with the ball. The veteran poise once the lead melted to one was extremely impressive. Wahl still looks a little lacking afa finishing at the rim but he & Crowl were big positives on both ends. And I thought Storr did a great job in some of the late possessions with his decision making. Twenty-four out of twenty=eight from the line.😍
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    I think it's an intriguing idea. I expected to see it more today than we did. But you can't argue with the results of staying big; they had a big edge on the boards which was huge. My only negative regarding the bigs was Wahl somehow lost #12 about three times, which shouldn't have happened. Also not sure why Ilver got the minutes he did, outside of it simply being a case of him doing well enough in practice that he isn't THAT far behind Gilmore & Winter and Gard feels he deserves a little run.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    As Sveum alluded to, the DH role can help sort this out. I've never been a big fan of having both catchers in the lineup in that fashion but they did it a number of times in '23. However right now there's a surplus of OFs to potentially fill that role & you don't want to bring Quero up here to sit, so barring health issues we may not see Quero as soon as we think. Once he's ready, it's like they say, a good problem to have. I could be wrong but if Quero is as good as we all expect/hope he is, then when the time comes I suspect using Contreras as a very attractive trade chip is more likely than splitting them between DH/C, or trying to make a 1B out of him.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    There's no doubt in my mind that UW can win the game. But there's also no doubt they"ll have to play really well to do so. The way the Badgers' defense has trended upward in the last handful of games has to continue. Take care of the ball; no cheap transition buckets off turnovers. Make them score in the half court. This MIGHT be a game where we see them go a little smaller at times. Blackwell & Storr on the floor together would be interesting.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    Well put. That's what makes it a little scary to include any of these guys in a trade. That being said, it's gonna happen at some point. Unless some organization is in love with the guy & overpays relative to last years' struggles, I'd be OK with Wiemer putting up some numbers in Nashville.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    It IS too bad. Not only was it more interesting (to me anyway) when you had 5-6 major conferences, but in both football & basketball you had your occasional cinderellas from CUSA, the MWC, Mid-American, A-10, wherever. I think that's the spice that makes college sports what it is, but with the current structure they may wind up being little more than developmental incubators For the AFC (SEC) and NFC (B10). Things certainly do change. Whether it's evolving or devolving, I don't think that chapter's been written yet.
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