Jim French Stepstool

Back-to-back road games where the visitors were down double-digits & came back to win. I wonder how often that happens?

Take away the penetration from their guards & Minnesota reminded me a little of a Bennett-coached team (either one). And that's a pretty big compliment. Good point re the smaller lineups. It even looked OK vs Michigan, and as you said that's a squad you'd figure you couldn't do it against. Carrington has really attacked the boards the last couple games; that makes it more of an option. For sure, when Rapp is good to go he'll need to earn his minutes.

Hear ya. Losing this after winning in AA might put one in a little bit of a question mark mode---exactly how good are they? With another roadie coming up Saturday this was huge.

BOOM!!!! What a 2nd half from Blackwell & Carrington. My goodness. Feels great, yet a little weird in the sense that they didn't finish very strong--the missed FTs, going back to letting Minn get in the lane, a bad foul by Janicki allowing the 2 throws, then a too-good look from three. But along with the two mentioned above, Janicki deserves a ton of credit for his work on the defensive end. Medved, it almost looks like he's skipped a few rungs on the ladder. By that, I mean they're playing waaay better than I think a team should reasonably expect w/the player turnover combined with a new coach. Coming from nine down late, we helped them some but it was still really impressive. To me this is one of those schools/gyms where you're happy with a win, no matter how it's achieved. At Rutgers is kinda like that too.

Yeah, that whistle didn't look like it needed to be blown.

Yeah, but I don't think Minny really fouled more than that. Our being whistled for 8 might be more than it should be though.

Minnesota is running some real good, disciplined stuff offensively but we're helping immensely by allowing dribble penetration. On the other end, we looked fine until they went to the zone which we responded to terribly. We're flashing people across to the FT line against it--sometimes. I'd rather see someone immediately position on the FT line vs the zone. Preferably Winter, but SOMEONE. Always adjustments at the half. We'll see how UW decides to attack it. You know we'll see it (zone) due to their success with it & lack of depth.

Would like to see Canada play him exclusively in LF but that's probably too much to ask, especially since he's replacing a guy who I'm sure was penciled in at 1B.

I rewatched some of it too. It's amazing how well the inversion of the offense (bigs taking threes, guards driving) works when you have BOTH bigs knocking them down as you mentioned. Almost like Bo's swing offense except the guards are driving the ball rather than posting up. Some have mentioned how that could be a problem for Michigan going forward w/Mara unable to guard out there, but I don't know if they'll run into this again where there's no one he can leave alone on the perimiter. But it sure had them in a vise Saturday; they even went zone for a bit. I like where the team is trending, but road challenges always need to be taken seriously. I would say Medved has Minnesota playing more consistently than I would've expected this early in his tenure. I don't know if they switch 1-5 on screens but looking at the personnel I would say they're capable of doing it. Might be a game where UW should be a bit more cognizant of Winter getting the ball in the post. No Mara, Jacobsen or Cluff down there. Since he's been in the league I don't know if there's anyone better at getting hustle, heart & relentlessness out of his team when playing at home then Pikiell at Rutgers (except for last year when they had the freshmen 'superstars', all of whom are gone). You always expect a rock fight there, which is why I'm happy that we seem to be getting more connected on the defensive end. Tariq Francis is a transfer guard from NJIT. Sorta like Boyd in that he gets into the lane & gets to the FT line. Northwestern had all kinds of trouble stopping him the other day.

Basically replaced in the pecking order by Ebel.

Could anyone out there recommend what they consider to be a good gluten-free pizza? My wife has celiac. She eats like a bird but sometimes is in a 'pizza mood'.

Went to Maria's once. I'll bet it was 20-25 years ago. I don't recall if I had the pizza or something else, but neither my at-the-time GF or I were impressed & we never returned. I would assume we just had the random bad experience because they're still there, so they must be doing something right.

Agree re Balistreri's. We're out in the lake country now so don't get there too often anymore but it's always been a favorite (along with Santino's). Pizza-wise, I'll add DiStefano's to the list. It's on 46th & Forest Home and is carryout & delivery only. The qualifier is I haven't sampled it in years but if it hasn't changed it's terrific. When we lived in Greenfield I was addicted to the stuff. I never had their pies, but back in the day when I would hang out downtown I loved the entrees at Calderone.

I thought there were a few sequences where Bieliauskas did pretty much all he could, but couldn't win the battle because he couldn't stop Mara from being 7'4" or whatever he is. Probably his best job of neutralizing him was hitting the five 3's & keeping Mara on the bench due to his not being able to guard out there. Winter hitting three 3's was huge in that regard, too.

Good comments. They were outrebounded by 3 or 4 today, but if this game was like some of our earlier efforts Michigan would've eaten us alive on the boards. Carrington IMO hasn't always played real smart basketball before today. Bad TOs, not real good judgement & I haven't felt his defensive work has lived up to the solid rep he came in with, maybe due to taking awhile to understand the way Gard wants the help, hedge & recover to work. Ton of credit to him for righting the ship. A long list of guys they don't win today without, and he's certainly on it.

My favorite Raf moment of all time was many years ago, he was doing a Maryland game & they had a player named Exree Hipp. He drove to the hoop on a really fancy move, and Raferty said "If I tried to do something like that, they'd have to X-Ray MY Hipp."

He had 9 rebounds, which led everyone on either side. Also 4 assists; the only player on either team with more was Boyd. Twelve FT attempts. Twice as many as anyone else in the game. Toughness.

I wasn't sure it was on the rim, but it certainly was inside the cylinder. I loved the announcing crew too, which is a rare comment coming from me. Raftery brings up a lot of good stuff (like not taking full advantage of Winter inside on switches).

As the half wore on & we were right there with them, I felt it was going to be one of those deals where if it was close in the last 3-4 minutes every Michigan possession was going to be a bucket or we were going to be called for a foul. But no. The halfcourt D really showed up in the late minutes. Just heard in the postgame----Michigan missed 8 of their final 9 shots😲.

I don't know if I've ever seen a team come out of a half as hot as UW was, and have it virtually matched by the opposition. If Michigan is only 'good' in that stretch rather than red hot we go up by about a dozen. It was Cadeau (sp?) in the lane & a few threes vs the Alexis Bieliauskas Coming Out Party. Multiple heroes. Carrington for sure was one, and he deserves special mention because his minutes had been curbed & he had some bench people ahead of him. I'm overwhelmed by this, really. Goes to show ya how much poise & toughness can carry you. The FT misses late were followed by some really good dig-down deep halfcourt D to keep the momentum from turning. Would've been great if they could've cracked this code before the TCU & Villanova games.

To me it's important when playing a top team like this, especially on the road, you want to avoid being down by 7-10 early in the game & having to dig out of the hole. Four things I saw put them in the early hole: a long rebound not secured cost them three, another Michigan miss where Winter couldn't squeeze it cost them two, and a couple open looks from three that Bieliauskas missed. But obviously some good stuff after that. Sagging into the lane & taking away the extra pass, fighting harder on the 50-50 stuff, and obviously a terrific half from Bkackwell. A couple bad decisions late in the half (Boyd) away from maybe leading at the half, although the kid is playing his heart out as usual. I'm guessing Carrington practiced well the last few days. Some early (for him, anyway) minutes, and he looked mostly effective.

For me it's all about the consistency, esp on the defensive side & staying away from the dumb decisions & turnovers. That stuff seems to come in bunches. The % of the time that they can avoid that ugliness determines whether they'll win enough to be on the right side of the ledger at the end. Agree re Minnesota. Them, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan are so much better coached than we're used to seeing. Rapp is officially ruled out for todays' game. Lendeborg is a ? Michigan.

Those two things, and have or develop a knack for picking portal guys that are going to mesh with returning players & other portal candidates. Be the proverbial 'good fit'. That can't be easy. Gard seemed to have a knack for it with guys like Klesmit, Tonje & McGee.

Milwaukee has been home to great dining options for a long time. I'm not familiar with some of the names on your list, so thanks!!! If I may add another place worthy of a look-see----Santinos' Little Italy.

Some strong portal-driven momentum going on, and Hilton changing his mind adds some extra legitimacy to it. Great news.