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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    IMO Max is a little less athletic than Gasser, but I'm nitpicking. That's a pretty good comp. Gasser was on some ultra-successful teams while in Maxs' first year here the team fell short of the tourney. It might be nothing more than that. Folks should know by now why Klesmit plays over Essegian. And I'm an Essegian fan.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    The 1st half really started to feel like one of those road games where you're down by a dozen or so going into the break. OSU was hitting the boards hard, flying around on defense & making some fairly well-defended shots. Then Battle goes full-blown Tominaga for 2-3 minutes. What was interesting to me was in the 2nd half we (Mostly Klesmit) took Battle away while they did the same to Storr. That's usually going to be advantage UW, when you're talking about ancillary guys having to step up. I have no clue how Klesmit can do the job he did on Battle, then have enough sauce left to fill the hoop the way he did in the final 6-7 minutes. Big salute. Kudos to Winter too, being asked to fill a little bigger role with Crowl banged up. The defensive chops aren't there every time down the floor. But for a 1st-year guy playing in the post, I'm impressed. He looks to me like he's fulfilling the cliche of just getting 1% better every day. Two road wins in the league already. That's sweet.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah, I'll have to stand corrected on that. I learned after posting that he's 72, for some reason I had him in the mid-60s range.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    I wouldn't be surprised, although nowadays it isn't easy for a college FB or BB program to do something that might actually get them into serious trouble (a coach having to sit out games vs Ball State, the Citadel & Louisiana-Monroe doesn't count). X-number of months as a studio analyst/AFLAC commercial guy, then back into coaching would be my guess.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    The other addition today was Elijah Hills, a 280lb defensive lineman that had solid numbers for FCS Albany. Obviously lots of opportunity at his position.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    IMO that would be a wise move, both for him personally & to help fill a void. QB pressure was sorely lacking, and I think Alliegro could make a difference there. Curtis is a big addition that I didn't see coming.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    Count me in as someone who also was disappointed that we couldn't pick Drury up in the summer of '22. But I agree what Bash suggested is too much. Something including Zamora might make sense. Or Wes Clarke? His value is probably at its' zenith.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    Honestly, I don't think he'd ever give Essegian regular minutes unless his defense improves, which I think is what's happened. And like I alluded to, maybe Nebraska is a team that can be guarded a little more easily on the perimeter. Gary Payton, no. But I believe Gard when he says he's gotten better on that end. Believe me, I saw first-hand his brief performance vs Jax State. There was nowhere to go but up. One spot on the floor where I think he's done a little bit of a "trade off" is with Storr, not just because of his versatility on offense but that you're playing three guards if he's not on the floor (Blackwell is a legit "3", but doesn't possess the size & strength of Storr at this point). Pretty much everyone Gard is using right now seems to be either holding their own or trending upward. Hopefully it continues in Columbus.
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    Their offensive depth & versatility is very impressive. It's good enough that they could win games w/o locking down defensively the way Gard would like to (they did yesterday). But believe me, his emphasis on defense, and on how individuals practice, will always be more than lip service. I get what you're saying........they can now win some games primarily by their ability to score the basketball. But we have a kid that averaged just under 12 PPG last year that was barely seeing the floor due to getting lost defensively. He's always going to put a premium on the defensive rules, and getting stops in crucial moments. It's why Gilmore sees the floor ahead of Marcus Ilver.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    Nebraska maybe isn't as good as their W-L record might show, but they were really impressive--on both ends of the floor--in beating Indiana the other day. No small feat to get out to an early lead, then extend it the way UW did. What stood out to me on the stat sheet was 36 bench points, and eight different players making a 3pt shot. Both are pretty astounding. It was a matter of time before Essegian got a little more run in one of these games as Gard was lauding his work in practice. Even though they did it today, it isn't easy to give ten guys meaningful minutes. I'm guessing they felt the on-top screen game from NU's bigs wasn't as tough to deal with than what some other teams do, and as long as he wasn't chasing Tominaga he'd get the job done. Sure is fun to watch him when he gets in a rhythm. With the work Blackwell turns in & McGee shining in his last couple games, it's getting to be incredibly competitive for minutes. Nice problem to have.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    A great line, one that could be used as a one-sentence primer for some fans. That's a really good explanation as to how things have played out so far.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    I'm a little concerned about giving up momentum by getting off to a slow start offensively tomorrow. While their overall sked hasn't been strong, Nebraska has played pretty well the last 3-4 times they've faced better competition. They looked particularly good vs Indiana the other day. Getting Rienk Mast back helps their interior game on both ends. I'm still amazed whenever I see them guarding people after the ****show Hoiberg ran out there his first couple years. Establish inside early & defend Wilcher & Tominaga at the 3-point line & we should be OK. They've only played two road games so hopefully that's a factor.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    Perhaps this doesn't belong here since it's no longer 2023, but for all the justified debate about Fickell as a gameday coach/decision maker, he seems to attract portal guys like a magnet. The LB group has been almost totally overhauled, including Jaheim Thomas who was the leading tackler for Arkansas last season. I guess the days of someone entering a program & taking time to absorb a system are going the way of the five-speed stick shift & banana seat.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    As Sveum said, they DO already have this. But as I touched on in a different thread, I'd love to see a penalty for the team signing a FA or three if spending above a certain amount, such as losing pick(s). That's even more appealing to me than the team losing the FA receiving the comp picks. And no, that'll never happen.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    Sentences #1 & 3, yeah. But the thread is about disparity & its' effects on being competitive. The Brewers appreciating in value while everyone else does too does nothing to address that disparity, if one believes something should be done.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    My view of this, admittedly simplified, is that I believe in the current structure it's possible for a team like Milwaukee to reach, or even win, the WS in a given year. But with regards to drafting/development, trades, FA signings & all the other decisions regarding distribution of finances, they need to be damn close to mistake-free, while many other organizations can simply eat their mistakes.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    But (I assume) you can say that about pretty much all MLB teams. The Brewers organization is doing wonderfully when compared to other run-of-the-mill large businesses. But when compared to the other MLB teams that they actually have to compete against............
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    I suppose it's a real tribute to Bo Ryan that they got to the line as often as they did under him, without a lot of guys who can penetrate. Adding that dimension with Storr & Blackwell, along with Wahl putting emphasis on straight-line drives as opposed to the crab-dribble backdowns, has indeed been huge.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    A lot of weird stuff can happen of course, but I agree a very successful season is a possibility. One of the Achilles heels, in some folks' eyes, could be the 3 pt shooting. But Storr, Klesmit, & Hepburn all shot better from deep in 22-23 than they have so far this season. If they can revert and Blackwell & Crowl continue to do well in smaller samples it shouldn't be an issue.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    They're 0-3 in the league now, with Rutgers coming into IC Saturday. If things don't go well that day we may see the lava start to seep out of his ears.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    I thought one of the most impressive things about the win is we accomplished it with Iowa pretty much imposing their will, pace-wise. That, and maybe the long layoff, contributed to the 1st-half sloppiness. Freeman was impressive, especially in the 1st half. Nice to see Crowl assert himself in the second stanza after being outplayed. I thought Hepburn moved around pretty well. Worth his weight in gold to have someone so team-oriented that he still plays hard & provides what he does even though he isn't "getting his (shots)" like in his first two years. Sort of an average-ish game from Blackwell, but still a very nice night from the bench. Gilmore, McGee & Winter were all real good. At halftime, I was thinking Iowa deserves credit for being at least a little better defensively than I gave them credit for. Nevermind.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    Just once I wish the rest of the team/staff would do a fake restraint & let Fran through, just to see whether he'd actually attack the official, or pull a Barney Fife.
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