Jim French Stepstool

The first point you make is an especially good one. From what I saw the OL improved once the offense settled into a vastly different way of doing things---world beaters, no. But more comfortable in an offense that had a little more of a 'traditional' look to it. It certainly would've helped to not take over two months to decide Heinzen was an interior guy & not a LT. Seriously bad decision coming out of camp. Agree with the other points as well. As for Carter Smith, it wouldn't surprise me if a couple years from now people will be railing about the QBs who played ahead of him in 2025. Those people would be wrong. Talented enough to furnish hope for the future, but nowhere near ready right now.

The former makes a lot of sense.

Their QB play was certainly better than ours from what I saw, and I assume was as good or better in the 2nd half as well. Where I'm coming from, I see UW going into the locker room up at least 7-3 if not for the poor 1st half from West, augmented by their guy putting two punts inside the ten IIRC. But from what I'm reading on this thread neither guy (did Simmons play in the 2nd half?) made plays. Given the conditions you definitely needed to run the ball something closer to what they turned in vs ILL. I'm sure that didn't get any better as the game wore on.

I don't know if the numbers bear it out or not but from '88 to '90 IMO one or two of those teams were worse offensively than this one, especially if you want to factor in this group being down to their 4th QB. From what I saw today (mostly just the 1st half), seems to me their punter having a great half while Sean West had a poor one might've been the single biggest factor on a day where field position meant almost everything.

The above was one of the big stories of the 1st half. During the course of the season you'll have games where you're being guarded well & struggle, especially when you're not on your home court. That's why it's so important to match defensive intensity, and for most of the 1st half UW didn't. Was getting sick of watching the curly-haired kid basically shoot set shots. The defensive fire returned late in the half; hopefully it's there to stay. After all that, down four at half while turning it over eight times. I almost feel like someone needs to post, to help alleviate the aggressive perimeter D if nothing else. Inverting things & posting up Blackwell or Boyd on occasion wouldn't be a bad idea either. Winter & Rapp having one of those halves, on the offensive end, where they might as well be 6'4". One way or another you have to find a way to stretch TCU out & make them pay for the overplay on the perimeter.

He isn't as 'game ready' as the other three but I'd include Garlock in the comment re post defense. He has the size & bulk, and as long as he doesn't get caught out in space on switches a lot he'll contribute. Certainly behind the other post guys at this point but when you think of the term 'freshman big' he appears physical enough to transcend that stereotype. They don't really need scoring from him right now; hopefully that'll come. Rapp might be a key today. He had a horrible game vs BYU & followed it up with a great performance, not only scoring the ball but on the boards & defensively. UW needs the second one to show up on a more regular basis. Looking forward to this one. Running their offense & getting good shots will be much tougher vs TCU than it was vs the Friars.

I noticed that, too. Vs a group that tries to go too fast like I think Providence was sometimes guilty of, Boyd & Blackwell can wreak havoc, as can Janicki & Carrington. Also only 6 Badger TOs. Tomorrows' game looked like a real challenge Whether it was TCU or Florida. Since a squeaker over New Orleans in their opener the Frogs have been pretty good, beating FLA & losing to Michigan by four. Not a lot of imposing height, but some girth. Winter missed one shot from inside the arc all day vs Providence. Whether it's screen & roll or posting, would like to see the ball in his hands in the post. Brock Harding (late of Iowa) starts at guard for them.

I also only saw the game in between visiting w/family & expanding the ole' waistline. From what I ascertained the pregame stuff I heard was accurate---Providence has some talent & can score, but isn't exactly Bob Knight-like on the defensive end. Nick Boyd isn't bashful (25 shots) but if he's going to shoot 60% from the floor, ummmmm, OK. Looking at the box score I see Rapp had a nice bounceback game, and Janicki shot the ball really well.

Passion & physicality. I'm very surprised how things have turned around the last month. It's gotten to the point re recruiting where you have to take everything with a little bit of skepticism until the LOI is actually signed. I've often wondered how nerve wracking it would be to be recruiting as a college coach, relying on the whims of teenagers & knowing that as positive as your visit went, he's visiting someone else in a week or two & can be swayed just as easily in another direction. Throw in the fact that cheating is now legal, and I don't blame guys like Tony Bennett one bit for pulling the plug. Karma. Let's give a big shoutout to whoever convinced Fickell to s***can the vest.

It would be very, very gratifying to see Wilkin settle into a 5-600 PA season, without the injury drama. In that vein, sort of the 3B version of Garrett Mitchell.

I guess they list him as a LB in the 2-5, but I consider Peterson a DE. And I would say his performance tonite was the best by a UW DL since a night around fourteen years ago when this guy who used to deliver pizzas with my nephew couldn't be blocked by Ohio State. Really good pressure from a lot of sources. I have to credit the offensive game plan, using the legs of Smith, Kekahuna & others to offset the thin TB situation. And the OL is obviously better. After a disastrous start to the season at LT Heinzen seems to have found a home at C. Don't know what kind of thrower he'll develop into, but Carter Smith is very slick & unpredictable with his ball handling. I can see where he can give a front seven just enough uncertainty to cause a crease for himself or a RB. Nice weapon. I'll probably miss him for his cover skills when he's gone, but sometimes Rico Hallman drives me nuts. He seems to be one of these CBs who covers pretty well most of the time, puts himself into position.........and then doesn't finish the final one-tenth of the play by getting a hand on the ball or stripping the catch. Did it again tonight on the IL FG possession. But tonight that's a nit-pick. Happy for the SRs, really everyone on the squad who dug down deep in the last month.

All true. I was a little annoyed by the announcers reaction when Dybantsa left w/the four fouls, as if they were going through some immense test while he sat. That's a pretty damn good team even w/o him. It's just disappointing how the starters played and like Gard said, how they responded to BYU. It certainly was a huge step up in competition from the first four games. But besides the wars Winter & Blackwell have been through Rohde spent two years in the ACC & Boyd started 37 games for a team that made a FF run. Austin Rapp had a terrible day yesterday, almost to the point of me wanting to question his toughness vs better competition. But taking a closer look at his previous yr he had a 9pt, 9 rebound game at Oregon and averaged 10 & 5 in his four games vs St Marys & Gonzaga. So yes, certainly some talent. And it takes time to get everyone on the same page defensively. Hopefully this is nothing more than a very ugly mulligan.

Talked about this earlier--if UW isn't making threes, they aren't going to stop shooting them. Eventually water has found its' level this season & the percentages justify shooting them. Today 7-29, the starting five 2-21. BYU won the rebounding battle 41-36 but it seemed much worse to me, probably because of the OREBs. It seemed like BYU made an emphasis to battle for 2nd & 3rd looks, and we responded poorly. I remember one time just ahead of the under 8 TO there was a BYU miss, Winter had perfect box out position, and his man still scrapped, battled from behind Winter w/o fouling & somehow kept the possession alive. That, and the 50-50 balls were mostly no contest today. Cougars were awfully good today, and obviously we need to be much better in an atmosphere like that. BYU seemed to play as if THEY were the team that lost a close one in the tourney last year & wanted revenge. Impressive energy. Austin Rapp is going to pay a lot of dividends this season, for sure. But today kinda illustrated how important it is to get offense from him cuz the ancillary stuff, at least today, was non-existent. Positives, I would say the bench wasn't a huge factor but competed, and Carrington & Janicki actually provided a little offense as well. My favorite comment from the announcing team was about the enthusiastic support in the stands & how well the BYU fans travel. Really? Provo is like 40 miles away, and you would assume many of their alums live right in SLC.

Spot-on. Then after the three, the next two BYU possessions were missed shots, but one resulted in a putback dunk, the other a long rebound where Boyd committed his 3rd foul.

The two early fouls on Boyd seemed to hurt quite a bit. I didn't expect them to struggle that much with him on the bench, but it was a pretty bad stretch. I agree re foul calls in the college game. Some of these 'points of emphasis' & changes every off-season, IMO there's no need for it. Basketball IS a contact sport. I don't think anyone wants to watch a "he's a projected top ten pick & missed the shot, so It must've been a foul" type game. That said, BYU is showing great aggressiveness & many of the calls today are probably legit. Need to stop the ball w/o having to help a lot. Tough vs this group.

Early on, I thought they were defending OK, mostly. But it got worse later on, not dealing well with some really good ball movement, not stopping penetration. Of course, this IS a really talented BYU group. Dybantsa, there were times we did all we could & it made no difference. A couple OREBS allowed late in the half hurt quite a bit. I think we're somewhat guilty of getting rattled on the offensive end. Jones, he played like this is a little too big of a stage for him right now, and maybe it is. Rapp had about as bad a half of basketball as you can imagine. Winter was pretty active but needs help inside. There IS some foul trouble brewing on BYU's side as well, so we'll see if UW can settle down, get some good looks, get back to the FT line.

If he had #s like he put up in '24 would that make him a functional starter in your opinion?

Given his glove, I think a season like Ortiz had w/the bat in 2024 is pretty damned acceptable. I'm not ready to accept a poor offensive season at age 26 as the norm quite yet. There's a lot to be said for rolling with him again next year while Pratt & Made add seasoning.

And maybe a period here or there. That would be refreshing.

I agree that most of the shots from 3 have been good looks, and Gard doesn't seem to mind if they're early in the clock. What's key is that if the defense is extended the screen & roll needs to hum since posting up isn't a big part of the picture, at least not now. And like you said, Boyd & Blackwell driving the ball.

The defense has been showing signs of more consistency but isn't "there" yet, which is why I'm not overly optimistic about the BYU game. From what I've seen so far, a win on Friday would need to be a 92-87 type game and I don't know about them shooting it well enough for 40 minutes to do that in their first trip outside the state, and vs quality. But the guards have it in them to defend, and the bigs are getting there--Rapp in particular did some nice 'dirty work' on Monday. Dybantsa for BYU is a really tough matchup. I'm guessing Rohde gets the call.

I thought I heard sports journalists sticking in their lanes outside my window this morning, but it was just a herd of flying elephants in Bermuda shorts.

Can't agree more. And if/when needed, all three perimeter guys can run point. Nice versatility on the roster.

And four for the game (team total), and one was questionable as the ball was pinballed around & maybe should not have been ruled a TO. That's Dick Bennett-type stuff, while playing much faster. Keeping that # low helps justify the high 3pt volume, too. A cold spell from deep can kill you if it's combined with 15 trips where you get no shot off.

I mentioned the other day about the high volume of 3pt shots & how I don't see it changing much. That'll make for some roller-coaster sequences. Like last night, I may not have this nailed perfectly but I believe they started out 1-9 from three, then made 7 of the next 9, then something like 3-12. At the end of the day, 15-39 is a percentage that pretty much justifies the high volume. SIUE really packed in their defense too, which mitigated the drives to the hoop & the screen & roll game. Would still like to see the occasional post up from Winter. If nothing else, passes out of the post almost always result in better 3pt looks. He isn't stuffing the stat sheet AFA scoring or rebounding, but Garlock had 4 more assists last night. Sees the floor really well for a FR big. Once he develops somewhat of a mid-to-low post offensive game his ability to pass will put some terrific pressure on defenses. Outside of a little too much penetration allowed, they guarded pretty well. Some really tough bank shots on drives from SIUE in the first half kept UW from maybe allowing around 60pts, which in todays' game is pretty outstanding. Maybe the most impressive thing from SIUE's perspective is shooting almost 45% & scoring 69 pts with their best scorer (Malith) in foul trouble for virtually the entire game. I suspect they'll make noise in the OVC. There were two commercials on the video board last night, one UW sponsored & one for Piggly Wiggly, featuring Zack Kinziger. They've been talking about trying to sign kids to NIL deals of multiple years. I wonder if something like that has been hammered out with Kinziger, since it appears he isn't playing this season. It would be a refreshing development.