Jim French Stepstool

I think the quality of Wiemers' ABs has been much, much better than the results he's been realizing.

I *think* he'll start but I don't believe it's a given. And I doubt he's been given any guarantees, which is a tribute to him that he's still coming here. It could even come down to matchups vs a particular opponent, or if someone is better coming off the bench vs starting (This past year Essegian would've benefitted from continuing to come off the bench, but they got to the point where they had no choice). It's who's out there at the end of the game, and whether they go big or small he'll fit either way. He'll get starter minutes.

The walk to Carp pissed me off as much if not more than the HR.

Agree. His walk totals are really high thus far in his pro career. So far so good in '23 but I think he'll have a lot of "prove it" innings to come before we see him in Milwaukee. It actually wouldn't shock me if we see Cam Robinson before him if the need arises.

Whatever Gard did to convince Storr, it was lethally effective as I don't believe he even took any other visits. And it can't simply be the NIL money because if that were his main priority he'd have shopped around more. Being from the Madison area (Rockford, Ill) certainly didn't hurt. And he had already turned Underwood down once.

Ninth-grade me was looking forward to shelving school & going to opening day in '73. Of course Mom Nature played her sick joke on everyone & we had to wait several days. I remember quite a bit of snow still shoved out of the way of pedestrians & motorists on game day. I also remember Bernie Brewer going down his slide before the game, demonstrating to the fans what would happen when a Brewer hit a HR. As he made his descent toward the beer stein, snowballs came flying towards him, courtesy of the Orioles bullpen. Bill Parsons started, and IIRC gave up one hit & walked about 83. Or maybe it just seemed that way due to the cold.

Seeing as how he hits from the right side & plays a pretty good CF I think Taylor has a spot on this years' team. Looking to '24 & beyond I agree it's hard to see a role for him. When we still had Ruiz it looked pretty likely one of the young OFs would be dealt. These things usually work themselves out but in a couple years the potential OF logjam will be even more interesting.

Adames is certainly the one who would knock out one of those three. But there still seems to be the occasional brain cramp that I find disappointing. A couple tonight, in fact.

Lots of family stuff going on the last couple weeks so I haven't seen every pitch of every game, much as I would like to. But I have some observations that may or may not pique interest here: 1. Brewer rookie crops have come & gone over the years, but I've never seen one that combines skill & athleticism like this one. Garrett Mitchell still has contact issues at times. But these guys know how to play the game, and are also really, really fun to watch. That's a rare combo. And it looks like there's still more to come in the system. 2. Not sure which game it was.....I think it was the day after he hit the grand slam......Brice Turang came up with the bases loaded & fell behind 0-2. The next two pitches were IIRC both off speed, low, but over the plate. With two strikes, he managed to lay off both. He eventually flew out but that kind of plate discipline from a rookie---who had homered the previous day---just impressed the hell out of me. Opposing players who can do that just kill you. it's nice to have one on our side. 3. I feel like this roster misses Tyrone Taylor. The reason I say that is I'd really like to see Anderson plug in at 3B every day instead of toggling between third & RF, and the same with Wiemer going between RF & CF. Not that they can't play both spots, but in the long term I think you're better off with your regulars--which they both are right now--settling in at one spot. Whenever possible, leave the versatility to the guys who aren't out there every day. Taylor being available would accomplish that. But right now it is what it is, and it's working. 4. We need to acknowledge that this organization just knows how to put together a bullpen. Hader is gone, Boxberger is gone, Cousins has hit a speed bump in his development, and they just keep finding the parts to plug in. Kudos to whatever scout kept tabs on Varland & recommended snapping him up. 5. It almost seems to me like Burnes has it in his head that people are going to attack him early & it's affecting his ability to jump out ahead in the count. I didn't see all of his first two outings but the sample I viewed looked like that to me. Anyone else? 6. Are our 3 most talented defenders all rookies? How often does it happen that you can even consider the possibility?

Reynolds is versatile, both in the ways that he can score the ball & the roles he can fill (he'll have a good chance to provide depth at both guard spots). He turns the ball over more than you'd like. But the program & staff he chose to latch on to should help with the decision-making that could lead to fewer TOs. If everyone returns this gives you nice depth in the backcourt as I wouldn't be surprised if Blackwell gives them some minutes next season due to his ability to guard.

I'm happy with Fickells' hiring but let's tap the brakes a little on McIntosh "working magic". Different sport, vastly different roster size, plus they haven't seen the field yet. Gard had plenty of time to assess the last 6 seconds & see that there was an open shooter on the wing.......if this was a video game. In real life, there are plenty of coaches that would've used a TO there. Probably most.

As good as the N Texas defense was--and it was very good--there were certainly some makeable shots in the 2nd half that didn't go down. Story of the season.

Switching defensive assignments on Hepburn in the 2nd half was far & away the key to the game. Klesmit wasn't scoring like he had been, and after a decent start Essegians' struggles continued. With the way the game went it was like cutting off the head & the body dying. I thought the defensive #'s for N Texas were somewhat skewed due to their pace of play & schedule. Wrong. Very strong in the half court D and their pace of play allows for that to take hold. In the final seconds, that pocket pass big-to-big often winds up in a dunk. The defender reads it & gets a hand on it. Insane stuff. I thought Fraschilla was hilarious in saying Gard shouldn't have called the late TO. In hindsight, sure. But the whole thing was in scramble mode, you don't have time to look around first & see if there's an open shooter on the wing. And what they subsequently drew up got the ball in a great spot, the defense just reacted perfectly.

All of that is true, at times. And some years not. It's what makes college basketball in March so compelling.

Actually Brad Soderberg coached the team that lost to GSU. That was the season Bennett retired about 3-4 games in. At this point I'd have the same reservations. But I don't think there's much chance TB would want to come back to Wisconsin to coach, and less chance McIntosh would go in that direction anyway.

No coach looking for a free win early in a season is scheduling North Texas, Liberty, or Utah Valley or UAB for that matter. All of them are more than capable of beating Oregon--the one "helmet school" they faced in the tourney. These teams aren't national powers. But it's long since been proven that there are a ton of relative unknowns out there that you need to play well against to beat--whether regular season, NIT or NCAA (as I'm composing this Fla Atlantic sent Tennessee packing). Sure, on average there's a difference between P-5 & the better mid-majors. But it isn't the chasm some think it is. If they win it & hang a banner, for me it'll represent winning five games in a row to close out the season, vs competition that got better as it unfolded. With the uneven season UW had that's no small feat in my book. I agree the early-season tourneys always will have better fields. They're made-for-TV affairs that can invite whoever they want w/o regard to season resume since the invites are set a year in advance.

Yeah, I think it's pretty easy for a player to interpret managements' work in a hearing as being negative, when it's nothing more than stating your case. The player doesn't have to worry about management interpreting their case as being negative towards them, as it really doesn't have to be. Not to get into a union-management argument, but in arby I think the owners' side has to do a lot more tap-dancing to avoid criticism.

1. Does the player/players agent really say anything bad about management during these hearings? It seems to me the system is set up in such a way that one side HAS to be critical to state its' case & the other side simply extolls their own virtues w/o having to be critical. The last statement above by TURBO is obviously at the root of all this.

Not UW related but UWGB hired Sundance Wicks, former ass't at Wyoming, to be their next head coach and it was just announced that eight members of the Wyoming team are transferring. Could be a large influx of talent from Laramie to Green Bay if Wicks had a good relationship with the kids.

If they manage to win the NIT, I'd probably hang a banner. it's not what you aspire to in November but it's a 32-team thing. It's an accomplishment. I'd imagine right now the players & coaches are having a better time than the members of the UNC program, who simply chose to deflate the balls.

Jordan is valuable when he lets the game come to him. That's a cliche, but in his case it's spot-on. Pretty much all his points yesterday came from hustle & trying to be disruptive. When he concentrates on that stuff & doesn't even think about scoring, he'll often get his 6, 7 or 8 points. I think when he has issues they stem from him thinking he NEEDS to provide offense. Also, his defense has been very good at times, and can be great if he adds consistency. The shortcomings you point out, yeah, they'll most likely always be there.

I think this was one of those games where the defense deserves credit, on both sides. But yeah, the shooting wasn't good most of the night. I think UW had something like 1 turnover in the 2nd half. With Oregons' length that's really impressive, and allows you to survive when you're not shooting as well as you'd like.

I've seen very little of North Texas, but from what I understand their pace of play is LAST in D1. So unless we shoot lights out it'll be another grinder pretty much by design. Oregon was obviously disruptive with the shot-blocking ability. But what hurt us as much or more was that we let that get into our heads & effect a lot of the shots we were getting that WEREN'T going to get blocked. But those same shot-blocking athletes gave up more offensive rebounds than they should've, and we greatly outperformed them from the FT line. Sticking to the plan. Resiliency. Not panicking. Overlooked stuff that won them a game today. No one on the Ducks had more rebounds than Jordan Davis. When he's as active as he was tonight he's very, very valuable. Essegian may have hit a bit of a wall, which you'd almost expect with this being his first year playing this type of schedule. Hoping the 6 days off freshens the legs a little. Oh, and thank you Dana Altman for going to the 1-3-1😁.

Las Vegas, actually. Didn't know that myself until a week or so ago.

There were some clunkers shooting the ball, but he showed up well in some games vs P5 schools. Pretty sure there's some mutual interest. No one can really be certain how he'd deal with the athleticism he'd face from B10 wings, both in trying to guard people and working off the ball to get shots. That'll be analyzed, & we'll see if we have a fit. Not to pick on Rohde cuz it's universal, but these announcements from Central Casting are getting pretty hilarious. "The university, coaches, my teammates, the culture, everything about my experience is absolutely second to none. I'm truly blessed. I'm leaving."