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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    After the opening minutes there might've been some "here we go again" thoughts. But I thought the focus & energy were OK early & it was more a case of Ohio State coming out focused on D & it taking UW a while to settle in--and the good shots we DID get weren't going in. Then Blackwell made some plays---and Austin Rapp being Larry Bird for ten minutes didn't hurt, either. I liked most of what I saw, other than giving up a few too many OREBS. But we did our share of keeping possessions alive too, which helps to cancel that out. Mostly made Mobley & Thornton work hard for their points, too. Carrington doesn't light it up (2-7) but defends like a veteran & commits zero TOs w/4 assists in 29 minutes. Damn, has he become valuable. When you think about growth & consistency, one of the brighter lights today IMO was Bieliauskas & Rapp combining for 29 points & doing a lot of other things you hope to see from 6'10" guys. Let's see if that can be built upon. That's a pretty talented team to be towards the middle of a conference (now 6-5). Says a lot about the level of play in the top 4-5 leagues in CBB.
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    On paper, UW vs OSU looks like the Battle of the Backcourts. We all know about Boyd & Blackwell. John Mobley & Bruce Thornton are the top two scorers for Ohio State. Mobley is a challenge in his own right, but Thornton doesn't receive nearly the attention he should due to OSU not being among the leagues' top teams. He's built like a tank & can beat you in a variety of ways. Taison Chatman has played well off the bench. Good backcourt. Their bigs aren't big threats from beyond the arc but have size & girth. With Bieliauskas (I assume) sitting out this isn't a bad personnel matchup for Garlock. He'll be needed. Puff Johnson has recently returned. At 6'8" another one of those matchup problems. He hasn't hit his stride yet & hopefully won't today. Let's hope the start time for the game has been underlined. 1PM; not 1:20, not after halftime, not once we fall behind by twelve. EDIT: Just learned Bieliauskas is NOT listed as out or even questionable. However Andrew Rohde is questionable & not going through warmups. Might mean Janicki or Carrington starts. Also might mean a little run for Jones or Kinziger (although Kinzinger seems limited to PG duties when he plays).
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    Interesting thought. If Bo were calling the shots, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the way he rolled. As for Rapp.........I'm not usually a rewatch the whole game, study every possession kinda fan but I rewatched some of the 2nd half of last nights' game. After a terrible 1st half Rapp actually competed pretty well in the post, even defensively. Not to the point where that's ever going to be a strength of his, and maybe he just had more of a sense of purpose since he knew Bieliauskas was done for the day & afa giving Winter a break, he was IT. I dunno, perhaps it's just taking time to sink in that this isn't the WCC, you can't just roll out there and take threes, and in the meantime you'll defend the post & grab some boards simply because you're 6'10". But he was brought here to help stretch the defense. Hopefully he re-finds the touch.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah, she really did. My wife spends time on either coast visiting family so it's easy for her to pick up on stuff like that, and she mentioned it right away. I enjoyed Song Sung Blue thoroughly. It hit home with me very easily due to the fact that the 'real life' Thunder grew up a few blocks from our home & the siblings attended the same grade school as I did. I also played fastpitch softball for Good Time Charlies, the bar depicted in the movie. Have to admit, I never realized Jim Belushi was in it until I saw the credits.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    I was getting why Garlock wasn't used; this team isn't a good match for him. But I kinda wanted him out there to guard Grove, when Winter needed a blow & Bieliauskas was unavailable. Rapp can be an asset but yeah, the shot has to be falling for that to happen. And when you go with one big, he can't be it.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    Mind giving me a Super Bowl final score?😁
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    The thing is, early in the 2nd half their offense wasn't THAT effective, but the defense fueled it & allowed them to get it down to 10-12. At that point you knew there was a chance because Minny HAD to run out of gas at some point, right? Looking at how often they went small, Winter really needed to be a warrior, and boy was he. And all the folks you mentioned were huge. Glad you included Janicki. If he ever gets to the point where he can give you 5PPG he goes from valuable to ultra-valuable. One thing that bugged me was in the last few minutes we gave them much better looks from three than I liked. It's much easier to say this when you win, but you gotta hand it to the opponent. Six guys covered all but 3 of their game-minutes; that's unheard of nowadays. Medved was a terrific hire.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    Felt good when they got it to 14 & started guarding. Then they immediately put up three horrible possessions in a row. Uggghhhh.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    Minnesotas' effort & energy is impressive, but if you can't match that---and we haven't---it's pretty inexcusable coming off a disappointing loss. And, officials are human. Hard for me to believe they aren't aware of their short bench & are allowing a little more physicality, but that isn't really the problem. One 2PT FG in a half. I doubt I've ever seen that. Maybe when my nephews' kids played in HS. Given Minnesotas' short bench & reluctance to play fast, I'd have considered pressing about midway in the half----we were playing ten anyway---just to speed things up a bit & get some energy going. Not that I expected it. Twenty minutes in, it's like the Villanova game on steroids, minus the fact we started defending better tonite about halfway through. But again, coming off the SC game I have no idea why it should take that long. And the cherry on the crap sandwich is Durkin, who scored 17 in the half & missed (I think) one shot. On the season he's shooting under 40% & 31% from three.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    Early on, Rohde gets a little seam on a drive. Instead of going strong, he goes in as if he's waiting to get cut off so he can pass the ball. He does, and throws it away. Around the same time, Winter gets a rebound ripped away for a bucket. It's been crap since that. Really uninspiring start.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    ----Tyson officially ruled out for tonight's game----
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    If we execute I could see that. Minn regularly plays 7. If Tyson is indeed out, that not only removes a 20PPG scorer but really stresses their depth. I expect to see at least some zone from them, and if we come out firing blanks from beyond the arc we might see it exclusively. Either way I hope to see us attack the rim & force them to be physical. Let the refs try to 'control' things & blow the whistle. A lot of fouls both ways benefits UW tonite.
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    Good points. But in the case of Miz, his effectiveness late actually came when he 'ticked down' the velo a bit, relied just a bit less on the heater & improved his command. I'd put him in the same category as Priester & Woody as being someone who can go 6 or more effectively.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    That's the first thing I noticed. Someone (McGee? Yoho?) might be a good guess to be in the 'pen instead of one of the lefties. BP's are almost impossible to project though. Very good piece, Michael. Signing McGuire guarantees that they want Jef Quero to continue to do farm chores just a leeeeetle bit longer.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    Cade Tyson, who is having a terrific season for Minnesota, is listed as questionable to doubtful (depending on who you want to believe) for their game Wednesday in Madison. It would be a blow to a team w/o much depth. But hopefully, the lesson learned not only by UW but the entire conference is to take nothing for granted regardless of opponent, who's hurt, etc. Indiana beat Purdue Tuesday. They recently had lost four in a row. The same night, MSU was fortunate to beat Rutgers in OT. Time to right the ship.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    The way I see it Jett plays SS in 2026 only if needed--which would involve Ortiz struggling in March. My gut feeling is that the type of spring training Ortiz would have that would involve him losing the job on opening day, would have to be much worse than many fans expect. If it were to happen Ortiz could handle all three INF positions just fine.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    If Pratt were to move, 3B seems to be the spot. But as you said I think Wilkin is ticketed there at Nashville. Also his bat heating up would be much more of a concern if moved to a corner. And, there's Fischer.......
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    Sure, if it wasn't for Made then Pratt starting out repeating Biloxi wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. But Made certainly looks ticketed for AA, and even though he's capable of being moved it wouldn't be prudent to move him off SS at this point. The good news is that this is a nice 'problem' to have.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    SS "Will be his focus heading into spring training" might be the equivalent of a D L Hall or an Aaron Ashby saying "Gee, I'd like to be a starting pitcher". It might've come after discussion with his new FO. It also might simply be his stated preference. If it's the configuration you mentioned above and Quero stays in Nashville, that's a helluva middle-of-the-diamond for a AAA team.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    Bullseye. We can argue whether or not it's a proper placement of priorities, but absolutely.
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    If he's as good of a prospect as advertised he'll settle into one spot eventually, but for now I agree the versatility could definitely play into his getting a roster spot. But as long as Perkins is in the organization I don't think he gets aced out due to his elite glove & ability to switch hit. Of course if Mitchell can stay healthy, that could throw a monkey wrench into things for Blake. I'm still (slightly) leaning towards thinking Williams is in Nashville when they break camp.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    I was wondering the same thing, although the money being poured into the new facility at Wilson, plus geographics, probably makes that unlikely. Also often fantasized about eventually putting a ballpark somewhere in Waukesha or a bit west of there & having a similar situation to the Astros, Red Sox, Braves & Twins with your top farm team a stones' throw away. I know, pipe dream. As to the topic, I think @wiguy94's solution makes the most sense if there is contraction.
  23. Jim French Stepstool
    Good piece. Yeah, as soon as I read "national baseball writer" I should've skipped to the next paragraph. Yeah, Milwaukee is the problem because we 'can't afford $8 million'. This, after the results of the previous trades that @gregmagalluded to. What a dope.
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    Long story short, SC really, really focused on stopping the Boyd penetration, that left some open threes, and we shot 24% from there. Guys not named Nick Boyd shot 13-50 from the floor. Add in the second-chance points for them, and there you are. Two or three times in the 2nd half Winter got the ball down low & was denied by some excellent defensive play. As I mentioned, Baker-Mazara is a tough assignment due to the size-skill combination. I thought we mostly had the right people on him, but once he hit some 3-pointers it made it almost impossible because now you have to play him honest & he adds the mid-range, too. A bad day for him to play like an all-American. Maybe a few questionable whistles against UW. But SC usually put the basketball in a good position to draw whistles, so meh. We were called for only two more fouls than they were. This was 90% about Baker-Mazara making plays. Absorbing the UW run & coming back from twelve down---on the road---is sorta un USC-like. Sucks, but they were impressive.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    I'm gonna give SC credit. They were getting good shots early & hitting them, but after we shook off the sluggishness & started defending much better they still ran their stuff, Baker-Mazara made some tough shots & they hit the offensive boards & cashed in some putbacks. If we can maintain the defensive level of the last 5 minutes & clean up the boards I feel OK. But USC can be tough if they're on and for a large part of the half they were. I like how we're pushing the ball, but let's not settle early if the primary break isn't there. It looks like SC has some fouls to commit; let's draw them. I love Boyds' aggressiveness but I don't want to see it devolve into him-against-three guys. Create spacing. Nice effort on the OREBs. Blackwell looks like he's emerged after a rough start. Let's get the 3rd foul on Arenas quickly.
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