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Jim French Stepstool

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Everything posted by Jim French Stepstool

  1. Jim French Stepstool
    I had to sit through a game where they were particularly lousy in this regard---the game in Milwaukee vs Villanova. It HAS been much better, and Rohde is certainly a big part of that--sort of like Janicki in the effect that he can be a big positive w/o scoring many points. I tend to credit increased familiarity with each other, Blackwell shaking off his slump, and Boyd (more often than not) sensing when to defer. And Carrington being a microwave off the bench doesn't hurt. And if they can continue to get good performances from the '2nd big', that goes a long way. Agree, Rutgers & PSU didn't defend much. But in the two roadies before that you had 91 at Michigan & tallied 17 assists vs 7 TO (78pts) at Minnesota, who IMO guards pretty well. So things are looking up. But when Musselman has their interest, USC can make it tough to score. So definitely a stiffer challenge today.
  2. Jim French Stepstool
    USC next. If we maintain the positive trend defensively I like our chances of shutting down the Trojans, although Chad Baker-Mazara can score in a variety of ways & has one of those 'tweener' type bodies that might make him a tough matchup. Ezra Ausar & Jacob Cofie have bulk & can score but are primarily an inside presence. Alijah Arenas was a 5-star recruit who was rehabbing from a knee injury. He made his season debut on Wednesday & apparently remembered where the hoop was located--he put up 15 shots in 29 minutes. He made three. They have length & are capable of defending at a high level. They have 17 players on their roster. Three are freshmen. Of the other fourteen, all but two have come from other D-1 schools. The last time USC played in Madison was December of 1946. No, I wasn't there😛.
  3. Jim French Stepstool
    I think he moves the ball real well in the half court & makes mostly good decisions. And at times his defense is off-the-charts good. But yeah, the off-season reports that his shot is better seem to be wishful thinking right now. Eventually a defense-first guy like Gilmore came around (a little) w/his shot. Hopefully the same with Janicki.
  4. Jim French Stepstool
    Agreed. The TO bug & defensive issues come more often but in recent years seem to get cleaned up eventually (defense as the season unfolds; TO's often come in opening halves then get cleaned up in the locker room). And when the shot selection is smart, they can really cook.
  5. Jim French Stepstool
    What's nice about it is it's been done at a gradual rate, rather than trying to go from zero to 60 in one season. That's helped with the continuity. And people like Davis, Storr, Tonje & Blackwell were given a little rope to take advantage of the looser leash & responded with the type of numbers that potential recruits can't help but notice. It's easy to say they've given up something on the defensive end. And they've struggled there at times in recent years. But you could make the argument that the increased pace inflates numbers both ways. IMO the bigger factor is the nature of the portal & roster turnover. Under Bo & in the earlier Gard years you'd have people drilled in defensive concepts (the 'rules') for 3, 4, even 5 years until they worked in concert like five fingers on a hand. Hard to replicate that when you almost feel lucky to have someone for more than a couple seasons. I'll always miss the days of a Wilkinson, Showalter, Jason Chappell or Gilmore spending half a decade getting better & better and making themselves into guys you can't win without.
  6. Jim French Stepstool
    During the old Brewers one season as an AL team (1901) they played at the Lloyd Street Grounds. Borchert Field existed at the time; I'm not sure exactly why they didn't play there, although Lloyd St was reported to have a larger capacity at the time so that may have had something to do with it. Lloyd St was torn down sometime in the early part of that century. It was between North Ave & Lloyd around 16th-17th Street. I second the interest in the old ballparks. It's packed away somewhere & I don't remember the title, but local baseball historian Bob Buege wrote a terrific book on the history of Borchert Field.
  7. Jim French Stepstool
    Plus as a SS would lead me to believe he'd be plus as a 2B as well. The prospect talent along with the versatility just makes it so much fun to follow this organization.
  8. Jim French Stepstool
    They're saying this is their most one-sided win in a conference road game. Ever. Hard to believe. After the 2nd half of the Rutgers game, message (from Gard) obviously received. loved how they came out after the break. When they play as well as this, I like to find guys in the margin that might not be headliners, but were outstanding. I was all ready to say you can't play any better than Janicki did w/o scoring, but he blew that with the late three. Terrific floor game, esp on the defensive end. Garlock, if he ever gives them an offensive threat it won't be this season, but his defense is coming around & it was very solid tonite, along with 4 boards. Great game from Rohde, on both ends. And Austin Rapp scored 10, but 4 assists & 3 boards to go with it. Very nice floor game from him. And Kinzingers' shooting form is so pretty. Like you said, now you're at 6-2 with 3 in a row coming up at home. The ugly games vs Nebraska & BYU are smaller in the rearview mirror every day. Stay hungry; keep growing.
  9. Jim French Stepstool
    Don't know how much less than 100% he is, but Winter is in the starting lineup, so good news.
  10. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah, I haven't read every post so maybe I missed something but seems to me there's an overload of thought that Williams is being looked at as a SS. As an option there sometime in 2026, maybe. But the positional versatility he has (not to mention Made & Pratt) makes me think his future in Milwaukee is either in CF, or 2B if/when it comes time to look into moving Turang for young'uns. Also, if we're healthy going into opening day I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he starts out in Nashville.
  11. Jim French Stepstool
    I see three reasons why this could be a much tougher game than people may think. Road game, which can never be taken for granted. Nolan Winter is listed as 'questionable' (sounds like an ankle issue). And from what I heard the game is not being played in the Bryce Jordan Center, which sometimes gives off a bit of a mausoleum vibe. It's at Rec Hall, which was built in 1929. Those old gyms can feel claustrophobic, and PSU often likes to zone trap both in the half court & full court, which feeds into that. If UW struggles I would guess the culprits would be turnovers & settling for so-so shots rather than working to break the defense down. Guard well, contain Mingo, and refuse to hoist anything that isn't a solid look whether it comes 8 secs into the clock, 20, or 28. And don't neglect touching the post, even if Winter isn't available. We forgot about that in the 2nd half vs Rutgers.
  12. Jim French Stepstool
    Minor league deal & non-roster invite to spring training, maybe. But he'll get a better offer from SOMEONE, I would guess?
  13. Jim French Stepstool
    In college sports, it's really difficult to do something illegal nowadays.
  14. Jim French Stepstool
    Outstanding coach + terrific staff that got guys to buy in + Mark Cubans' money. It also must be pointed out that they had a knack for choosing the right people, although I have no idea how you can figure out how to do that when you throw together a couple dozen portal veterans from every program under the sun. Riley Nowakowski is a great example. A versatile veteran & great team-first guy isn't someone you'd think would attract attention, but he was an important piece.
  15. Jim French Stepstool
    It seems to me the roughing the passer call is sorta the college FB equivalent of foul calls when someone is shooting a 3-pointer in college BB, where zebras seem to bend over backwards to blow the whistle. A large individual is running headlong towards a QB, and he has no idea if the QB is going to pump-fake & hold the ball, so he needs to keep charging. Officials need to understand this isn't a video game, where you can just hit 'stop' & freeze in place.
  16. Jim French Stepstool
    Just think----with all of the hype surrounding Fickell, Longo & the air raid in 2023, imagine if someone would've said that by the end of the 2025 season, Riley Nowakowski would be scoring a TD in the national championship game. Woulda given some folks some wrong-headed ideas........... For all my railing against the college FB landscape, that WAS one hell of a game.
  17. Jim French Stepstool
    This hits home with me. Without trying to analyze (or over-analyze) his swing & mechanics, It appeared to me Joey started out pull-happy, tried to compensate by waiting back & looking to go oppo & that made it worse--he was jammed easily & chased too much stuff off the plate. As mentioned, the swing decisions became pretty bad and yeah, I think the anxiety & pressure---"This offense is really rolling, except for YOU KNOW WHO"---really got to him. You weren't going to invest in a FA SS with Pratt & Made in the wings. Starting the season out with Ortiz makes perfect sense. He's twenty-seven. The confidence given to him by penciling him in, countered by the challenges from the two mentioned above seems like a nice combination. We'll see how he deals with it.
  18. Jim French Stepstool
    Yeah, he's put the team on his back many times, probably more often than he should have to. Saturday when Rutgers made their run was a good example. I just glanced at the stats from the last game & didn't realize he had nine assists. To do that while scoring 32 is pretty rare. Going under the screens---I wonder if that's an energy-saving device on his part as he certainly expends a lot on the offensive end (not condoning it, just wondering if that's the reason). That might work out well on Thursday as I'm assuming his assignment will be Kayden Mingo who hasn't shot it well from 3PT range. Reverse jinx is on me if Mingo goes 5-8 from deep🤢.
  19. Jim French Stepstool
    What happened, was with 13-14 minutes left Gard had all five starters on the bench. Up 26, I had zero problem with doing that leading to the under-twelve TO. But the offense from those five bogged down, Rutgers got on a roll & started hitting threes (Zrno did his Larry Bird impersonation), and even after the starters returned we stayed in love with the 3-point shot, which was a bad idea but understandable given the success we had with it up to that point. Water finds its' mark; we're a pretty good 3PT shooting team but the inside success was also evident today & we forgot about that for several minutes. Then Boyd basically took over the game. Fun fact: Will Garlock has put up ten shots this season. He's made eight. Huge props to Pikiell & Rutgers for leaving his guys on the floor, turning up the heat defensively on a freshman PG joined by four guys who hadn't played all day & cutting a 14-point game down to 9 at the buzzer. Whatever.
  20. Jim French Stepstool
    Since we're going there, I always thought Pikiell resembled a youngish Rodney Dangerfield.
  21. Jim French Stepstool
    According to the pregame info there is no one listed as 'out' or 'questionable' so it looks like Rapp will return today. Would be a nice day to ease him back in, maybe see some minutes from Kinziger & Jones, maybe lessen Winters' minutes as he's been ridden very hard recently. All these things require coming out solid & hopefully not giving Rutgers much hope they can pull off an upset. Here's hopin'.
  22. Jim French Stepstool
    Obvious whoops on my part. Game Saturday is in Madison.
  23. 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?
  24. Jim French Stepstool
    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.
  25. Jim French Stepstool
    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.
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