Jim French Stepstool

I can't think of any times where Monasterios' defense definitely cost us a game. But there were times when Ortiz' defense, in large part, helped make the difference in wins. And his bat doesn't have to rebound THAT much for him to be the clear choice. Hell, it was clear last year even with his struggles w/the bat & Monasterios' hot stretch. IMO the scenario where Mona beats out Ortiz in the spring is highly unlikely.

Wait!!! Do I need the rabbit ears for that? Will I still be able to get Wheel of Fortune?

Let's understand, this isn't as simple as saying the colleges & NCAA are greedy. Trust me, colleges aren't thrilled with having to pay out millions. What they CAN be accused of is short-sightedness. Or more to the point, a kick-the-can-down-the-road mentality. @JosephCpointed it out in his recent post, and I have numerous times; the original idea of a stipend, or a player being compensated for his name, image & likeness, is hell & gone from what's going on now. But that idea was resisted for an awfully long time. Now throw in the fact that the NCAA is gun shy about ANYTHING being taken to court due to their long losing streak in that forum & here you are. Yes, I attach a % of the blame to the courts for not allowing the NCAA to run its' organization as it sees fit, regardless of the obvious warts. In my own perfect but increasingly delusional world a student athlete, especially in a revenue-generating sport, certainly deserves either a stipend or the ability to go out & market his or her self--WITHOUT the universitys' name, image or likeness being involved. And any athlete who deems that unfair certainly has the option to not accept the free education offered. Pay for your own schooling & deal with a couple decades of paying off the loan. Go straight to the NBA or NFL, or if you aren't good enough at age 17 there's the G-League. Europe. Asia. NFL Europe. Or go out & get a service industry or blue-collar job. Distasteful? Look into a career in a white-collar field (nevermind I forgot, you've already decided to turn down the free education). And now you have college athletes making money, some of them six & seven figures, playing alongside student-athletes making little or nothing. Think THAT doesn't have the potential to sow some seeds of discontent among young adults who haven't quite grown up yet? Think about that, and now think about the proliferation of gambling. Organized crime has always preyed on the young & stupid who look for a quick buck. Adding envy ("Man, you've done a lot for your team, yet they aren't paying you s***!!! Look at so-and-so, he's gettin' paid, why not you?") is a big, big weapon in their possession. No one knows where this'll end. But hang on tight.

I liked the defense, especially on the interior in the 1st half. In the 2nd, I couldn't figure out if we were actually fouling more or the refs just decided to start exercising their whistles. Bottom line, you're happy holding someone to 60 pts. The 'connectivity' on that end is getting better. I credit UWM with continuing to try to drive the ball & finally getting to the line. They needed to b/c the 3pt shooting from them was pretty atrocious..... As was UW's. If the Badgers shoot even a mediocre/average % from 3 & the FT line they're somewhere btwn 90-95 pts. But I'm happy if the defense continues to head northward. If they struggle on that end like they did vs Nebraska & BYU they won't outscore people in the B10 enough to turn in a solid resume. Just maintain the defensive curve & hope shots start dropping consistently. Word is that Winter is a little hobbled w/the ankle. I'm hoping Blackwell is OK. He wasn't bad last night but didn't seem overly engaged (5 shots).

He didn't get in until the 2nd half. I was there, so didn't hear anything about availability & until he was finally used I assumed he was being held out. In the postgame, Gard addressed it. No injury, no doghouse, the way he put it was that the backup guards are going to be by committee & the 'committee leader' will not always be the same guy due to fouls, matchups, etc. It'll be a challenge for minutes in the backcourt, game-to-game. Right now Gard is very pleased with Kinzigers' first couple games. And with good reason.

So it's UWM tomorrow night. The battle for consistency---in running the offense properly, in finding & recognizing good shots, in defending for as much of 40 minutes as possible---continues. Some good things, mostly on the defensive end, vs Villanova & a mostly impressive outing vs CMU. But they've been idle for a little over a week, so it'll be interesting to see how much carryover there is. UWM is not without talent; from what I saw of them in Fiserv earlier this month you need to keep them from turning you over. Whatever they accomplish, on either end, make them earn it in the half court. Any recipe for them making a game of it most likely includes our bigs not showing up. If Bieliauskas & Rapp perform well, move EFFECTIVELY w/o the ball, then combined with Winter the paint area should be no problem. Looking forward to seeing how the minutes shake out re Janicki, Carrington & Kinzinger.

This stuff has always been fascinating to me. As mentioned in the article, the Stadium Freeway ended at 47th & Lisbon. HWY 145 morphs into a freeway around 68th & Hampton and proceeds to the northwest. In the early 60s my parents purchased a home that was pretty much in the path of the freeway had those two eventually been connected. I remember my dad had an anxious moment or two while the rumors flew. There never was a sufficient east-west FWY built to bypass the northern part of the city. The decision makers apparently tried to alleviate that by creating a series of underpasses on Silver Spring Dr between HWY 100 & Port Washington Rd.

You're right of course. What really brought it home for me was the BB tournament in LV earlier this season. The schools were basically playing for NIL (Never Inhibit Lawlessness) money, which was bad enough. But it was also tied into some sort of point differential system. So in the last minutes of one game one of the teams (I don't remember who) was rushing down the court, looking to score as many points as they could----and they had a huge lead. This was going on in a COLLEGE basketball game. Made me want to puke.

......When late night comedy actually existed.

Thanks, @Michael Trzinski, I really enjoy stuff like this!! Local author Bob Buege wrote a book on the history of Borchert Field. It was very in-depth but to your credit you included some stuff not in his work. A couple interesting tidbits from his book; In 1916, the Brewers CF was someone who was more well-known for his track & football exploits---Jim Thorpe. Babe Ruth played three times in Borchert, twice as a barnstormer & once when the Yankees came into Milwaukee for an exhibition game. Back in the day, major league teams would sometimes visit a minor league town on an off-day & split the gate. Had the Braves stayed in Boston in '53 it would've been interesting to see how those five exhibitions would've drawn. I was around ten when the White Sox played the games in Milwaukee in 68 & 69 and thanks to an older sister attended many of them, including the Sox-Yankee game in '68 which allowed me to see Mickey Mantle in-person for the 1st & only time.

@Telemachus Rafaelidys, I think you compiled a great list. One quibble though---as impressive a job as he turned in while playing an unfamiliar spot, with his arm I don't think Durbin can ever be a GG caliber 3B. On-base machine, absolutely!!!

In a similar vein, let's include the possibility of the Perfect Trade Deadline Pickup. Hazle was a huge part of the Braves' 1957 run, but another was the acquisition of Red Schoendienst in June of that year to plug a 2B hole. I'll admit I'm a pretty big prospect hugger, but we certainly have the system to make a deal if it's deemed the 'right' one.

Through some finagling (and holiday spending), we have sideline seats for the UW-UWM basketball game next week, which includes Nicholas Club access before the game. I'd love to know what the % breakdown is that you alluded to above, and if I happen to get into related conversation with a properly connected 'high roller' over hors d'oeurves I'll pass it on here. I think you're pretty close; maybe more like 55-60% for FB would be my guess.

Many of the HS kids that are recruited make little NIL money to start, some none at all. So many of them 'play for free' to start out. Your point about many of them not being ready to contribute right off the bat is a valid one, though. The hope is that after a year of sitting, a kid sees a light at the end of the tunnel on the 2-deep & looks to take advantage of that instead of moving on. He also might like his position coach, and chances are there won't be a big payday somewhere else anyway. Unless you're a higher-ranked recruit, most of these kids who don't play after a year or two & leave are just spinning their wheels unless the emphasis is simply on getting on the field. In that case they look at the bottom half of the FBS (CUSA, MAC, Mountain West). My point is, there are QBs & some other skilled position guys who go into the portal & get paid. Most who leave a B10 or SEC-level school simply to get paid I suspect are (in most cases) disappointed.

There was some of that vs 'Nova, but also a lot of 'dribbling to nowhere' when the bigs wouldn't screen & roll properly, got stuck in no-mans' land and Blackwell & Boyd tried to create through thick pressure because the defense wasn't being stretched. The high-low game, pick & rolls and duck-ins by the bigs was much better last night.

I like the idea of the 'secondary' tourney as the bowl games certainly have lost luster. But I can't get on board with the reward of a tourney berth the next year for the winner with no regard for the type of season they'll turn in. Taking the chance of that team being mediocre & acing out whoever the twelfth team might otherwise be? Ughh. Float the idea to the corporate world, give a few firms exclusive ad rights, and let them pool millions of dollars to the winner to go towards "NIL" (Never Inhibit Lawlessness). That's the model they more or less used for the BB tourney in Vegas earlier this season.

In the 2nd half, they turned the ball over the first time they got their hands on it, and Greppi committed one in the last minute of the game. The rest of the half they had one or maybe two. So there's that. Focusing on the reserves: You'd wish this wasn't a necessity, but Rapp seems to be one of these guys who plays pretty hard & effectively if he sees the ball go through the hoop after entering the game. Seven boards & three assists w/o a turnover along with the 18 pts. You just hope he can give you enough on the defensive end in the Big Ten to justify his minutes cuz he can certainly help stretch a defense out of shape. It's starting to look like the reports of improved shooting from Janicki might've been premature. Still, he's going to get minutes not only due to the defense but overall smarts. He did a great job of helping everyone get organized when CMU tried going zone. And NINE assists w/one TO. You can't ignore that. I'm beginning to think they find a way to win in Milwaukee last Friday if Carrington was available. A veteran who not only can make shots but is willing to stick his nose in the fray is valuable, not to mention a role model. From the footage I saw of him in HS Kinziger reminded me a little of Ben Brust, with more defensive potential & the ability/moxie to play PG if needed. Nothing I saw tonight dissuaded me from that assessment. All in all a nice debut. A couple bad decisions from Jones (who actually started the game). But I think the combination of size/ability/feel for the game will lead him to having an effective role once things 'slow down' for him a little. Now that Kinziger is added to the mix it'll be a challenge for minutes. You'd think the smaller lineup w/Carrington, Janicki or Jones at the 4 is going to be an option vs certain lineups.

My condolences. Look at it this way----on occasion you would actually physically spend time with him. If you ask me, that's about 5,000 times more valuable than anything FB-based. And I suspect he deciphered that you didn't respond to the request because you don't check FB often.

Yep. A decent, well-executed press by CMU but it shouldn't be generating the TOs it is. Lotsa different combinations on the floor trying to fill the Blackwell minutes. One of the hallmarks of the program is to go into the locker room, figure stuff out & cut the TOs way down in half two. We'll see. Kinziger rips off the redshirt; didn't see that coming. Considering all the different combos I think the defense was mostly OK & is heading in the right direction. To me it sorta feels like a race to get as much consistency-stuff figured out as they can before the new year & Purdue coming to town.

Blackwell out w/an unspecified injury. He was moving around in warmups, so it doesn't appear to be anything worth jumping off a bridge over. Thought I heard Hayden Jones was getting a start tonite.

It's always difficult but this can be an especially rough time of year to lose a loved one. RIP John.

If that's true it's just another good argument for being in the studio audience as opposed to subjecting yourself to the talking heads on TV.

Really good points. Not to rip on Gard, I thoughjt he mostly did a good job w/what he had to work with last night, but Willard was terrific in his decisions AFA changing up the defenses. Blackwell IMO was fouled on a drive late & it wasn't called. Not a terribly officiated game, but that one hurt. I mentioned to one of my companions about how I'd love to see a little full-court pressure thrown in. And when it was, it looked promising. But when you can't rely on the bench, it's tough to do except very, very late.

Lots of good stuff in here, so since I'm late to the party I'll just launch my thought off this. Coming into this game I wanted primarily to see the defense step up. For the most part it did, at times exceptionally. I would take 56 pts from the opponent every time & take my chances. Offensively, obviously 16 TO is too many. What I saw from my seat at the FF, we had what we usually try to create---an open middle w/no post ups. What you want out of that is a screen from a big, and either a pop to the key or wing for a jumper or a roll to the hoop. What we were usually getting was either no screen, or a screen followed by sort of a half-hearted flop around an area about 15-19 ft from the hoop w/little intention of doing anything positive. This gummed up the HC offense, which caused a LOT of dribbling to nowhere by Blackwell & Boyd, and forced drives into fairly thick traffic. THAT'S how you turn it over 16 times. For the most part, I didn't think we were all that much better offensively in the 2nd half; the only difference was Blackwell started making plays after being a 1st half no-show. The 'big' opposite Winter (who played really hard) is still a problem. Bieliauskas was, at times, effectively physical, at times not, not overly quick to the ball, looked hesitant to engage on the offensive end & had bad hands throughout the night. That assessment sounds pretty bad, but yesterday it put him approximately 500 miles ahead of the performance turned in by Rapp. Janicki wasn't any better, Garlock had his usual 'incomplete' due to limited minutes, and Carrington wasn't available. So the bench options were mostly lacking. Hayden Jones had a bad play or two, but was the best off the bench last night, which at this point in his career is a problem for the team. Carrington MIGHT'VE made a little difference if available as a 'small four' last night. The other options were that bad. Villanova didn't shoot lights out but their 3-pointers couldn't have come at better times for them. Three or four early that put them into a lead we spent virtually the entire game trying to erase; then a couple early in OT that put UW into another hole, just after expending a lot of energy getting out of the first one (with the aforementioned poor bench play). The last 2-3 minutes they were probably running on fumes.

The key tonite for me is seeing how UW comes out defensively. Their performance on that end vs Nebraska was at times abhorrently bad, and they've had over a week to work on it. As I said earlier, if Gard feels his best defense includes going small then Villanova is someone you could do that against. I'm hoping if they do it it's by choice, rather than due to Bieliauskas & Rapp still not getting it. I expect Blackwell to make a statement tonite. He was uncharacteristically lousy on both ends in Lincoln. We're going, and will see at least part of the opening game & two former Badgers (Luke Haertle & Matthew Mors) suited up for South Dakota State vs UWM.