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.

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.

Don't know how much less than 100% he is, but Winter is in the starting lineup, so good news.

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.

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.

Minor league deal & non-roster invite to spring training, maybe. But he'll get a better offer from SOMEONE, I would guess?

In college sports, it's really difficult to do something illegal nowadays.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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🤢.

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.

Since we're going there, I always thought Pikiell resembled a youngish Rodney Dangerfield.

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'.

Obvious whoops on my part. Game Saturday is in Madison.

Back-to-back road games where the visitors were down double-digits & came back to win. I wonder how often that happens?

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.

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.

BOOM!!!! What a 2nd half from Blackwell & Carrington. My goodness. Feels great, yet a little weird in the sense that they didn't finish very strong--the missed FTs, going back to letting Minn get in the lane, a bad foul by Janicki allowing the 2 throws, then a too-good look from three. But along with the two mentioned above, Janicki deserves a ton of credit for his work on the defensive end. Medved, it almost looks like he's skipped a few rungs on the ladder. By that, I mean they're playing waaay better than I think a team should reasonably expect w/the player turnover combined with a new coach. Coming from nine down late, we helped them some but it was still really impressive. To me this is one of those schools/gyms where you're happy with a win, no matter how it's achieved. At Rutgers is kinda like that too.

Yeah, that whistle didn't look like it needed to be blown.

Yeah, but I don't think Minny really fouled more than that. Our being whistled for 8 might be more than it should be though.

Minnesota is running some real good, disciplined stuff offensively but we're helping immensely by allowing dribble penetration. On the other end, we looked fine until they went to the zone which we responded to terribly. We're flashing people across to the FT line against it--sometimes. I'd rather see someone immediately position on the FT line vs the zone. Preferably Winter, but SOMEONE. Always adjustments at the half. We'll see how UW decides to attack it. You know we'll see it (zone) due to their success with it & lack of depth.

Would like to see Canada play him exclusively in LF but that's probably too much to ask, especially since he's replacing a guy who I'm sure was penciled in at 1B.

I rewatched some of it too. It's amazing how well the inversion of the offense (bigs taking threes, guards driving) works when you have BOTH bigs knocking them down as you mentioned. Almost like Bo's swing offense except the guards are driving the ball rather than posting up. Some have mentioned how that could be a problem for Michigan going forward w/Mara unable to guard out there, but I don't know if they'll run into this again where there's no one he can leave alone on the perimiter. But it sure had them in a vise Saturday; they even went zone for a bit. I like where the team is trending, but road challenges always need to be taken seriously. I would say Medved has Minnesota playing more consistently than I would've expected this early in his tenure. I don't know if they switch 1-5 on screens but looking at the personnel I would say they're capable of doing it. Might be a game where UW should be a bit more cognizant of Winter getting the ball in the post. No Mara, Jacobsen or Cluff down there. Since he's been in the league I don't know if there's anyone better at getting hustle, heart & relentlessness out of his team when playing at home then Pikiell at Rutgers (except for last year when they had the freshmen 'superstars', all of whom are gone). You always expect a rock fight there, which is why I'm happy that we seem to be getting more connected on the defensive end. Tariq Francis is a transfer guard from NJIT. Sorta like Boyd in that he gets into the lane & gets to the FT line. Northwestern had all kinds of trouble stopping him the other day.