Jim French Stepstool

If we bring energy defensively today, the only big concern about Nebraska is matching up with Juwan Gary, who brings a lot of passion on both ends of the floor. Once again, Carter Gilmore is probably going to be important in trying to at least neutralize him. That, and hope that whoever is chasing Essegian through screens got a real good nights' sleep.

I thought if they TO'd they might very well have wound up with the same thing--the ball in Blackwells' hands. That worked much of the half, and the pullup he took is a good shot for him. Unfortunately the 2nd defender just came off his man & blocked the shot. Tonje would've been a good 2nd option but most of his damage was from 3pt range last nite. Down two I think they would've been happy going to OT w/UCLA having lost 2 starters to fouls. It looked like he had someone (I think Klesmit) available for a three, but like I said he put up a shot he regularly makes. Just a nice comeback, the end of which sucked.

That would be my biggest quibble with the refs; a few of the rebounding fouls that were called/not called in the 2nd half. Otherwise eh. They got in the lane & just about any contact was called but it was the same with us most of the time w/Blackwell. And like I mentioned previously, the 2-shots-and-the-ball call on Janicki late in the 1st half was sort of weird. As long as any home cooking UCLA received is returned on Sunday. Nebraska has size that plays physically, something they haven't always had.

Three significant things happened. They had people---primarily Mack---getting into the lane pretty much at will, getting fouled, and when not getting fouled making shots. Those weren't all layups either, a lot of 8-10 footers, comfortable takes because........ no one could help off the bigs. Bilodeau is just too good, and the 7'3" kid came in averaging a bit more than 4PPG, scored 22 & didn't miss a shot from the floor. That's one of those deals where he probably wasn't even a focus on the scouting report. A SR-year Nolan Winter could've been a big help tonite; one of those games where a lack of strength hurt. I wasn't nuts about our defense in the 1st half, but late I thought it was OK, they just beat it. And thirteen TOs is too many, if UCLA is only going to have six & shoot just over 50%. The rebounding numbers where closer than I thought. It seemed worse due to some timely OREB from the home team. 44 Fouls called, 23 on us. I thought the whistles were too plentiful, but that went both ways. It wasn't for lack of effort, but I thought Kamari McGee was sort of nondescript tonite, which is rare. From the "expert analysis isn't always expert" department, UCLA was up 3 with 6.8 seconds left & had one more FT coming. The PBP guy mentioned the strategy of fouling if it stays a 3-pt lead, then mentioned how they go up 4 if the second FT is made. The analyst says "I'd foul either way". OK, boss...........

Rebounding & protecting the ball are the big bugaboos so far.

Cronin is one of those guys that preaches a hard-nosed type of play, which made me wonder how he'd fit at a place like UCLA. Right now both teams are probably getting a little better looks than both coaches want to see. B****ing about the supposed pushoff by Tonje on his 3pt that wasn't called, right in front of Cronin, may have gotten him the intentional call late in the half. I mean, it WAS intentional, but I don't remember the last time something like that was whistled when a team is giving fouls late in a half.

"Yeah, I'm gonna spew a bunch of stuff on social media favorable to your argument, about a case that might or might not go to court, to people who have nothing to do with the case if it ever GOES to court. Here's my bill." Weirdest part is, you're probably right.

I blame the NCAA, and I don't. They've had a lot of years of sticking their heads in the sand re player compensation, and had they tried to create some sort of framework perhaps you don't have the headaches you now have. At least not to the extent where everything flips upside down & changes so drastically. On the other hand, they've stuck their fingers in multiple holes in the dike in recent years, and the courts have ruled against them consistently. Not surprising that, when there's finally a challenge to all this madness that it's an individual school (or conference) taking a stand, rather than the NCAA. I'm just glad it isn't basketball-related & involving Duke. I'm sure ESPN would open the coffers to provide legal assistance in that case.

If he has a lawyer that is prone to taking to social media, I'm somewhat optimistic that the quality of his representation isn't the best.

Apparently Xavier Lucas signed a two-year NIL deal with UW, and Lucas transferred to Miami w/o entering the portal (Wisconsin refused to release him). It's hard to predict what would happen if legal action were taken since there's no precedent, but it looks like going to court is a real possibility. A good ass-covering verdict would be to let Lucas transfer but have to pay back the money. But I suspect the Lamborghinis are already in the garage.

Finally looked at the game box. I guess the stat of the day would hafta be UW going 22-27 on 2PT FGA. After 18 games, five players averaging over 10 PPG. Gotta love that.

Definitely starting to defend more consistently. And what's nice is you go to the bench, and those guys are guarding well, sometimes exceptionally so. Amos was a weak link there but he's getting better & not shying away from contact. Even starting to move his feet pretty well on the perimeter. Just like with Winter, if he can add a little good weight & strength while keeping the athleticism, look out. Blackwell, nationally, probably IS under the radar. Throw in that he's running point--something he wasn't really recruited to do--and it's even more impressive.

I thought SC just did a real nice job of keeping him out of the lane & off the FT line. He got a little impatient & forced a time or two, and by crunch time the right lineup to finish it out--this time-- simply didn't include him. It's great to have enough depth to deal with that.

So much fun to have a team that picks each other up, like with Tonje being shut off today. Whether it was scoring, setting up teammates, or being bothersome on defense, Klesmit had about as productive a second half as you could hope for. Blackwell was all over the floor offensively. And I'm running out of superlatives for McGee. A decent game from Crowl, but one of the announcing team made a good point about his maybe being more aggressive in a few instances. This many TOs & still scoring in the 80s. Definitely not your dads' Badgers.

Kinda like the Ohio State game, one guy got going---in this case Claude---and his teammates fed off it. A few possessions by UW where the trigger was a little quick fed it, too. Probably more than anything, USC is a little too good to NOT put up a run at some point. But yeah, too many TOs by Bucky.

USC today, and I'm not overly optimistic. Not that we don't match up OK with them, but it's a road game--a faaaarrrr away one---and SC is probably playing their best ball right now. If Klesmit is getting close to 100% & knocks a few down, that could be an X factor. I heard the team spent time volunteering at a food pantry after getting to LA. Very cool.

I always loved the story he told about the scout coming to talk to his dad after seeing him play. SCOUT: "Mr Uecker, we'd like to sign your son to a professional baseball contract for $5,000." DAD: "Thank you for the offer but I'm sorry, we just can't afford to pay that kind of money."

"The Mark Twain of Baseball". That's really, really good. We all know that if Bob had anything to say about it, any celebration of his life would primarily entail enjoying the memories. For everyone here, especially those in their 30s or younger, I would recommend spending some time on Youtube & looking at his appearances on the Tonight Show during the Carson era. The deadpan, the timing, the comedic genius was so exceptional. May you be with God, Ueck.

I'm guessing we see something like they do in many college venues, where the stadium/arena keeps its' name but the playing field/court has a separate moniker. The guy could've lived & worked wherever he wanted, yet stayed in this area. That's immeasurable.

You're right; I was going on the premise of a larger portion of the city being in danger by that time. Fortunately that doesn't seem to be happening. I thought the Pyramid (LB State) only seats 4-5 grand. The rest would work though, including the Galen Center at USC where UW plays on Saturday. I didn't know the Forum was still standing. Interesting.

I imagine the wins vs Texas & Kentucky helped the NET rank for OSU quite a bit. Yet another B10 team that can play at a pretty high level on a given day. Toward that end-----holy cow did Indiana look horrible vs Illinois. Also stunk up the joint at Iowa & were terrible in a holiday tourney vs Louisville. They've had their moments & can certainly make the tournament. But if I was an IU fan I would be so incredibly sick of Woodson. Agree re the end-of-game decisions. His subbing at the end was spot-on too, as well as ordering Blackwell to miss the FT. Of course Murphys' Law, the thing went in.

OSU really got rolling in the 2nd half. When Thornton is making plays he's one of those guys that makes everyone else better. I didn't like how we stopped drawing fouls. Eventually got into the double bonus but the first 12 minutes of the half lacked patience & purpose. Missed layup by Winter followed by his fumbling a pass for a TO came at a time we could've stemmed their run & didn't. His worst game in quite some time.

Tale of two halves, to be sure. We defended well in the 1st half, but a large part of it was some very sloppy stuff by OSU, lazy screens that wound up being fouls, TOs, settling for jump shots. Thornton got going early in the 2nd half & that was key. The defensive rebounding took a big dip downward in the 2nd half as well. At the end of the day I thought the experience paid off with a couple crucial stops to keep them at arms' length (or by the end, pinkies' length). Crowl mostly disappeared in the 2nd half but had a huge tapout on the missed FT. If that doesn't happen we might be talking about an L. The end of a really nice stretch of games for Winter. Hopefully he starts a new streak Saturday. Oh, and Gard said after the game the last FT by Blackwell was supposed to be a miss. Maybe he should've tried to 'miss' the previous couple 😛.

I think the role she fills is relatively useless compared to the other on-air jobs. But it isn't her fault that all teams have the sideline-fluff pieces-postgame interview position, and she obviously takes it very, very seriously & works hard at being good at it. So kudos to her.

Outside of Minnesota, I guess it depends on your definition of 'bad'. I think there are a lot of teams---Iowa, Indiana, Rutgers, a couple others---that are definitely capable of looking terrible. But if at some point RUs' freshmen stop playing like freshmen, If Iowa shoots well & guards people anything better than poorly, if Indiana shows interest for 40 minutes, the latter two especially can do damage on a given day. So much is based on coachability & consistency. I was shocked by the USC win too. I think what happened is Illinois won by 39 vs Penn State w/o Jakucionus and felt they could just show up & win. Izzo & Painter don't put up with that. A big part of the reason why their teams are more 'trustworthy'. Gard is in the same mold, just not with the same talent level year in & year out as those two.