Jim French Stepstool

Trying to soothe that with an overdose. Just finished watching Kon Knueppel & AJ Storr go at it during Kansas-Duke. They actually guarded each other much of the game. Knueppel shot poorly, but man, his floor game & intelligence for a freshman is off the charts. The other day, Essegian played pretty well in Nebraskas' win at Creighton. He's moving w/o the ball, and actually cutting to the hoop when overplayed. Thought I saw him defending a little bit too, although it might've been technical difficulties. Saw Gus Yalden play a few minutes for Seton Hall. He looked very below-the-rim unathletic to me. On the year he's playing about 10MPG & averaging just over 2PPG. 11:00 AM tomorrow, Chucky Hepburn & Louisville play Indiana in the Battle for Atlantis.

Shame on you for even bringing it up😲, but if it were to happen I'm sure you'd see McGee start at PG and Blackwell get many more scoring opportunities from the wing. The biggest adjustment then would be bench minutes. Toward that end, I'm hoping something gets mentioned, one way or another, about what's up with Cam Hunter. I don't see how he'd be getting many minutes right now, but the unavailability appears a little strange to me. I hope Freitag is following McGee around like a little puppy, absorbing everything. His situation right now is in some ways similar to McGees' 1st year here. Kamari is a perfect guy for Freitag to hitch his wagon to right now.

Ahhh, forgot about Edwards being a QB. Body type doesn't exactly give it away😛. Jake Chaney has been so incredibly all over the map this season.

Overall, I'd agree the player development has taken a dip since Alvarez/Bielema. Still, I think the staff that preceded Fickell did more than you may think. You could argue they got more than was expected from Bart Houston & Jack Coan. Joel Stave was a walkon QB that started out under Chryst as an OC & HC. I wasn't a huge Stave fan, but anytime someone can come from where he started out, to beat out all his competition, that's significant. Garrett Groshek greatly overachieved his expectations. Alex Erickson (WR) & Dare Ogunbowale (TB) were both walkons who went on to play in the NFL. And they continued to develop a lot of above-average fullbacks----a position that's non-existent at UW now. As you alluded to, it was much better defensively in that regard. I thought the previous staff did a very nice job coaching up & getting production from Michael Caputo & Leo Musso (S), Conor Sheehy & Matt Henningsen (DL), and as mentioned by@yourout, a ton of LBs, Especially Andrew Van Ginkel & a HS QB, Zack Baun. I agree about the development taking a powder in Chrysts' last 2-3 years, especially in the offensive line. But overall I don't think it compares to what's (not) going on now.

Amen. All the commits, decommits, re-commits, soft commits & portal-picking in the world won't replace development. THAT'S what concerns me the most about this staff.

None of the losses in & of itself is weird. But the way they were manhandled by Iowa, at times vs Nebraska, & in the 2nd half vs Penn State is strange to me when compared to the way they performed vs Oregon, & the 1st half vs PSU. The thin DL wearing down over the course of the year is a large part of that I guess. They've missed James Thompson badly. And I sure as hell hope Wohler can make it on the field Friday, because that is one rudderless defense w/o him. I just don't know how much of this is the lack of D-linemen, how much is scheme------I'm about 55%--45% in favor of Tressel staying. Before last week, I feel the LBs & secondary HAS gotten better over the course of the year.

Lots of thoughtful comments on here. It's an "interesting" time for the program, to be sure. I'll just add: I'm glad we were Carter Smiths' "2nd" commitment. Not to be cynical, but in this day & age if you're the first school to get a commit from a kid it almost seems like you have to fight that much harder a battle to keep him. So I guess getting him to renege & commit here ups the chances he'll actually show up. Hopefully there's competition from someone else for the job. You don't want all your eggs in a FR QBs' basket regardless of how good he is. Make him compete. If I had a gun put to my head & was told "guess", I'd go with Guidugli as the next OC, but who knows? QB coach to OC is a natural progression among coaches, and there's the Fickell connection. Also, the ND OC (Mike Denbrock) is 60 & has never been a head coach so I don't see him leaving & creating a chance for Guidugli to move up. Fickell is here 2 more years at minimum. Say what you want (and I've been saying my share) but the recruiting seems to be much better, rating-star wise. That obviously guarantees nothing but the commitment to the guy has been made. Regardless of the rankings though, if people come here & don't improve as we were used to seeing from previous regimes it'll cost him dearly. And don't be fooled into thinking that's no longer important b/c of the portal. How he puts together this staff is going to be critical. I go back & forth re my feelings towards Tressel. I think they hit paydirt with Blazek. The others.......?

They did it vs UTRGV pretty much out of necessity. It worked well vs a larger opponent yesterday, so I agree it'll be an option we sometimes see. If Amos hits his stride defensively it'll give them yet another look. Just a lot of versatility on this roster. Janicki too---he plays much more seasoned than a RS freshman.

Pitt really, really made them uncomfortable early with some serious defense in the half court. Credit Gard for finding something to attack, and staying with it. Pitt only goes 7-8 deep, and then lost a starter early to injury. Then a hint of some early foul issues, and we just drove, and drove, and drove, and drove..........and the success there finally collapsed the defense enough to get room to hit just enough big threes. And the UW defense really deserved to finish with a lower points-against total----Pitt converted on some very tough drives. Just a fun win vs quality in a very intense game. Vs their two most heralded opponents so far, Tonje scores 41 & 33. Just such an incredible feel for the game, positioning, heart, poise. A grown man. So happy for McGee. Accepting his role & playing the best basketball of his life. This is a kid whose minutes were greatly curtailed his first year here after averaging over 11 PPG as a freshman at UWGB. He got to work, acclimated himself to the system & got better. I don't know what his plans are but I would love to see him involved in the program for a long, long time after his playing days. Role model. I feel a little for Crowl. I thought he actually had a nice floor game & rebounded well when he was out there, but I suspect all folks will remember about him tonite was all the shots he took that bounced on the rim 37 times & caromed out. He needs to see a few more go through.

Yeah, OSU ate their lunch yesterday for sure. But if you judged an offensive line on their play vs Ohio States' defense I think almost every O-Line would be considered pretty poor. Indianas' offensive line has been more consistent than UWs this year. They may or may not legitimately be a top 10 team, but beating the teams you're "supposed" to beat is a large part of the recipe to a successful season. Yet I agree re Blazek. I'm not sure he isn't a better coach than Bostad right now, and Blazek seems like a much more effective recruiter. But a big part of the Badgers' OL struggles can be traced to the constant moving from one position coach to another, as @LouisElypointed out. Even if it's a move to a 'better' coach, changing things constantly is poison to consistency. Lots of reasons to want Blazek kept happy in Madison.

Trey Wedig leaving to go to Indiana, where he's having a very nice season for a top ten team, wasn't a headline grabber at the time but should've been. And one of the guys in that OL coach revolving-door, Bob Bostad, is his position coach there.

Well, the culture certainly HAS changed🤔. The recruiting emphasis has also changed, and the quality of the people they've gone after has been an upgrade. Now the focus should be on that emphasis, and is it correct. For starters AJ Blazek should be given whatever he needs to build his unit. .

It looks like the offense post-Longo has much less progression in it AFA looking for a target is concerned. Whatever the difference, Locke looks much more comfortable. But the run game isn't there on a consistent basis compared to the way Nebraska is running the ball, and that's always more important. It's a big part of the reason they're stalling out on drives. Throw in Vakos having a lousy half, the defense being mostly poor, the PI, the late fumble............ Momentum-wise, things really seemed to turn after the INT by Barten, when on the very next play Ashcraft dropped a pass that would've made it no worse than 2nd & short. Spiraled from there IMO.

One of the more impressive things to me was how UCF tried mightily to make it an up & down game, and it didn't seem to bother us at all. Got back on D well most of the game, and had a bunch of really smart, poised possessions in the game. And not in a Dick Bennett sort of way, either. They've upped the tempo but have done it in a way where they're still (mostly) taking care of the ball and making really good decisions. And the 6th thru 9th men contributed greatly on both ends. You'd like to find good things to say about these national telecasts, but man, sometimes they make it tough. Someone in studio (I have no idea who it was) started out his commentary by saying Greg Gard had to keep winning to "stay off the hotseat". Some comments come from out of LF, that one wasn't even in the stadium parking lot. Then they show a graphic of John Tonjes' 41 point outing against North Dakota. Oh well. Looks to me like the game with Pitt might be a bit of a change from the first six contests in that it may be in the 60s. Panthers guard pretty well.

It looks to me like the personnel for UCF will allow at least one of the bigs to be on the floor pretty regularly. Of course Crowl will probably be doing some sitting w/3 fouls after a really dumb technical. Would like to see a little better job defending the dribble drives, but other than that a nice half. Either we started to foul more later in the half, or Johnny Dawkins evoked his inner coach K & started talking the refs into calling things tighter. Either way, making them score in the half court looks like a good idea. Lots of nice 'extra passes' offensively.

I guess if they can play on aircraft carriers they can play in ballrooms. A long time ago many of these holiday tourneys have become made-for-TV events with a small 'studio audience' looking for a 3-4 day weekend trip. Watching a little bit of the 1st game at Greenbrier. Neither team looks all that great offensively but Pitt contests & recovers very well defensively. Looks like quite a bit of red in the "stands", so maybe a semi-home court advantage. Keyshawn Hall (#4) of UCF will be a tough guard for us.

QB Cole Lacrue is reported to be heading for the portal. He was a Chryst recruit that decided to hang around after the coaching change & hasn't seen a snap in his two seasons here. He's also behind Mettauer. This MIGHT mean he knows Mettauer is staying put (kids do talk among themselves) so he sees no path to PT in Madison. Another possibility is the aforementioned Carter Smith might be in the grapevine as joining Williams, also blocking him. He's a Colorado native (the previous staff at CU recruited him) but even though they'll be looking for a QB I doubt that's in the cards. Tulane also looked at him & would probably be a more realistic target.

I think Winter & Crowls' interior defense will be, maybe not great but acceptable when they're facing guys similar to them--post players w/o a ton of mobility that try to do most of their work around the cup. IMO the wild card in the deck is Amos. He's never had much exposure to the physical game in the paint, and needs to get better at it. It would make the difference between him being a spot player, and someone that might challenge Winter for a starting spot. I wonder how often we'll see the two bigs on the floor together moving forward. Not everyone on the sked can fill the floor w/five shooters like UTRGV did, but even playing one of them & going with more versatility in the other spots on the floor sure looked good vs Arizona. Either way you're right, they need to show improvement guarding folks.

Yep, that's an interesting tourney. LSU & Pitt on the other side of the bracket; neither has been greatly tested yet but LSU did win at Kansas State in the only road game between the two. At least on paper it looks like four really evenly-matched teams. My wife won't recognize UCF. Then I'll say "remember the team from a few years back that had the 7'6" guy?" "Oh, yeah!!!"

After watching the game Monday night, I imagine Kalkbrenner HAD to score a crapload of points (49) to be able to stay on the floor defensively vs that team. But like Gard said in the presser, if they had gotten some separation & maintained a lead they would've been able to play bigger. Didn't help in that regard that Crowl missed 2-3 close in shots in the 1st half. If history is any indication, they'll get better defensively. How much better is the key. It's no coincidence that a fifth-year kid (Gilmore) & 3rd-year guy (McGee) are able to help turn things on that end. Hope to see the light come on for guys like Tonje, Amos & Winter more & more as the year unfolds. Janicki, it's just fun to watch him impact games already. Kid certainly didn't waste practice time during his RS year.. If they continue to get the green light on threes & make them, Creighton sounds like a pretty good comp.

Yes Webster was a PG. I thought you were simply referring to a 3-man perimeter grouping.

I'd have to agree. Not to disparage the guy, but if you had someone other than Andy Kilbride to pair with Finley & Webster, that might eclipse the current group.

That's a legit concern. I felt like the defense was gradually getting better, then some struggles vs Arizona which I wasn't jumping off a bridge about because, well, Arizona. There was at least energy & effort there. Tonight it got better when they were forced to go small but I agree the 1st half needed to be lots better. They've had years where it took awhile to hit whatever defensive stride they're capable of, and looking at the personnel I think it can happen. But there's so much emphasis on help, positioning & trying to minimize the dribble drives that I don't know if they'll force many TOs. Especially tonight, where you had to go small. You can't exactly take chances and, if you don't recover, funnel everything into Carter Gilmore for a blocked shot. looking at the big picture I'm a little more concerned about the rebounding.

One of the things I love about college sports is the stuff you see that you never thought you would, and how it sticks with you. I saw Brew Brees throw 83 passes in a game. Friday night, I witnessed a player drain 20 FTs in forty minutes of basketball. And tonight, something I never thought I'd hear myself say: a basketball team was forced to sit its starting post men & go small because of the 3PT shooting of a guy from Mongolia. Seriously, you'd like to not have to go small at all five spots. But there just wasn't enough advantage taken by Crowl or Winter on the offensive end to offset a group hitting 40% from out there, and everyone being a threat. You're almost tempted to think it's not your night when the last one goes in to make it a 1-PT game--from a kid who was scoreless up to that point. But, survival. A game like this illustrates the value of having someone like Gilmore around. Far from his best game, but you needed at least SOME size & Amos was not going to be the answer chasing shooters & fighting through screens. It may sound like sour grapes because the guy transferred, but in a late-game situation I'd take Tonje, Blackwell, or Klesmit over Hepburn. If there's an unsung hero award for the season, Janicki is the clubhouse leader right now. Mulligan for McGee. he just looked off tonight, on both ends. He'll bounce back I'm sure.

So far tonite vs UTRGV, it looks like you'd fear it might look coming off a big win. These guys look to be just good enough to give you problems if the extra effort in the half-court defense isn't there. And it certainly isn't. UW is guarding for about 10-12 seconds, and some good ball movement & dribble drives at just the right time is causing issues. Of course, you can suck defensively & still not see an opponent shoot 17 for their first 26 from the floor. Then, a couple non-hustle plays late in the half. Paint should be peeling off the walls in the locker room. Amos kind of looked like a Storr facsimile in the 1st half, meaning he can be instant offense but you just hope it isn't given up on the other end. If the team defense doesn't shore up after the break they may need to keep Janicki on the floor----a lot.