St. John's Game Thread

[JacobPadilla]

I totally concur with that. Throw his butt out there and have him start swimming.

Now, on the other hand…that might have cost us the game yesterday.

I might be thinking too far into it but I’m wondering if there’s not a level of planning going on here for next season. The less Fedor does this year the more it ensures he will need another year to show he has NBA stuff.

Even with Ryan we aren’t doing anything of note this season; I have to wonder if Mac says, if I can have Jackson/Fedor/Pop next season I’m off to a strong start, let’s make that happen.

I just don’t see this team winning more than one Tourney game, even with Fedor.

There's no conspiracy going on here, guys. It's just about what Fedor is ready to do, from both a conditioning and knowledge standpoint. Creighton doesn't just roll the ball out and play. Playing for Mac is a lot more complicated on both ends of the floor than many people might think.

Here was Mac on Fedor after the game if you didn't hear it: “I thought he looked like a deer in the headlights the first time he played, and I thought today he just played basketball. He still has a long way to get acclimated into what we’re doing, the timing and the spacing, and what needs to happen defensively when you’re guarding a shooter versus a non-shooter. There’s a lot he has to still learn, and he’s going to get better at that as time goes on.”

He clearly has skills the team can use. His playing time will continue to rise as he becomes more and more comfortable. The week off after the Marquette trip will be big, especially without a holiday break to work around.

He’s been playing professionally for 5 years and he’s been in Omaha over 4 months. Doesn’t the coaching staff deserve some criticism on his lack of readiness?

I'll echo a lot of what TXJaysFan said.

To your question, Mac's public pessimism about Fedor throughout the process wasn't a front. The staff did not expect him to be eligible until probably next season. Mac's primary job is to get the team ready for the next game. He couldn't afford to give important practice reps to a guy who wasn't going to play, and as we've seen so far this season, there have been a lot of moving pieces and a lot of guys not playing to the level the team needed them to consistently. Those practice reps are key to figuring things out and to guys improving.

Also, it's not like he hasn't had the playbook and started learning everything from scratch after the ruling. There's just a difference between learning plays and executing both the offense and defense in live action when the variables are exponential.

[Alphawalt]

I totally concur with that. Throw his butt out there and have him start swimming.

Now, on the other hand…that might have cost us the game yesterday.

I might be thinking too far into it but I’m wondering if there’s not a level of planning going on here for next season. The less Fedor does this year the more it ensures he will need another year to show he has NBA stuff.

Even with Ryan we aren’t doing anything of note this season; I have to wonder if Mac says, if I can have Jackson/Fedor/Pop next season I’m off to a strong start, let’s make that happen.

I just don’t see this team winning more than one Tourney game, even with Fedor.

There's no conspiracy going on here, guys. It's just about what Fedor is ready to do, from both a conditioning and knowledge standpoint. Creighton doesn't just roll the ball out and play. Playing for Mac is a lot more complicated on both ends of the floor than many people might think.

Here was Mac on Fedor after the game if you didn't hear it: “I thought he looked like a deer in the headlights the first time he played, and I thought today he just played basketball. He still has a long way to get acclimated into what we’re doing, the timing and the spacing, and what needs to happen defensively when you’re guarding a shooter versus a non-shooter. There’s a lot he has to still learn, and he’s going to get better at that as time goes on.”

He clearly has skills the team can use. His playing time will continue to rise as he becomes more and more comfortable. The week off after the Marquette trip will be big, especially without a holiday break to work around.

He’s been playing professionally for 5 years and he’s been in Omaha over 4 months. Doesn’t the coaching staff deserve some criticism on his lack of readiness?

I have rewatched the limited minutes Fedor has played. He may need reps and practice to play well and get significant minutes, but what I observed is also lack of conditioning. That to me is inexcusable- player getting NIL money should stay in great shape while waiting for decision on eligibility. Not being ready to play from conditioning standpoint should cause him to be embarrassed about accepting what I assume is significant money and not being physically ready to play. I guess that is one of the unfortunate aspects of NIL, you can never truly know what you’re getting.

[WBR Tom]

Didn't get this linked here earlier, but here's the Morning After (day later edition) on the St. John's win:

https://whiteandbluereview.com/morning- ... 57-56-win/

And for our Patreon subscribers, here's Matt and Jacob breaking down the game and looking ahead to Marquette:

https://whiteandbluereview.com/premium- ... -johns-56/

[Angry Dan]

I have rewatched the limited minutes Fedor has played. He may need reps and practice to play well and get significant minutes, but what I observed is also lack of conditioning. That to me is inexcusable- player getting NIL money should stay in great shape while waiting for decision on eligibility. Not being ready to play from conditioning standpoint should cause him to be embarrassed about accepting what I assume is significant money and not being physically ready to play. I guess that is one of the unfortunate aspects of NIL, you can never truly know what you’re getting.

This was brought up on Matt and Jacob’s podcast. Until he was declared eligible to play this season Fedor had a different conditioning regimen consistent with a player who is not expected to play. Check out the podcast, very informative

Last edited by Angry Dan on Thu Jan 02, 2025 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Django]

Pretty strange. I knew nothing about the process until a couple months ago then just through the inter webs and information posted on the 24-25 thread (using other European comparables) we had predicted the eligibility to within about a week. How could us on this message board have a better clue about Fedor’s timeline than the coaching staff?

[SonofFrankTomera]

I have rewatched the limited minutes Fedor has played. He may need reps and practice to play well and get significant minutes, but what I observed is also lack of conditioning. That to me is inexcusable- player getting NIL money should stay in great shape while waiting for decision on eligibility. Not being ready to play from conditioning standpoint should cause him to be embarrassed about accepting what I assume is significant money and not being physically ready to play. I guess that is one of the unfortunate aspects of NIL, you can never truly know what you’re getting.

This was brought up on Matt and Jacob’s podcast. Until he was declared eligible to play this season Fedor had a different conditioning regiment consistent with a player who is not expected to play. Check out the podcast, very informative

Thanks for the info Angry Dan, sounds like I need to listen to the podcast. All I heard was that he would be eligible by January 1st, I guess I shouldn’t believe everything I read on the internet

[Jaysker12]

Yeah that seems very odd that the coaches thought he wouldn't be eligible.

[Angry Dan]

There is a lot in the podcast. They don’t sugarcoat anything.

Jacob is good to share info here, but he just scratches the surface when he posts here.

The podcast is a great deep dive for Jays fans. Totally worth the 5 bucks a month

[JacobPadilla]

I broke down the play Mitch Ballock drew up during the U-8 timeout in case anyone is interested in another look.

https://hurrdatsports.com/creighton-men ... asketball/

[JayPharmAlum]

12-0 run to end the half. Barf.