SonofFrankTomera wrote:JacobPadilla wrote:HandDownManDown wrote: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.