Xavier Game Thread

[D Jay Fan]

After giving Fred a try in the first half of the 1st half against Seton Hall, Mac looked to have decided to use his use it or lose it to give the starters an extra breather later in the half. Wrapped around a TV timeout, it gave him a chance to get one extra breather for tjose that needed it. I would expect this to happen more. It doesn't necessarily mean he will use one the second half for the same reason because it showed he needed that one extra timeout when we couldn't get the in-bound pass done at a very important time. That timeout was a major factor in our victory

[TrueBlueJay]

Interesting analysis from XU perspective:

https://www.bannersontheparkway.com/202 ... basketball

They talk about digging on Kalk to try to stop him, as any rational person would. Plus, their starting big plays barely over 20 minutes a game.

Very good write up - thanks.

[JacobPadilla]

Here's Mac's response to a question about if the bench guys are getting closer to being able to play more.

"They're getting better, but are they at the level that those three guys are? No, and we shouldn't expect them to be. But they're working and they're getting better. Josiah's done some good things in practice the last couple of weeks ago, Jasen Green has had two really good weeks and it's why he's seeing the floor a little bit more. But for the most part, we're going to ride the group we've been riding because they've been doing a good job."

It's pretty clear at this point that Mac isn't as worried about tired legs as the fans are, and he's operating with much more information. I think we'll continue to see Fred, Isaac and maybe Jasen continue to see a first-half stint, and if it doesn't go well we probably won't see them after halftime of a competitive game. If they make a play or two, we might see them again.

I asked Baylor about playing heavy minutes and dealing with in-game fatigue and included that response in my preview below.

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

[WBR Tom]

Here's the Pregame Primer over on WBR. It's interesting to me that X's bigs this yer aren't as versatile as Jack Nunge was -- and as Banners wrote in their preview for the X side, that won't create the mismatches X exploited so well a year ago.

https://whiteandbluereview.com/pregame- ... ot-xavier/

[SeattleJay]

Here's Mac's response to a question about if the bench guys are getting closer to being able to play more.

"They're getting better, but are they at the level that those three guys are? No, and we shouldn't expect them to be. But they're working and they're getting better. Josiah's done some good things in practice the last couple of weeks ago, Jasen Green has had two really good weeks and it's why he's seeing the floor a little bit more. But for the most part, we're going to ride the group we've been riding because they've been doing a good job."

It's pretty clear at this point that Mac isn't as worried about tired legs as the fans are, and he's operating with much more information. I think we'll continue to see Fred, Isaac and maybe Jasen continue to see a first-half stint, and if it doesn't go well we probably won't see them after halftime of a competitive game. If they make a play or two, we might see them again.

I asked Baylor about playing heavy minutes and dealing with in-game fatigue and included that response in my preview below.

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

Jacob, looking ahead to the BET. Don’t you need decent bench minutes to get to and through the championship?

One of our worst games this year was the back to back that resulted in a big loss to CSU. Last year in the BET, we got killed by XU after a grind it out game against Nova.

Two years ago we made it to the championship game against Nova in the BET. Nova also had a short rotation, and the first half of that game looked like 2 punch drunk fighters trying to survive another round.

[3ontheway]

It would be nice to have 3 or 4 guys that you could play (trust) from 2-3 minutes of clock pre media TO, to 2 or 3 minutes post media TO, resulting in a 12-15 minute rest for starters, but at this point in the season there is no sign of that whatsoever with this roster without a huge drop off.

Of course it hurts us in BET or even an NCAA regional, and even in a quick 48 or 72 hour turnaround. There is no way it can't.

Here's hoping the 3 or 4 guys that could potentially play 10-12 minutes a game get a lot better between now and BET. That's the hope, but to this point it seems like we pretty much have a 6 man rotation depending on foul trouble.

[vivid_dude]

During Kalk's mono stretch, King had some outstanding moments against solid competition. That's still in there. He's not Kalk, but few college centers are. I wonder if our offensive and defensive game plans are so anchored around Kalk's skillsets, that it's a square peg in a round hole for Fred when he's in the game. That's not a knock on him. Michael Jordan wouldn't have been as good in Princeton's offense. (Rough comparison, but you get the point.)

If Fred is our starter next season, my guess is the systems change, which could benefit his play. Mask his weaknesses, accentuate his strengths, based on how the game is played around him. I still have strong expectations for the kid who hasn't played the sport of basketball as long as most of us have posted on the BJU. That's some depressing perspective if you're not a fan of getting old.

And all the other talk about potential transfers after one season riding the bench makes me yearn for the good old days. You remember? When an Anthony Tolliver or Zac Hanson could go from "Wow, these fellas aren't good basketball players" to legend status/NBA player in Anthony's case and solid multi-year contributor in Zac's. Get off my yard and let kids develop, damn it!

Back on topic, I hope Creighton wins tonight against Xavier University.

[AttyAlum]

It’s probably a pipe dream to expect a guy to use his bench more when he has never done it here. I know we’re coming off of 3 OTs, but it’s unlikely a guy just wakes up one day and changes the entire pattern of the last decade.

Seattle, yes winning a conf tourney requires more depth. It’s why we haven’t win a BE tourney and probably never will. Of course, we’ve come a long way from the Valley days and conference tourneys aren’t that important now. We used to have to win to even get in the tourney whereas now it largely only impacts seeding. It may or may not be a coincidence that the year we went the farthest in the tournament our guys weren’t coming off of multiple games on consecutive days. With our lack of a bench throughout Mac’s tenure, I’m not sure that the additional rest caused by an early out in the conference tourney isn’t better for NCAA tournament success.

[cujaysfan]

all of that's true - but I never want to hear Mac talk about depth again like he has the last two preseasons.

he creates a lot of this sort of conversation by doing that - i'm sure there is some design there to keep guys believing they will get some PT. But - he just isn't going to. I wish I could remember back to his UNI teams and recall whether he was this way there as well - alas CRS here.

[RyanHolmgren]

I get the strategy to stick with the starters, but I worry about the impact beyond this season.

Trey, Baylor, Kalk and Fran will be gone after this year*. Can we really expect Fred to jump from 8.6 minutes a game to 25-30? I guess Martin Krampelj and Christian Bishop made similar jumps. Gonna be a huge ask for Dotzler (5.2 mpg), Traudt (12 mpg), Lawson (4.7 mpg) and Green (4.3 mpg) to assume more meaningful roles. Obviously we have some highly touted recruits coming in. Just would be nice to see further development and experience gained for the bench as we look ahead - both in March with 2-3 games in three days and for 2024-25.

Alas, in Mac we trust...

*Helmzy mentioned on the recruiting board that ... reading between the lines here ... Kalk may have interest in returning? (Unless I misread that and he meant Trey, which I would doubt.) That would certainly change things and I assume would lead King to look elsewhere.