2024-25 Season

[JacobPadilla]

+/- isn't an individual stat, it's a summary of what happened during a stretch of time. It's the start of an investigation, not an answer, but it's also not meaningless. Basketball is an organic sport where each of the 10 players on the court impacts the others; it's not a series of one-on-one matchups. A guy can shoot poorly while the team still operates well with him on the court in one-off situations. The game is complicated.

What +/- tells us is Creighton was objectively better with Miller on the court than off the last two games. Is that simply a result of shot variance in Creighton's favor when he was out there compared to when he wasn't? Or does it have to do with the way teams are playing on both ends when he's out there compared to other options? Either way, it isn't likely to hold up long-term with his current level of play, and the longer this goes on the more clear it becomes that he probably just isn't going to find his shot this year. But if you're focusing on Miller as the reason for the small margin of victory and the loss in the last two games, you're just barking up the wrong tree.

At this point fans are so hyper-fixated on every negative play he makes to the point of ignoring any positive results that may happen while he's on the floor. Mac highlighted the impact of his floor-spacing in the St. John's game, and while teams targeted him on defense in important situations earlier in the season to their benefit, I don't remember instances of that happening the last couple of games (could be wrong there; going off the dome). Five rebounds, three points, one assist and one dead-ball turnover in 15 minutes is an acceptable contribution for a 7th man in a game like this, even if he didn't make a 3.

Say there is pressure to keep Miller involved in the rotation going into a game. Once the bullets are flying, Mac's still playing to win and he's going to make the calls he thinks will give them the best chance of doing that. What he saw on Friday was Žugić unprepared for the on-ball pressure Marquette was applying (the happy feet travel and the pick-six pass, the latter of which you simply can't afford in that game) while Creighton was winning the minutes with Miller out there, so he let it ride. I can't really blame him for that. Marquette outscored Creighton 9-4 in the 91 seconds Zugic was on the court, scoring five points off his two turnovers (and CU's first point was Miller's second FT on a foul that happened before Fedor checked in).

Moving forward, for this team to approach its ceiling, that equation needs to start shifting in Žugić's favor. I don't know how many times Mac has told fans it's going to be a process. I can't really explain it any more clearly than I have on multiple platforms.

[bird_call]

...At this point fans are so hyper-fixated on every negative play he makes to the point of ignoring any positive results that may happen while he's on the floor...

Jacob, you are a smart guy, but that is ridiculous and a strawman.

In the last five games, his counting stats are:
- 3 points on 9 FGA and 1 FTA. (0.6 pts/gm)
- 13 rebounds (2.6 per game)
- 1 assist (0.2 per game) and 3 turnovers (0.6 per game)
- 2 steals (0.4 per game)
- 0 blocks.
- 3 personal fouls (0.6 pf/gm)
- 80 minutes played (18 mpg)

His eFG% for the season is 19%.

Please do not use a 2 game sample of +/- as you are know that it is unreliable over that sample size.

All your mental contortions to justify Mac's decision to play him is probably just because you like the guy. He is probably a really nice student-athlete and a wonderful teammate. Hopefully he can get over his mental block and hit some shots to earn his playing time.

[UncleBillyJ]

+/- isn't an individual stat, it's a summary of what happened during a stretch of time. It's the start of an investigation, not an answer, but it's also not meaningless. Basketball is an organic sport where each of the 10 players on the court impacts the others; it's not a series of one-on-one matchups. A guy can shoot poorly while the team still operates well with him on the court in one-off situations. The game is complicated.

What +/- tells us is Creighton was objectively better with Miller on the court than off the last two games. Is that simply a result of shot variance in Creighton's favor when he was out there compared to when he wasn't? Or does it have to do with the way teams are playing on both ends when he's out there compared to other options? Either way, it isn't likely to hold up long-term with his current level of play, and the longer this goes on the more clear it becomes that he probably just isn't going to find his shot this year. But if you're focusing on Miller as the reason for the small margin of victory and the loss in the last two games, you're just barking up the wrong tree.

At this point fans are so hyper-fixated on every negative play he makes to the point of ignoring any positive results that may happen while he's on the floor. Mac highlighted the impact of his floor-spacing in the St. John's game, and while teams targeted him on defense in important situations earlier in the season to their benefit, I don't remember instances of that happening the last couple of games (could be wrong there; going off the dome). Five rebounds, three points, one assist and one dead-ball turnover in 15 minutes is an acceptable contribution for a 7th man in a game like this, even if he didn't make a 3.

Say there is pressure to keep Miller involved in the rotation going into a game. Once the bullets are flying, Mac's still playing to win and he's going to make the calls he thinks will give them the best chance of doing that. What he saw on Friday was Žugić unprepared for the on-ball pressure Marquette was applying (the happy feet travel and the pick-six pass, the latter of which you simply can't afford in that game) while Creighton was winning the minutes with Miller out there, so he let it ride. I can't really blame him for that. Marquette outscored Creighton 9-4 in the 91 seconds Zugic was on the court, scoring five points off his two turnovers (and CU's first point was Miller's second FT on a foul that happened before Fedor checked in).

Moving forward, for this team to approach its ceiling, that equation needs to start shifting in Žugić's favor. I don't know how many times Mac has told fans it's going to be a process. I can't really explain it any more clearly than I have on multiple platforms.

I appreciate the lengthy and informative explanation, and you probably know more about hoops then I will forget, but this still does not explain the rationale behind keeping a player who's best statistic is their +/- through two games in games over a player who has pro experience and obviously is in desperate need of actual playing time to perhaps ease the pressure and also get a good feel for Big East play.

We are likely at a point in the season where our NCAA tournament hopes will be decided in the next two weeks or so, and if there was ever a time to take a risk (it's not really a risk but Mac seems to be the most risk averse person out there) it is now. Stop playing Miller, play Green and Traudt who despite their flaws, have shown infinitely more improvement and promise than Miller, and get Zugic the experience he needs. I don't think fans are hyperfixated so much as they seem to recognize the biggest gaping hole in our roster while the coaching staff doesn't seem to. That has fans worried, and rightfully so. Miller shouldn't even be starting for most mid majors, much less a program who has regular tournament hopes and should be making it past the first weekend as the standard.

[CURx]

For those arguing against playing Miller, you would probably be more content in life with finding a new team. One thing is apparent with Mac and this staff is that they have always valued +/- a lot. I don’t know all of the reasons as to why Fedor hasn’t jumped feet first into the deep end of the pool but I have a hunch that Mac has reason for it. On the other hand, if you’ll can give us plebs an objective analysis of Fedor’s YouTube highlights from Germany and his CU practices to strengthen your argument (more specifically how does Germany and CU practices compare to the on-ball pressure that both St. John’s and Marquette apply to guards and how he handled that) as to why he should play 25+ minutes a game I’m all ears as I agree this is a key few games coming up.

[LJay]

If I’m an opposing coach I give Miller plenty of room to shoot. His shot has always been a little different but it’s now like he’s crossing his arms as he is releasing the ball. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can see it has no chance a few feet out of his hands.

So yes, he is mentally having a time of it but he has physical flaws in his mechanics.

[Uncle_George_5]

Fedor’s not playing enough minutes to really tell but it seems to me like he’s Neal’s back-up at the 2. Green and Miller have been splitting the 3. Are we even sure they want to play him at the 3?

[SeattleJay]

Like Fedor, Alex O’Connell became eligible in mid December a few years back. He had already played 3 seasons at Duke. He averaged about 10 minutes a game that year. His high game was 21 minutes.

[SeattleJay]

The big difference between AO and Fedor is that Mac had 3 established studs in Ballock, Mahoney and Jefferson ahead of AO. This year there isn’t a clear 30 minute a game guy ahead of Fedor at the 3.

Of course, Neal could also move back to the 3 where he started the season and Fedor could play the 2.

Let’s hope a week of practice helps Fedor get more minutes.

[Bluejoe]

Plain and simple, Mac trusts what he sees in practice. Always has. Mason understands the offense and defensive assignments and demonstrates that in practice. Fedor has not had time to do that yet. Once he proves himself, he will get minutes. It may e frustraring to us, but that is how Mac has operated for his entire time here.

[JacobPadilla]

...At this point fans are so hyper-fixated on every negative play he makes to the point of ignoring any positive results that may happen while he's on the floor...

Jacob, you are a smart guy, but that is ridiculous and a strawman.

In the last five games, his counting stats are:
- 3 points on 9 FGA and 1 FTA. (0.6 pts/gm)
- 13 rebounds (2.6 per game)
- 1 assist (0.2 per game) and 3 turnovers (0.6 per game)
- 2 steals (0.4 per game)
- 0 blocks.
- 3 personal fouls (0.6 pf/gm)
- 80 minutes played (18 mpg)

His eFG% for the season is 19%.

Please do not use a 2 game sample of +/- as you are know that it is unreliable over that sample size.

All your mental contortions to justify Mac's decision to play him is probably just because you like the guy. He is probably a really nice student-athlete and a wonderful teammate. Hopefully he can get over his mental block and hit some shots to earn his playing time.

FWIW Mason probably doesn't even know my name. I don't have any relationship with him at all outside of a handful of interviews. I'm not justifying, I'm explaining why I think it's been the case recently, and speculating about what Mac's seeing. I don't buy that it's simply some abstract "trust" thing; the trust comes from what he sees.

"Either way, it isn't likely to hold up long-term with his current level of play, and the longer this goes on the more clear it becomes that he probably just isn't going to find his shot this year." — and — "Moving forward, for this team to approach its ceiling, that equation needs to start shifting in Žugić's favor."

shows my personal opinion on the situation.

Regardless of all our opinions of his play, it's a fact that he's not the reason Creighton has been outscored by 7 over the last two games. His play is and has been a problem this season, but Creighton lost that Marquette game when Mason wasn't in the game.