An old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,” applies all too well to the basketball odyssey of Elijah Fisher, the 6’ 6”, 220 pound swing man entering his Senior season with the Seton Hall Pirates. A transfer from Pacific University (4-14, 9-24) of the West Coast Conference (Gonzaga and St. Mary’s), Fisher will be playing for his fourth school in a college career that has been something of a disappointment. A five star recruit out of Crestwood Prep in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Fisher has had an “interesting” journey with some “interesting” stops along the way.
First, though, about his game: he had outstanding stats at Pacific last season – his 15.7 ppg led the team, and he chipped in a solid 4.8 rebounds a game. He shoots 48% from the floor and 75% from the line. He’s not a good three point shooter – he shot under 30% from beyond the arc – and on a team where four players shot more than 100 threes, he attempted only 64 – about two a game. He scores most of his points by getting to the rim – he takes half his shots from inside. And he is a spot-up shooter – he’s not a great shooter off the dribble, so he needs a jump stop when he goes inside.
Fisher’s 15.7 points per game average makes him the second most accomplished scorer on Seton Hall’s 2025-2026 roster after Budd Clark. And he had eight games where he scored 20 points or more. But he also had three terrible games – against Missouri, Loyola Marymount and Gonzaga. Does this indicate that he will struggle when he moves back to the Big East?
His trip to Seton Hall has been circuitous indeed. As mentioned above, Fisher was a tremendous U18 player in Canada, and was considered a five star recruit by ESPN. It appears that Fisher relied too much on his athleticism at the expense of his basketball skills – particularly his shooting. While I imagine that many U18 stars fall to the wayside for a variety of reasons, in high school Fisher was praised for his leadership and work ethic. Yet as a freshman at Texas Tech (2022-23), he started only one game, averaging 12 minutes, three points and two rebounds.
But Texas Tech was a mess – Head Coach Marc Adams was fired for making a “racially insensitive comment” as well as for “slobbering” all over a player during a practice. Fisher made comments that he was leaving because of a lack of diversity at Texas Tech and in Lubbock, and that he was eating too much “steak and salmon” (no one really knows what this meant). Texas Tech just wasn’t a good fit for a kid from Toronto, so he transferred to DePaul for the 2023-24 season.
And DePaul had the worst season in Big East history – 0-20. Fisher had a solid if unspectacular sophomore year – 10 points, 4 rebounds in 31 minutes. But it was more chaos for Fisher -- Coach Tony Stubblefield was fired after eighteen games (fifteen of them losses). With the arrival of Chris Holtmann, Fisher transferred to his third school, Pacific – although in fairness, every player on DePaul transferred at the end of the 2024 season.
So now Fisher is back in the Power Five, for his final chance to live up to the promise of his high school career. It is likely that he was over-rated coming out of Canada. But it is also likely that he found himself in “interesting” situations that hurt his development and his output. If Coach Holloway can create a reasonable environment, with reasonable expectations for Elijah Fisher, I think that he can be a solid contributor for the Pirates.
First, though, about his game: he had outstanding stats at Pacific last season – his 15.7 ppg led the team, and he chipped in a solid 4.8 rebounds a game. He shoots 48% from the floor and 75% from the line. He’s not a good three point shooter – he shot under 30% from beyond the arc – and on a team where four players shot more than 100 threes, he attempted only 64 – about two a game. He scores most of his points by getting to the rim – he takes half his shots from inside. And he is a spot-up shooter – he’s not a great shooter off the dribble, so he needs a jump stop when he goes inside.
Fisher’s 15.7 points per game average makes him the second most accomplished scorer on Seton Hall’s 2025-2026 roster after Budd Clark. And he had eight games where he scored 20 points or more. But he also had three terrible games – against Missouri, Loyola Marymount and Gonzaga. Does this indicate that he will struggle when he moves back to the Big East?
His trip to Seton Hall has been circuitous indeed. As mentioned above, Fisher was a tremendous U18 player in Canada, and was considered a five star recruit by ESPN. It appears that Fisher relied too much on his athleticism at the expense of his basketball skills – particularly his shooting. While I imagine that many U18 stars fall to the wayside for a variety of reasons, in high school Fisher was praised for his leadership and work ethic. Yet as a freshman at Texas Tech (2022-23), he started only one game, averaging 12 minutes, three points and two rebounds.
But Texas Tech was a mess – Head Coach Marc Adams was fired for making a “racially insensitive comment” as well as for “slobbering” all over a player during a practice. Fisher made comments that he was leaving because of a lack of diversity at Texas Tech and in Lubbock, and that he was eating too much “steak and salmon” (no one really knows what this meant). Texas Tech just wasn’t a good fit for a kid from Toronto, so he transferred to DePaul for the 2023-24 season.
And DePaul had the worst season in Big East history – 0-20. Fisher had a solid if unspectacular sophomore year – 10 points, 4 rebounds in 31 minutes. But it was more chaos for Fisher -- Coach Tony Stubblefield was fired after eighteen games (fifteen of them losses). With the arrival of Chris Holtmann, Fisher transferred to his third school, Pacific – although in fairness, every player on DePaul transferred at the end of the 2024 season.
So now Fisher is back in the Power Five, for his final chance to live up to the promise of his high school career. It is likely that he was over-rated coming out of Canada. But it is also likely that he found himself in “interesting” situations that hurt his development and his output. If Coach Holloway can create a reasonable environment, with reasonable expectations for Elijah Fisher, I think that he can be a solid contributor for the Pirates.
