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Finishing last season with a 16-18 record and sub-.500 play in the Big East was a massive failure by Xavier’s typically high standards and this forced Sean Miller to essentially clean out the program after the departure of ten scholarship players from last year’s team.
However, like last year, the injury bug has bit Xavier, especially amongst their forwards corps. Prior to the start of the year, Long Beach State fifth-year big Lassina Traore, who averaged a double-double, was forced to miss this year with a knee injury. Florida State transfer Cam’Ron Fletcher, who started his career at Kentucky, has played sparingly as he gears up following last year’s ACL injury. The biggest blow came today with star fifth-year forward Zach Freemantle on an indefinite absence following a lower-body injury. Sophomore guard Trey Green is also taking an indefinite leave to address a health-related matter and Boise State guard Roddie Anderson III is redshirting, leaving the Musketeers with seven healthy scholarship players, eight if you count Fletcher.
Basically, throw out any preseason preview you have for Xavier, as for the foreseeable future, will be a lot smaller than expected just a few months prior.
Entering the year, there was good roster balance, but now, Xavier is a guard-driven team led by Indiana State transfer Ryan Conwell and fifth-year returnee Dayvion McKnight. Xavier’s four key guards – Conwell, McKnight, Furman transfer Marcus Foster and Toledo transfer Dante Maddox – are all versatile offensive guards who can score from anywhere in the halfcourt, distribute and create off-the-bounce.
An all-around guard who finished last season with the 19th best A/TO ratio in the nation, McKnight is also Xavier’s best bucket-getter. Despite being a bit undersized, McKnight also possesses a strong base and can draw contact well. Only about a third of McKnight’s field goal attempts are three-pointers, so his scoring and playmaking tend to be inside the arc. Solid defender too. Similar to McKnight, Conwell is a sound defender, but has flipped scoring splits – about two-thirds of Conwell’s field goal attempts are from 3, so he is one of the best perimeter scorers in the Big East.
Furman grad transfer Marcus Foster starts at the 3 and will likely get even more minutes as the third guard with Dailyn Swain needing to play up in the lineup. One of the best rebounding guards in the conference, Foster is also a physical defender who is off to his most efficient season on the perimeter. A star at Furman, Foster’s usage rate has been much lower at Xavier so far, but I can see Foster stepping up to help replace Freemantle’s scoring.
Dante Maddox is off to a poor start after a very strong season at Toledo. He’s not known for his defense, but he’s a microwave scorer who finished in the top-six in the MAC in offensive efficiency rating in each of the last two seasons. Like Foster, he’s a guy waiting to break out.
In the frontcourt, John Hugley IV is now Xavier’s only healthy true center. He’s got good feet and a soft touch under the rim, but at 6’11 270, Hugley hasn’t gotten the conditioning to be able to play more than 22 minutes in any game this season in Miller’s up-tempo offense. Shooting just 44% from inside the arc, he’s off to the worst start of his career. Despite his size, Hugley also isn’t afraid to let it rip from three.
With Freemantle gone, fifth-year forward Jerome Hunter will get all the minutes he can at the 5. An energetic and scrappy lunch-pail forward Hunter is an elite offensive rebounder and while he puts in an effort on defense, his athleticism has slowed down a half of a gear and his aggressiveness can sometimes cause him to have tunnel vision.
Sophomore forward Dailyn Swain started out the season as a combo forward, but injuries will move him to more of a full-time power forward role with a shot of him getting small ball 5 minutes too. An excellent defender who can switch 1-through-5, Swain, like Hunter, possesses an excellent motor and Swain is Xavier’s best turnover generator. On offense, Swain’s only true weakness is a lack of a perimeter shot, but he can make plays, set up teammates, slash, create off-the-bounce and play above the rim.
In one way, Xavier’s injury issues play towards Sean Miller’s tendencies: on offense, he likes to play off tempo and share the ball freely (Xavier has ranked in the top-20 in A/FGM ratio in each of his last four seasons of coaching). Miller coached defenses are also strong on the perimeter, but Freemantle’s loss will make it tough for Xavier to rebound as well on the defensive end. However, Freemantle is an all-around star who possesses no holes in his game so his loss is huge. Stylistically speaking, the team’s spacing will be greatly hindered with his loss. Swain, Hugley and Hunter have combined to shoot 4-for-16 from three, so unless Miller decides to go small with the strong rebounding Foster at the 4, almost all of Xavier’s rotations will feature two non-shooters in the frontcourt, which should undoubtedly affect the interior flow that Xavier’s talented guards bring to the table.
However, like last year, the injury bug has bit Xavier, especially amongst their forwards corps. Prior to the start of the year, Long Beach State fifth-year big Lassina Traore, who averaged a double-double, was forced to miss this year with a knee injury. Florida State transfer Cam’Ron Fletcher, who started his career at Kentucky, has played sparingly as he gears up following last year’s ACL injury. The biggest blow came today with star fifth-year forward Zach Freemantle on an indefinite absence following a lower-body injury. Sophomore guard Trey Green is also taking an indefinite leave to address a health-related matter and Boise State guard Roddie Anderson III is redshirting, leaving the Musketeers with seven healthy scholarship players, eight if you count Fletcher.
Basically, throw out any preseason preview you have for Xavier, as for the foreseeable future, will be a lot smaller than expected just a few months prior.
Entering the year, there was good roster balance, but now, Xavier is a guard-driven team led by Indiana State transfer Ryan Conwell and fifth-year returnee Dayvion McKnight. Xavier’s four key guards – Conwell, McKnight, Furman transfer Marcus Foster and Toledo transfer Dante Maddox – are all versatile offensive guards who can score from anywhere in the halfcourt, distribute and create off-the-bounce.
An all-around guard who finished last season with the 19th best A/TO ratio in the nation, McKnight is also Xavier’s best bucket-getter. Despite being a bit undersized, McKnight also possesses a strong base and can draw contact well. Only about a third of McKnight’s field goal attempts are three-pointers, so his scoring and playmaking tend to be inside the arc. Solid defender too. Similar to McKnight, Conwell is a sound defender, but has flipped scoring splits – about two-thirds of Conwell’s field goal attempts are from 3, so he is one of the best perimeter scorers in the Big East.
Furman grad transfer Marcus Foster starts at the 3 and will likely get even more minutes as the third guard with Dailyn Swain needing to play up in the lineup. One of the best rebounding guards in the conference, Foster is also a physical defender who is off to his most efficient season on the perimeter. A star at Furman, Foster’s usage rate has been much lower at Xavier so far, but I can see Foster stepping up to help replace Freemantle’s scoring.
Dante Maddox is off to a poor start after a very strong season at Toledo. He’s not known for his defense, but he’s a microwave scorer who finished in the top-six in the MAC in offensive efficiency rating in each of the last two seasons. Like Foster, he’s a guy waiting to break out.
In the frontcourt, John Hugley IV is now Xavier’s only healthy true center. He’s got good feet and a soft touch under the rim, but at 6’11 270, Hugley hasn’t gotten the conditioning to be able to play more than 22 minutes in any game this season in Miller’s up-tempo offense. Shooting just 44% from inside the arc, he’s off to the worst start of his career. Despite his size, Hugley also isn’t afraid to let it rip from three.
With Freemantle gone, fifth-year forward Jerome Hunter will get all the minutes he can at the 5. An energetic and scrappy lunch-pail forward Hunter is an elite offensive rebounder and while he puts in an effort on defense, his athleticism has slowed down a half of a gear and his aggressiveness can sometimes cause him to have tunnel vision.
Sophomore forward Dailyn Swain started out the season as a combo forward, but injuries will move him to more of a full-time power forward role with a shot of him getting small ball 5 minutes too. An excellent defender who can switch 1-through-5, Swain, like Hunter, possesses an excellent motor and Swain is Xavier’s best turnover generator. On offense, Swain’s only true weakness is a lack of a perimeter shot, but he can make plays, set up teammates, slash, create off-the-bounce and play above the rim.
In one way, Xavier’s injury issues play towards Sean Miller’s tendencies: on offense, he likes to play off tempo and share the ball freely (Xavier has ranked in the top-20 in A/FGM ratio in each of his last four seasons of coaching). Miller coached defenses are also strong on the perimeter, but Freemantle’s loss will make it tough for Xavier to rebound as well on the defensive end. However, Freemantle is an all-around star who possesses no holes in his game so his loss is huge. Stylistically speaking, the team’s spacing will be greatly hindered with his loss. Swain, Hugley and Hunter have combined to shoot 4-for-16 from three, so unless Miller decides to go small with the strong rebounding Foster at the 4, almost all of Xavier’s rotations will feature two non-shooters in the frontcourt, which should undoubtedly affect the interior flow that Xavier’s talented guards bring to the table.
