65 College Basketball Teams In 65 Days: Xavier Musketeers

This is a little something I like to call preview season, which by my watch starts on September 1. From that date until the start of the season we have 65 days. In those 65 days I’ll give a team preview each day. There’s going to be no rhyme or reason for the order we go in these 65 days. It will just be 65 teams I think are worthy of a detailed preview. We’ll have other previews throughout the time leading up to the season as well – conference breakdowns, player rankings, team rankings, etc. But, these will just be team previews.

Xavier Musketeers

2017-18 Record: 29-6, 15-3 Big East, 1st in Big East, Lost to Florida State in Round of 32
Top Returning Scorers: Quentin Goodin (8.7), Naji Marshall (7.7), Tyriqe Jones (7.0)
Key Losses: Trevon Bluiett (NBA), JP Macura (NBA), Kerem Kanter (graduation), Chris Mack (head coach at Louisville)
Newcomers: Ryan Welage (San Jose State transfer), Zach Hankins (D2 Transfer), Kyle Castlin (Columbia transfer)
Head coach: Travis Steele, 1st season

2018-19 Outlook

Well, talk about a complete overhaul, huh? Xavier is going to have to completely make up following arguably its best regular season in school history. The Muskies lose one of the school’s five best players in Trevon Bluiett, a 4-year guy in JP Macura and then rotation guys in Kerem Kanter and Kaiser Gates. While three of the four were expected because they were seniors, it’s the Gates departure that hurts the team since you were banking on him as your starting stretch four this season as a senior.

Then there’s Chris Mack. He has been linked to the Louisville job for a couple years now as the one job he would leave Xavier for. It ultimately opened up with minimal sanctions (for now) and he took the money. No one can blame him for that. Louisville is a top-10 program in college basketball. You have the facilities, you have the money, you have the name, it makes perfect sense.

Advertisement

So now Xavier moves on to the Travis Steele era. Steele is a guy who worked under Mack for years and was always pegged as a future head coach. He inherits a team that does return talent still despite losing those four guys. He’s going to lean on the core of Quentin Goodin, Naji Marshall, Tyrique Jones and Paul Scruggs. Those are the four guys who have spent at least a year in the program and he can count on.

To me it starts with Marshall though. He showed some serious flashes as a freshman last season as a 6’7″ versatile wing. The question is could he shoot the ball, and while he only had 43 attempts from three, he started to get more confident towards the end of the season. He likes to look to attack from the wing or baseline and finish at the rim. That’s his game. Marshall is probably the most talented player on this roster and has a legit chance to be an All-Big East type player. However, he needs to develop a more reliable jumper. If he can be a threat to shoot from baseline to wing, say get that number up to 100 attempts and shoot 36%, it changes his game and Xavier’s game.

After him, it’s Quentin Goodin. He has to be the consistent, reliable point guard, especially during this first year where Xavier is bringing in three transfers. Similar to Marshall, the biggest question for Goodin is his outside shooting. He hardly attempted a three during nonconference play and then something sort of clicked during conference play. He shot 36% and attempted 43 threes during Big East play. Again, this number needs to double this year while still shooting that 36% clip. Xavier needs one of these guys to fill that Bluiett/Macura threat from the outside to keep lanes open.

The key for that is because Xavier’s offense is predicated on cuts, drives and transition. They want to spread you out, put one big in the post and then cut and drive. They will dump the ball into the post and cut weakside looking for the backcut. If you have a congested lane because of lack of shooting, that’s just going to let defenses sag and take away the cut and drives.

One of the weaknesses last year for Xavier was defensively. They struggled a bit, it was weird. Sure, they ranked 52nd on KenPom, but watching them you could see there was just something missing defensively. They gave up a ton of looks from three – ranking 292nd in the country in 3PA/FGA while also not forcing turnovers (316th in turnover percentage). This year’s team feels like it should be a better defensive team. You bring in guys like Scruggs and Marshall on the wings who are better defenders than Bluiett and Macura. Goodin is a decent on-ball defender and then you still have Tyrique Jones at the rim.

Finally, there are three transfers which will see playing time this year. Zach Hankins, is a D2 transfer who is an absolute monster on the offensive glass. He was the DII Player of the Year at Ferris State and should be able to play both ways at the DI level. Then there’s Ryan Welage, who will likely be a starter after playing at San Jose State. He’s a 6’10” stretch four, who averaged over 18 points per game and shot 42% from three. He’ll fill that Kaiser Gates role for Xavier.

This is a team that will be in some top-25 rankings and likely in and out of the top-25 during the year. They are right in the middle of the Big East with that Providence, Butler, Marquette bunch and it’s going to be important that Marshall and Scruggs take the jump that people think they can as sophomores. I’m not worried about Steele taking over as a head coach. He’s been in the program long enough that it’s going to be a smooth transition.