Goodbye offseason! Musketeer Madness is almost here!
Posted by Josh on Monday, October 15, 2012 Under: Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc.
Tu, Frease, and Walker graduated. Lyons transferred. Two assistant coaches took jobs elsewhere. Wells was expelled and immediately enrolled at Maryland. Two of the incoming freshmen were deemed ineligible by the NCAA.
AHHH!!! All of that happened over the course of a few months. We Xavier fans are used to getting bad news in the offseason...like Thad Matta leaving for Ohio St, or Sean Miller leaving for Arizona, or Crawford or Brown leaving early for the NBA. But this off-season was more than one piece of bad news, it was just piles and piles of it. Guess what? The off-season is FINALLY coming to an end!
Musketeer Madness is Saturday, Oct 20th and we'll finally get to see the team in action. News this week is that Cantino is allowed to practice with the team but the NCAA has still not ruled on whether he can play this season amid problems that his former Junior College is currently having. Hopefully we can end the off-season on a positive note with Cantino being fully eligible to play this season. If we assume he's eligible for a moment, here's how the active roster has shaped up:
Guards:
Brad Redford (SR), Dee Davis (SO), Semaj Christon (FR)
Forwards/Big Men:
Jeff Robinson (SR), Travis Taylor (SR), Isaiah Philmore (JR), Chris Cantino (JR), Erik Stenger (JR), Justin Martin (SO) , James Farr (FR)
In addition, there are 4 walk-ons this year. Stenger is not actually on scholarship but could see playing time along with the 9 scholarship players above.
Obviously, there are less guys on the bench than we'd like. Expect the three guards to all play significant minutes each night. After all, there are only 3 of them. Davis really made strides through his freshmen year and Redford now has a full season of conditioning on his knee after surgery 2 years ago. Christon is the gem of Mack's recruiting class and we should see some fireworks from him in his first year at X.
I really think there will be a nice battle for the 3, 4, and 5 positions. All 7 players above will get an opportunity to earn minutes on the floor. Philmore had an injury over the summer but should be good to go once the season starts. My guess is that Robinson, Taylor, Cantino, and Philmore will get the most minutes early on in the season. But I'm certainly hoping that Martin and Farr are too talented and working too hard to keep off the floor as well. A battle for the big-man positions could be very beneficial for the Muskies.
Despite a depleted roster, I think we'll see XU run a bit more this year. Christon is certainly capable of this and we all know that Redford is capable of hitting 3's if left open in transition. Taylor and Robinson can both get up and down the court pretty well for big men so I think they'd benefit from a quicker pace as well.
The season is almost here! I can't wait. GO MUSKIES!!!
AHHH!!! All of that happened over the course of a few months. We Xavier fans are used to getting bad news in the offseason...like Thad Matta leaving for Ohio St, or Sean Miller leaving for Arizona, or Crawford or Brown leaving early for the NBA. But this off-season was more than one piece of bad news, it was just piles and piles of it. Guess what? The off-season is FINALLY coming to an end!
Musketeer Madness is Saturday, Oct 20th and we'll finally get to see the team in action. News this week is that Cantino is allowed to practice with the team but the NCAA has still not ruled on whether he can play this season amid problems that his former Junior College is currently having. Hopefully we can end the off-season on a positive note with Cantino being fully eligible to play this season. If we assume he's eligible for a moment, here's how the active roster has shaped up:
Guards:
Brad Redford (SR), Dee Davis (SO), Semaj Christon (FR)
Forwards/Big Men:
Jeff Robinson (SR), Travis Taylor (SR), Isaiah Philmore (JR), Chris Cantino (JR), Erik Stenger (JR), Justin Martin (SO) , James Farr (FR)
In addition, there are 4 walk-ons this year. Stenger is not actually on scholarship but could see playing time along with the 9 scholarship players above.
Obviously, there are less guys on the bench than we'd like. Expect the three guards to all play significant minutes each night. After all, there are only 3 of them. Davis really made strides through his freshmen year and Redford now has a full season of conditioning on his knee after surgery 2 years ago. Christon is the gem of Mack's recruiting class and we should see some fireworks from him in his first year at X.
I really think there will be a nice battle for the 3, 4, and 5 positions. All 7 players above will get an opportunity to earn minutes on the floor. Philmore had an injury over the summer but should be good to go once the season starts. My guess is that Robinson, Taylor, Cantino, and Philmore will get the most minutes early on in the season. But I'm certainly hoping that Martin and Farr are too talented and working too hard to keep off the floor as well. A battle for the big-man positions could be very beneficial for the Muskies.
Despite a depleted roster, I think we'll see XU run a bit more this year. Christon is certainly capable of this and we all know that Redford is capable of hitting 3's if left open in transition. Taylor and Robinson can both get up and down the court pretty well for big men so I think they'd benefit from a quicker pace as well.
The season is almost here! I can't wait. GO MUSKIES!!!
In : Game Recaps, Notes, Previews, etc.
Tags: xavier "musketeer madness" transfer "semaj christon"
