Some quick news and notes if you haven't been keeping up...
- As was expected last week, Mizzou assistant coach Rick Carter has left the Tigers and joined Chris Mack's staff at Xavier. He has served on Tom Izzo's staff at Michigan State as well as on the Western Michigan staff when current Muskie Matt Stainbrook played at WMU. Carter's big ties in the Michigan area should be helpful for XU's recruiting in that area. Welcome aboard Coach Carter!

- Chris Cantino, who transferred into X last year ...
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Chris Mack's quick trip to Europe between games a few months ago has paid off huge. Aleksander Vezenkov, a 6'8" forward from Bulgaria, committed to Xavier yesterday. AND he will be enrolling this fall and should be eligible immediately.

There has been some debate on his eligibility due to him playing on a pro team in Greece. He has never signed a pro contract or been paid to play for the team so he meets all NCAA guidelines regarding this issue.

Vez (much easier to write and say than his full n...

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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 th...
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This morning, Dez Wells will be committing to Maryland. Best of luck to him!

No word yet if he will be eligible this fall or have to sit out the standard year for transfering.

Go Dez!

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Among all the chaos yesterday of the announcement of Dez Wells being expelled from Xavier, several places have reported that Chris Cantino has committed to Xavier.

Cantino played in Junior College last year so he is immediately eligible to play.  He's a forward and would likely jump into the competition for one of the starting spots.

More on Wells to come.

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Gerard Coleman will be transferring to Gonzaga.  He had the Zags and Xavier at the top of his list but it appears a concern for earning playing time at his position could have been the reason he ultimately didn't choose X.  With Dez Wells here and assuming that Chris Thomas will be here next year (when Coleman would be eligible to play), Coleman would've been at odds to getting a starting spot.

This leaves the Muskies with one scholarship spot this fall.  There are very few 2012 high school pl...
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Gerard Coleman, a slashing guard who's played 2 years at Providence, just had a visit to Xavier's campus.  It's said that he is going to pick either Xavier or Gonzaga in the near future.  That's quite a ways from his hometown of Boston!

He played over 1900 minutes in his two years in the Big East, averaging 10.3 pts/gm as a Freshman and 13.2 pts/game as a Sophomore.  His turnover rate and 3-point percentage are far from great but his ability to score makes him a solid pickup, should Chris Mack...
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Some various Muskies notes for you...

Mark Lyons has told Sean Miller and Arizona he'll be heading there this fall.  Best of luck to him.

Chris Mack has been out recruiting and likely trying to decide who's going to fill the 2 assistant coach vacancies.  We'll update as soon as we hear more.

Summer is coming and Musketeer Madness seems so far away.  It's nowhere near as exciting, but at least the summer leagues will be in June and July.  Saturday, June 16th will be the first sets of games.  It's...
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Well, with all the rumors and media clownery the last 2 days, we could see this coming.

GoXavier.com released a statement today saying that Lyons will not be back for his Senior year.  We are sure going to miss his scoring ability and tenacity.  I hope it's the best move in the long run.

Reports are that Arizona, Kansas, and Kentucky have already expressed interest in Lyons.  If he graduates as expected in May, he will be eligible to enroll in grad school at another school and play immediately....
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In what has been a year swirling out of control with XU's PR, we will continue that trend today.

News broke yesterday that Lyons was asked to not return to Xavier for this Senior season....ummm, yeah but others have now written that that may not in fact be the case.  Or, maybe not yet.  There's other articles that he could transfer to Arizona and Sean Miller.  There have been no statements from the coaching, AD, or Xavier.  In my opinion, his has been handled absolutely horribly.

My thoughts at...
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This week the Muskies signed Matt Stainbrook, a 6'10", 290lb center who's played his first 2 seasons at Western Michigan.  This was kinda out of nowhere as we'd been hearing about a few other transfer players on Xavier's radar but not much about Stainbrook.

Stainbrook will be eligible next fall (2013-2014 season) and will have 2 years of eligibility left.  This past year, he averaged 11 points and 7 rebounds a game and shot an impressive 58% from the field.  He's certainly not flashy and fast ...
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Griffin McKenzie, who's played very limited minutes in his 2 years with Xavier, will be transferring.

We wish Griff all the best and hope he gets to play in an expanded role elsewhere.  This leaves the Muskies with an open scholarship for this coming fall.  One of 3 things could happen here:
1 - Mack gives the scholarship to a guy on the team who doesn't have one (namely Stenger, who transferred in from NKU last year)
2 - Mack could offer to a high school senior that would be eligible to play th...
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