Five Xavier stats for a slow Thursday during finals week

Bored on a Thursday? Me too. Here are a few statistical things that I noticed while looking over Xavier's numbers. With the caveat that I don't know that there is any predictive value to any of this, here are five things about Xavier's stats so far this season.

• Edmond Sumner is 39-57 (68.4%) from the line through 10 games. As a freshman, Semaj Christon was 38-59 (64.4%) through 11 games. Ed has already hit as many threes this year as Semaj did his entire freshman year. Sumner has a lot of advantages over Semaj, not least of which is the level of talent around him. Christon led X through what could otherwise have been an extremely dark period, but the numbers that Sumner is putting up are already hitting that a greater than Semaj may be here.
• Xavier is in the top 20 in rebounding percentage on both ends of the floor. The last time they ended a season ranked that highly in OReb% and DReb% was never, or at least before the KenPom era. X has only finished two seasons in the top 20 on the offensive glass (08-09 and 10-11) and only one that high on the defensive end (02-03). As nice as it is to see Xavier getting second-chance points, I think the ability to clear the boards on defense is what has really helped this team to 10-0.
• JP currently has an assist rate over 20% and a turnover rate below 11%. Not only has no Muskie done that in a full season during the KenPom era, nobody has even come close. Like, not even remotely. For all his outlandishness, JP makes really good decisions with the basketball. Interestingly, Myles Davis has an assist rate flirting with 20% and a turnover rate just above 11%. I don't know how these numbers will progress with Big East season coming on and Edmond Sumner growing into his game, but they're interesting to see for the time being.
• Jalen Reynolds is in the top 130 in steal percentage and block percentage. Nobody else in the country is. I know dropping down to 130 exactly is kind of an arbitrary cutoff that looks a lot like gaming the numbers, but my response to that is that I'm okay with it. The real point is that Jalen's foul trouble and offensive potential sometimes overshadow just how defensively versatile he is. Not only does he kill possessions with rebounding - which I suspect we all already knew - but he is excellent at using his length to both block shots and disrupt passing. When stationed in the middle of that 1-3-1, he destroys what other offenses try to do
• Xavier takes a third of its shots from beyond the arc. That's the highest ratio ever under Coach Mack; Sean Miller was only under that number once. Speaking of three-point shooting frequency, Xavier's opponents take 41.7% of their shots from deep, which is on pace to be a new school record. Basically, if you go to a Xavier game you're probably going to see more threes attempted than at any point in Coach Mack's tenure. Despite what Mick Cronin misapprehended about Xavier's defense, it's the 1-3-1's nature to push offenses away from the rim, concede certain threes, and - yes - force turnovers.