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Cleveland State guard Trey Lewis has been granted his release and is looking to transfer out for his final season of eligibility. Lewis is a 6'2", 190-pound guard out of Garfield Heights who played a year at Penn State before transferring to CSU for two seasons. Lewis is an exceptional scorer, putting up 16.3/4.4/2.9 on .446/.423/.757 shooting last season as a junior. Those are gaudy numbers, but they were put up against a lower level of competition. Would Trey Lewis be a good fit at Xavier?
Let's take a look at how he did against higher level teams over the past season:
| Date | Opponent | Pts | Reb | Ast | TO | FGM-FGA | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed Nov 26 | Louisville | 24 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 9-20 | 4-10 | 2-6 |
| Thu Dec 18 | Virginia | 18 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7-13 | 4-9 | 0-0 |
| Mon Dec 29 | VCU | 15 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5-15 | 4-9 | 1-2 |
| Sat Jan 10 | Valparaiso | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1-9 | 0-5 | 3-5 |
| Fri Feb 27 | Valparaiso | 13 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5-17 | 3-10 | 0-0 |
| Sat Mar 7 | Valparaiso | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4-14 | 2-9 | 0-0 |
| Total | 85 | 19 | 16 | 9 | 31-88 | 17-52 | 6-13 | |
| Averages | 14.2 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 1.5 | .352 | .327 | .462 |
His superficially impressive numbers are dampened significantly against better teams. Shocking stuff, I know. There could be any number of reasons why this is. Maybe those were four bad matchups for him. Maybe he tried to do a little too much against three good out of conference teams and one top conference foe. Maybe those teams just keyed on him because he was the best player on his team. It should also be noted that Cleveland State went 0-6 in those games.
Lewis's game is built around his shooting range and his ability to get his own shot with the ball in his hands. He doesn't profile as a hard slasher, taking only about a third of his shots at the rim in two years at CSU. Instead, he takes about half of his field goal attempts from behind the arc. Just as notably, he only receives an assist on about two thirds of his three-point attempts. For comparison's sake, every shooter on Xavier this year received assists on at least 85% of his three-point attempts, and JP, Trevon, and Remy were all above 95%.
To get an idea of how Lewis operates, think of a Mark Lyons who drives less but shoots more threes, or a Sterling Gibbs who punches fewer people in the face. He is the kind of player who feels comfortable taking the ball and going to hunt his own shot, which is one thing that Xavier's offense missed this year. The flip side of that is that he was something of a ball stopper at Cleveland State and it's not clear that he has the chops to consistently compete against Big East defenses.
There is also the question of where he fits on the roster. Xavier currently has Myles Davis and Remy Abell having proven themselves capable of playing the two-guard, JP Macura with that kind of skill set, and Edmond Sumner who could use some minutes without the pressure of having to run the team. Whether you think Lewis would be a good fit depends on if you think having a player who can go on his own when the offense sputters is worth prioritizing over more depth at the true point guard position.