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Xavier transfer Brandon Randolph told @CBSSports he visited Northern Arizona last weekend. Also plans to visit Hawaii and Texas-Arlington.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 30, 2015
You guys remember Northern Arizona, right? Xavier thumped them in the home opener this past season. Interestingly, Brandon had 4/2/5 with just 1 turnover that game, prompting cautious optimism that he was going to be Xavier's reserve point guard for the year. Obviously, that didn't work out.
Northern Arizona finished 174th in the KenPom rankings last year. Hawai'i finished 123rd, and UT Arlington was 194th at the season's close. None of these teams were serious contenders for a league title, and none of them went on to play in the NCAA tournament or the NIT. In fact none of them went on to any sort of postseason play beyond what their conferences had to offer.
Are these the kind of schools you were expecting to be after Randolph? Arizona State, Providence, and Missouri were among the high majors Randolph turned down to come to Xavier. Now he's in talks with teams that didn't even play postseason basketball last year.
Xavier's 2013 recruiting class consisted of Randolph, Kamall Richards (now at Harcum College), and Aleksander Vezenkov, who never even came over from Europe. For having gotten no production from a three-man class that should theoretically be stepping into the heart of the lineup right now, Coach Mack has done an admirable job keeping this team on track.