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Fall is (finally) technically upon us, which means it must be about time to start previewing the upcoming Xavier basketball season. What happens throughout the year on the court will ultimately be determined by a myriad of factors - many of which we can't even guess right now - but it will broadly boil down to the performance of Xavier's players and that of their opponents.
Obviously this lines right into how we're going to preview the season. We'll kick things off by looking at each of the Musketeers eligible to compete this year and trying to analyze the projected strengths and weaknesses of their respective games. Then we'll lay that out into best-case, worst-case, and most likely scenarios for their outputs in the 2015-2016 season. Everybody with a scholarship (except your friend and mine RaShid Gaston, who is sitting out a year after transferring in) will get a look.
Following closely with that, we'll take a look at every team Xavier is currently scheduled to play, from the season opener against Miami through the final regular-season game against Creighton. We obviously don't know who Xavier will play in the second and third rounds of the Thanksgiving tournament, but we'll take a broad look at the pot of potential opponents. Finally, we'll cap the whole bit off by having our whole staff pick every game on the schedule and pulling back the curtain on how Ken Pomeroy sees them playing out.
A preview of a five-month season written six weeks before it begins isn't going to be a pure science. The most important part is that - finally - things are jumping off again. Put those swim trunks away, because summer is over. The best part of the year is back.