Trevon Bluiett is back on top of the Xavier Power rankings

The Massey composite tracks some 40 different metrics for ranking college basketball teams to try to give an overall balanced view of what different systems think of each team. I don’t know of any system for doing that with individual players, but it wouldn’t matter because we have the definitive power ranking of the only nine players that matter right here.

As always, all opinions are my own and do not reflect the stance of the Banners staff or in some cases objective reality.

9. Quentin Goodin

7. want a reserve guard to be able to do one of two things. The first is to be able to really fill it up at a moment’s notice. The other is to just play ball security and let the playmakers do their things. Quentin isn’t doing either right now, as turnover issues are really blunting his offensive efficiency. He’s a heck of a defender though, and nothing he’s doing on offense seems to be uncorrectable. He’ll get there.

8. Tyrique Jones

Holy cow. I know all about the foul problems and the limited post arsenal, but he’s an incredible rebounder on both ends and some of his offensive rebounds look like that. I wanted to put him higher, but he’s only playing a quarter of the team’s minutes right now.

7. Kaiser Gates

He hasn’t looked physically up to game speed yet, but he has to be getting there. Every time out is getting Kaiser closer to being good to go in Big East play. The stroke looked closer to dialed in against Utah, so I’m betting the week between now and the Wake game will be good for Gates.

6. Sean O’Mara

Big Sean is only getting a third of the available minutes right now, but he remains Xavier’s most consistent offensive option on the post. He’s doing well on the offensive glass as well, but Jones and Gaston are both elite on the glass at that end. He needs to be an automatic bucket on offense or show improvement on the defensive end to get a bigger role.

5. Malcolm Bernard

Malcolm’s value is hard to pin down. He hit a three in each of Xavier’s first five games, but he also was completely absent in both of the team’s losses. His EFG% of 45.1% is fairly gruesome, but I’ll take his 35.7% mark from beyond the arc. Besides, offense isn’t really where he bring the value, right? I’d like to see a few fewer empty possessions from him, but he’s getting after it on defense and boarding pretty well. Any scoring is icing on the cake.

4. RaShid Gaston

The big man has come on strong of late, especially at the offensive end. He’s now second in the nation in OReb% and shot 12-16 from the floor over the past week. I’m not sure I’d necessarily say you can just feed him on the post, though that little lefty hook against Utah was nice to see, but he’s clearly turned a corner in the last week or so.

3. Edmond Sumner

I’ll break down the offense in a sentence because I want to talk about his defense: TO still a hair high, jumper AWOL, FT coming around. Ed leads the team in multi-block games. He only has one game in which he hasn’t recorded a steal. These numbers don’t tell you about just staying in front of a man and making correct rotations, but they do speak to the fact that Ed is really, really using his length and athleticism to alter the game. He can afford a few gambles because he has the raw natural ability to get back when the initial play exposes him.

2. JP Macura

Speaking of steals, Saturday’s zero-steal performance against Utah broke a streak of six straight games in which JP had exactly three steals. Just as importantly, he has cut down from 4.2 fouls per 40 last year to 2.5 this year, enabling Coach Mack to ride him for more than 32 minutes per game. His weirdly effective two-point game from last year been less so this year, but he is holding good efficiency numbers with a big increase in usage and minutes at a time where Xavier has really needed him.

1. Trevon Bluiett

After dropping a combined 50 points on Baylor and Colorado thanks largely to his three-point prowess, Tre switched it up by going for 18 on 6-11/0-2/6-7 shooting against a Utah team intent on running him off the three-point line. A guy who can hit threes like Trevon can is hugely valuable; a guy who can do that or score without getting good looks from deep is a stud. Bluiett is exactly that.