Xavier Recruiting Recap

Keeping track of Xavier’s recruiting process is no simple thing. The amount of rumor that swirls on Twitter is almost impossible to make complete sense of. If you are wondering who Xavier is really in on or who is really considering the school for next year, here’s a (very) brief primer cobbled together between Verbal Commits and ESPN. If I missed your favorite recruit, feel free to hype him in the comments.

The Musketeers are still in the running for six ESPN Top 100 players. Keldon Johnson, David McCormack, Isaiah Mucius, Darius Days, Noah Locke, and Will Richardson are those six. McCormack is a center, but the rest are guards or swing men. There isn’t a name on that list that wouldn’t be a great get for Coach Mack. Johnson and McCormack are both from Oak Hill and are tops on a lot of team’s lists. Johnson is currently 14th in the Top 100 as a rail thin 6-6 scorer.

After that top tier of players, Xavier still has plenty of options. The Musketeers have at least 20 offers out for what figures to be five open spots. (This would be Brandon Randolph and Kamall Richards’ senior season if you’d like some indication of how far we’ve come). At the point spot Xavier is in on 5-9 shooter Tyler Harris who, gallingly enough, has drawn some comparisons to Steph Curry with the speed of his release. More of a prototypical point man is Ayo Dosonmu, who doesn’t have a great shot but, at 6-4, has great length for a point guard.

Johnson, Richardson, and Locke head the class at shooting guard. Locke stands only 6-2, but the others have the length to play off the ball in the Big East. Richardson is yet another Oak Hill product who can also handle the ball. Locke is a straight up shooter who figures to thrive mostly in opportunities to catch and release. When he has that chance, he knocks down nearly 50% of his three point attempts.

Mucius is ESPNs top pick for the small forward spot for Xavier. He’s an athletic freak whose basketball skills are still catching up to his prodigious physical ones. Intriguingly, former OSU commit Justin Ahrens has re-opened his recruitment following the dismissal of Thad Matta. Ahrens is another top level shooter who also brings some athleticism to the table. At 6-5, 181, he’s essentially the same size as JP Macura and brings some of the same game, though it’s doubtful he’ll be so welcomed by opposing fans.

When it comes to bigs, Chris Mack prefers to have guards. Darius Days plays like a big but stands only 6-6. That’s not a serious problem as the Musketeers have shown a willingness to play similarly sized Trevon Bluiett at the four, but Days is hardly a banger like Tyrique Jones. Another possibility down low is 6-8 Jake Forrester, another guy who has plenty of athleticism, but not a lot of size. Jermaine Harris is more of a standard four, but he’s got a lot of other top tier programs after him.

That’s how it stands thus far. At this point, everything is a lot of smoke. Until a player commits, and even sometimes after that, there is nothing etched in stone. For now though, Xavier is poised to have another high level recruiting class.