Dieonte Miles and Elijah Tucker bring Xavier’s confirmed roster to 8.

First from the men themselves:

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Miles is an interesting case, as he started 9 of the first 10 games of the season and played 15 minutes a game in that span, splitting time with Jack Nunge in the low post. Miles showed himself to be a decent rebounder, a ferocious shot blocker, and capable of stepping out and defending in space over that time, but could never re-establish himself in the rotation after missing time toward the middle of December with illness. He dealt with a knee injury during the season as well, but provided Xavier 5 good minutes off the bench against Vanderbilt in the NIT Quarterfinal. Miles was part of the same class as Kyky Tandy and Zach Freemantle originally, so this will be his 4th year on campus but he still has 3 seasons of eligibility left.

Tucker was either a 3 or 4 star recruit depending on which service you were looking at and was borderline top-100 in his class out of high school. Tucker is 6’7” and is noted for his ability to shoot the ball from deep as well as get to the basket on the drive. After signing for Xavier, Tucker fell ill over the summer and was facing an uphill battle to be physically ready for the upcoming season because of that, so he took a redshirt and will debut for the Musketeers this fall. Also significant is the fact that Tucker’s lead recruiter was Jonas Hayes, who was able to snag Tucker from his home state of Georgia following similar successes with Daniel Ramsey and Dwon Odom, the latter of whom followed Hayes back home when Hayes became the head coach at Georgia State earlier this week.

In Miles and Tucker, Xavier has two players who will bring size and athleticism to the rotation, but are both somewhat unknown quantities with Tucker having never played college basketball and Miles having only made sporadic appearances after a solid start to the season. Still, all signs point to both players feeling good about their conversations with Sean Miller and their roles on Xavier’s roster in the coming season.