28. BYU Cougars

29. Maryland Terps

30. St. John’s Red Storm

31. UCLA Bruins

32. Oregon Ducks

33. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

34. Florida Gators

35. Ole Miss

36. USC Trojans

37. Grand Canyon Lopes

38. Providence Friars

39. Mississippi State Bulldogs

40. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

41. Memphis Tigers

42. McNeese Cowboys

43. Michigan State Spartans

44. Michigan Wolverines

45. VCU Rams

46. Dayton Flyers

47. St Mary’s Gaels

48. Washington Huskies

49. UCF Knights

50. Louisville Cardinals

51. Boise State Broncos

52. Clemson Tigers

53. New Mexico Lobos

54. Arizona State Sun Devils

55. Utah State Aggies

56. Colorado State Rams

57. Seton Hall Pirates

58. SMU Mustangs

59. South Carolina Gamecocks

60. Nevada Wolfpack

61. TCU Horned Frogs

62. Villanova Wildcats

63. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

64. Saint Louis Billikens

65. Syracuse Orange

66. Nebraska Cornhuskers

67. Pittsburgh Panthers

68. Iowa Hawkeyes

69. NC State Wolfpack

70. Butler Bulldogs

71. Princeton Tigers

72. Virginia Cavaliers

73. Saint Joseph’s Hawks

74. Oklahoma Sooners

75. West Virginia Mountaineers

76. Georgia Bulldogs

77. UAB Blazers

78: Wisconsin Badgers

79. San Diego State Aztecs

80. Missouri Tigers

81. Northwestern Wildcats

82. Loyola Chicago Ramblers

Here is where our analysts have the Musketeers ranked:

Steven	Maxwell	Kam	Cody
14	30	50	23

As indicative of our rankings, I’m by far the high man on Xavier, and quite frankly, I can’t quit them. While health among some of their big men may be a concern, if everything clicks this team has national championship upside. The returners are Dayvion McKnight, Zach Freemantle, and Jerome Hunter. Both Freemantle and Hunter missed the 2023-24 season. It’s still not confirmed that Hunter is on the roster for this season. Freemantle, coming off foot surgery, hasn’t played in an NCAA tournament game since January 28, 2023. But Freemantle is a guy who won All-Big East Second Team in 2020-21 during his sophomore year, and he averaged 15 and 8 in the last season he played. Meanwhile McKnight, a former Western Kentucky player, averaged 12.4 points per game last season while shooting 37.2% from three last season. He was a bright spot in last year’s lost season where the Musketeers had a 16-18 record.

Starting alongside McKnight will be Dante Maddox and Ryan Conwell. Maddox was Toledo’s leading scorer last season, while Conwell was the second leading scorer on a really good Indiana State team that went to the NIT championship. Both players shot over 40% from three last season. The fifth starter is another injury prone big guard, John Hugley IV, who played last year at Oklahoma. In the 2021-22 season, Hugley averaged nearly 15 points per game for Pitt and then after playing in just eight games the following year, he transferred to Oklahoma, where he was just a part-time player. If Hugley OR Freemantle are able to stay healthy this year, this team is finishing top three in the Big East. It’s fun to imagine if BOTH are able to remain healthy.

As good as the starting lineup is, this team is also deep. Off the bench, there’s Marcus Foster who averaged 17 points per game at Furman last season. Coach Sean Miller will likely play a three guard rotation, if not four guard lineup at all times. Foster’s size, at 6’5″ should help with that. The first big man off the bench, and the likely fill in if either Freemantle or Hugley miss time, is Lassina Traore. Traore stands at 6’10” and averaged a double-double for Long Beach State last season. There’s also additional useful players on this bench such as returners Trey Green and Dailyn Swain, in addition to Florida State transfer, Cam Fletcher.

During last year’s down season, Xavier just couldn’t shoot the ball. They shot just 34.2% from three but only 32% of their field goal attempts were threes, which ranked 302nd in the nation per KenPom. However, nearly 60% of their made field goals were assisted, which was 19th in the nation. They also played very uptempo the past two years under Sean Miller, and with mobile big men like Freemantle and Hugley, they will likely do this again. The biggest issue with his team defensively is how many easy buckets they allowed. While nearly 60% of their field goal attempts were assisted, nearly 60% of their opponents field goals were assisted too. Given this team’s experience, it should be anticipated that they will prevent that. In total, this Xavier team has eight seniors or grad students and one junior. And all of those older players should play a role. Health permitting, don’t be surprised if this is the best team Sean Miller has ever assembled, which is saying something.