Christmas time is here. Somewhere between six and eight inches of snow are on the ground, enough to be an inconvenience, but not enough to cancel anything, trees are up, lights are twinkling, music is in the air,
the kids are off school, good cheer abounds. It’s the time of year for looking in on old friends, reading their cards, seeing how the kids have grown and the like. It’s a great time to be in a good mood. In that vein, let’s see how some old Xavier friends are doing.
Travis Steele
If you’ve read here long, you know we were Steele supporters. The man could definitely recruit (he put together two tournament teams and an NIT winner), he could coach an offense, and he was personable. It just didn’t quite click for him at Xavier. Sometimes the pieces are all there but the puzzle just doesn’t look right. That was Steele at X.
At the original Miami, the puzzle looks awfully good. The RedHawks aren’t going to win the national championship, but they currently have as good a chance as any MAC team (my grad alma mater aside) of going to the dance. Miami has also hammered Old Dominion this season, and they’ve added in enough other big margin of victory wins that they sit 78th in the NET. That’s higher than Xavier by a decent margin. That’s not to say Travis was a sure thing here or Xavier would be better off if they’d kept him, but it’s good to see him happy and having success.
Jonas Hayes
The guy who finished that NIT run after Steele got fired in the middle of it (what a weird season that was), was Jonas Hayes. He exploded into the national coaching scene and took a job close to home at Georgia State. That chagrined a lot of Xavier fans who were hoping the charismatic assistant would stay on with the Musketeers.
Unfortunately for Hayes, things have not gone well at all with the Panthers. His first season was a trying one as he tried to build around Xavier transfer Dwon Odom. Odom stayed for two years, then left for Tulsa. The most wins Hayes has collected in a season is 14. He has a 2-9 record this year, and one of those wins is over a non-D1 opponent. Currently the Panthers sit 331st in the KenPom. You wonder how much patience Georgia State has.
Sean Miller
I’m not the type of guy to call someone a snake and I believe in the free market. That said, I’ve been more in love with things than the way Sean Miller left Xavier. He’s at Texas now, and he took Dailyn Swain with him. I also don’t love that. Bag chasing is what it is, though.
The Longhorns are currently top of the SEC and a national championship contender. Oh wait, I’m sorry, that’s what Coach Miller was hoping for. The Longhorns are actually 49th in the KenPom, a not very nice 69th in the NET. They have a non-D1 win, a single Q1 win, and have hammered the little sisters of pity. If you like praying on downfalls, Texas has served you up some ammunition.
Dailyn Swain
We’re not here to wish ill on kids, so no hate for Dailyn. He continues to develop and is averaging 15.1/6.5/3.3 on 55% shooting. He’s not shooting the three very well still, but he’s had a couple of games where he was dominant. The kid can flat play, and it’s a shame he’s doing it somewhere else.
Ryan Conwell
19.4/4.5/2.5 and 42% three point shooting. He scored 25 against UC, 32 against NJIT, and 21 in a big win over Indiana. If you didn’t remember that he landed at Louisville, well, this is your reminder. His offensive rating of 128.8 is top 200 in the nation at the moment. It’s difficult how to parse how to feel about Conwell. In his time at Xavier he seemed to run hot and cold and came up something short of big against Illinois in the tournament. On the other hand, he scored 38 against Marquette in the Big East Tournament.
John Hugley
Yep, he’s still playing. This is his sixth season of college basketball and he’s plying his trade at Duquesne. The Dukes are led by Akron area legend Dru Joyce and are 6-5 this season. They’ve lost all their big games, but not really been embarrassed yet. Big John is getting 15.4/5.6/2.2 in 26.4 minutes per game and recently scored his thousandth point. Surely, this will be his last season of college ball.
Trey Green
This one bothers me. I really liked Trey Green at Xavier, though Sean Miller did not. I’d loved to have seen him stick around, but his fate was sealed early last season. That’s too bad, because he’s currently the 26th most efficient offensive player in the nation. His line of 12/3.3/1.9 isn’t spectacular, but he’s doing it without overshooting the ball or turning it over. He’s 30th in the nation in true shooting percentage, which is crazy for a guard. Saint Louis is 29th in the NET, 41st in KenPom, and beat the wagon that is Santa Clara. Trey had 21/3/1 in that game. He’s not missed a free throw all season. This one got away.
Cam Fletcher
Like Tommy Boy, Cam Fletcher has discovered he likes college and isn’t inclined to leave. Do you remember what you were doing the 25th of November of 2020? (Probably not much, Covid was terrible in Ohio then.) Cam Fletcher was making his college debut for Kentucky. He wasn’t on the court exactly five years later, but that’s only because High Point didn’t have a game. He’s averaging 16.5/8.6/0.9 this season for a decent Panthers team and is 21st in the nation in defensive rebounding rate. Cam’Ron has gone for over 20 three times this season and bang on 20 one more time. Good on him for finally being healthy.
Desmond Claude
If Trey is the one who got away, Des Claude is the one who never quite was. His sophomore season he seemed primed to explode into a full blown star at Xavier. Then, he transferred to USC. Last season at USC his line was superficially good, but he never quite got really rolling and he wasn’t efficient. Des has always had all the talent in the world, he’s just never been able to put it all together.
For Des, this year has been more of the same. 12.5/3.3/2.3 per game for the Washington Huskies isn’t a bad line, but it comes with an efficiency hanging just above 100 and a field goal percentage of just 36.1%. His last two games have been good after he missed four early on and then struggled to find his rhythm. Maybe things are turning around.
The rest
Gytis Nemeiksa (Hawaii), Sasa Ciani (Penn St), Kachi Nzeh (Little Rock), and Lazar Djokovic (VCU) are all also still playing D1 basketball. Kam Craft left Miami after having a good year (and games of both 34 and 40) and is now playing for Georgia Tech. That is the Xavier diaspora as Christmas approaches. If you see one playing a game this holiday season, give them a cheer.
Unless they’re in burnt orange and white.
