With a roster full of seniors, Xavier basketball is in need of some replacements for the future. Keonte Kennedy is a solid building block for that future.
Coming off of an Elite Eight appearance, the Xavier Musketeers bring back most of their key players and will look to make another deep run this time around.
The focus of the program not only has to be about this year but for the future as well. With so many seniors departing, there will be a change coming soon. Particularly on the guard line, J.P. Macura and Trevon Bluiett will be leaving after this year and replacing them will be no easy task. That’s why the acquisition of a guard this week is very important.
That’s why the acquisition of guard Keonte Kennedy is so huge for head coach Chris Mack.
Kennedy, a four-star guard rated by ESPN committed to Xavier this week, giving Coach Mack his second pledge for 2018.
https://twitter.com/KeonteKennedy/status/915350888381915137
Kennedy chose the Musketeers over schools such as Michigan, Texas Tech, and VCU among others. At 6’3″ and 165 pounds, he’s going to have to gain some mass to deal with some of the bigger, physical guards of the Big East.
What he does immediately bring to the team, however, is a great stroke and an ability to shoot at a high clip from distance. He’ll be the likely replacement for Macura after he graduates.
Xavier’s recruiting class of 2017 was ranked 11th in the country by 247Sports and this year could follow in the same way.
Next: Big East rankings for 2017-18
He joins fellow 2018 player and big man Jake Walter is what’s going to be a big class for the Musketeers. This won’t be the last update on Xavier recruiting, as Coach Mack has several more spots left to fill. There are plenty of targets on the radar for the Musketeers and it will certainly be interesting to see which ones eventually sign on. For now, though, this is a good start.