Big East Basketball: Breakout players from each team for 2020-21 season

MILWAUKEE, WI - JANUARY 07: The Big East logo logo on the court before a college basketball game between the Marquette Golden Eagles and the Providence Friars at the Fiserv Forum on January 7, 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

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NEWARK, NJ – FEBRUARY 01: Zach Freemantle #32 of the Xavier Musketeers (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

Big East Basketball breakout candidate – Zach Freemantle (Xavier)

Xavier won 19 games last season but went just 8-10 in the conference, but head coach Travis Steele returns five of his top seven scorers, but it is the team’s top two scorers, Naji Marshall who left to pursue a pro career and Tyrique Jones who graduated. According to 247sports the Musketeers bring in a top-25 recruiting class with two four-star guards Dwon Odom and C.J. Wilcher, but the breakout player for Xavier will come from the frontcourt, sophomore forward Zach Freemantle.

Freemantle started 14 games as a freshman and scored 7.5 points and 4.3 and his minutes began to increase in January and scored a career-high 18 points against Creighton on January 26 and he gave Musketeers’ fans something to look forward to when he matched that output in the team’s Big East Tournament loss to DePaul with 18 points and four rebounds while attempting a season-high 17 shots.

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With Marshall off to the professional ranks, senior Jason Carter is the only other forward on the roster that saw significant playing time last season, Freemantle will have more than an ample opportunity to try and fill the frontcourt void left by Marshall and Jones and coming off a solid freshman year, he looks capable of helping to fill those shoes.

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