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Xavier Basketball: Musketeers 2022-23 season preview

By Josh Mullenix

Xavier head coach Sean Miller speaks during his introduction to Xavier fans, Friday, March 25, 2022, at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.Sean Miller 011
Xavier head coach Sean Miller speaks during his introduction to Xavier fans, Friday, March 25, 2022, at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati.Sean Miller 011 /
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Sean Miller of the Arizona Wildcats (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Sean Miller of the Arizona Wildcats (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

The Musketeers have a roster capable of going back to the tournament, but that was also the case a season ago. Can Sean Miller take X back to the Big Dance?

Here are the nuts and bolts of the Musketeers this season. They return four of their top six scorers from a team that went 23-13 and needed an impressive collapse to not make the NCAA Tournament. That team also went on to win the NIT and the guy who was the MVP of that tournament is back and primed to be a breakout player in the conference and the sport.

They add two top 100 guards to the equation along with Souley Boum from UTEP to hopefully piece together a point guard position that was left up in the air after the departure of Paul Scruggs and Nate Johnson.

Simply put, the Musketeers return most of a team that was good enough to go to the tournament and replenished, at least partially, in areas of concern. It’s also fair to ask: what if the Musketeers underachieve again? Over the course of four seasons, the program went from an annual participant in the Big Dance to a team that didn’t live up to expectations. Does the trend continue or does the change at head coach change the outcome?

It’s safe to say, based on track record, that Sean Miller is a better head coach than Travis Steele and betting on Miller isn’t the worst idea in the world. But is it safe to assume that Miller is going to be on the sidelines from the beginning of the season to the end? Or will the sins of his Arizona past catch up to him in year one at Xavier and result in some kind of suspension?

Next. 10 biggest Big East storylines for 2022-23 season. dark

These are the questions looming over a Musketeers team that is currently stuck in mediocrity in the middle of the Big East. This Xavier roster is good enough to be a factor in the conference this season. Between Nunge and Freemantle in the frontcourt and Colby Jones taking the keys to the offense, lots of Big East teams would like to have the talent in Cincinnati.

But that’s been the case before, maybe Sean Miller can change the reality at the end of the season.