Xavier Musketeers - B+
Xavier came into last season with some decent preseason hype as they were picked to finish 3rd in the Big East. They would start the season pretty rough, having to deal with injuries and falling out of the projected bracket. But with a steady finish to conference play Xavier was able to sneak into the NCAA tournament as 1 of the last 4 in. They would go on to beat Texas in the First 4 game and would face Illinois in the first round. They would go on to lose that game 86-73 which would put an end to their season.
This offseason things got shaken up quickly for the Xavier program as their head coach Sean Miller would announce he is leaving the program to take the head coach position at Texas. Xavier made a great move after that, though, as they would go on to hire former New Mexico head coach and son of Rick Pitino, Richard Pitino, a fantastic pick-up as it was well overdue for Richard Pitino to move up to the Power 5 level.
Pitino has had an interesting offseason so far, as he has had 0 high school commits but has received 10 transfer commits. With only losing 7 to the portal its a pretty solid turnaround. The 10 commits Pitino has made so far include Tre Carroll from FAU, Pape N'Diaye from UNLV, Jovan Milicevic from New Mexico, Filip Borovicanin from New Mexico, Isaiah Walker from Belmont, Anthony Robinson from Virginia, Malik Moore from Montana, Mier Panoam from North Dakota, Gabriel Pozzato from Evansville, and All Wright from Valparaiso. With that large of a haul, it'll be very fascinating to see the kind of lineups Pitino will run in his first season with the Musketeers.
Xavier's offseason is a very interesting one to rate as its not the typical offseason you're use to seeing, but with the great head coach hire and getting a lot of solid transfer commits it ends up being a pretty good offseason, especially in a very winnable Big East. It'll be fascinating to watch how Richard Pitino's first season with Xavier will go.