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Typically the web can take you down some odd rabbit holes. In researching why this Xavier workforce has struggled a lot in getting rolling from deep, I stumbled throughout one other workforce that additionally struggled from behind the arc. This workforce additionally by no means received going from deep, relied closely on one sharpshooting guard, and was loaded with the expertise that will finally go on a deep run. That workforce was Skip Prosser’s final, the 2000-01 Xavier Musketeers.
The 2000-01 Musketeers had been enjoying a barely totally different recreation from at the moment’s Xavier squad. For starters, that workforce was capturing from a 3 level that had but to maneuver again twice and was nonetheless the identical one excessive schooler would shoot from now. That workforce shot 30.three%, 1% higher than this 12 months’s squad, towards an Atlantic 10 schedule as properly. The groups within the A10 that 12 months managed to be ranked nationally a grand whole of seven occasions. None had been ranked on the finish of the 12 months, solely Xavier and convention champ St. Joe’s had been ranked in a number of weeks.
The roots of Xavier’s first Elite Eight workforce had been there in Skip’s boys. Lionel Chalmers and Romain Sato had been the beginning guards. In Chalmers and David West, the workforce had two gamers who would go on to play within the NBA. Sato was additionally drafted by the Spurs however by no means appeared. Kevin Frey, Mo Mcafee, Alvin Brown, and Lloyd Worth stuffed out a roster laced with names acquainted to Xavier followers. Worth and Sato had been each prime 100 recruits and a fourth participant would go on to be drafted within the NBA however not seem. (And big Xavier fan credit score if you recognize who that was).
These names might have been acquainted, however they didn’t shoot themselves into immortality that 12 months. Sato led the workforce with a superbly cheap 37.four% mark from behind the arc as a freshman. Romain took precisely six threes per recreation and much and away led the workforce for quantity. That fourth participant who was drafted into the NBA from the 2001 squad? That will be David Younger and he was second on the workforce in three level capturing at 32.three%. Lionel Chalmers was the one different participant to make greater than 30% of his three level makes an attempt, and he solely shot 30.2%.
After that, it was grim. Mcafee hoisted practically 5 threes a recreation regardless of making simply 26.5%, Kevin Frey took a minimum of two pops a recreation and made 25.eight%, and Lloyd Worth, who by no means did actually discover his capturing stroke, made simply 25%. After these six, nobody made a 3. Alvin Brown tried three that didn’t go, West missed one, and James Baronas missed his solely try. However for the sharpshooting of Sato, the roster that Skip Prosser put collectively was really far worse than this 12 months’s workforce. With out Romain, the Musketeers shot 27.three% behind the arc that season. That’s, in a single phrase, terrible.
What does this inform us about this 12 months’s workforce? Not a lot of something, actually. It’s a reminder that issues are by no means fairly as unhealthy as they appear and have possible been this unhealthy earlier than. It’s additionally a reminder that David Younger existed. Greater than any of that, it’s a enjoyable look again into Xavier’s historical past. Now again to your protection of the season in progress.
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