Chris Mack swears he wasn’t concerned that his All-Everything guard Trevon Bluiett was headed to the NBA after last season. All Bliuett did in Xavier’s run to the Elite Eight was average 25 points in three Musketeers’ tournament victories with that coming after a regular season in which he finished second in the BIG EAST in scoring with an 18.5 per-game clip.
So no, Mack wasn’t worried at all. And he even said so with a straight face.
“Not nervous. I just wanted him to make an informed decision,” Mack said. “Everybody has a different path to their next life so whatever he thought was best, that’s what you want for your guys. But I’m glad he felt comfortable making the decision that he did.”
So is the rest of Musketeers Nation.
It was an unusual up-and-down year for the Musketeers last season. They finished 9-9 in the BIG EAST, suffered through the loss of stud guard Edmond Sumner and then lost six straight just before the start of the BIG EAST Tournament. But that’s when they seemed to catch fire again, making a run to the tournament semifinals before their spirited dash to the West Regional Final and wins over Maryland, Florida State and Arizona.
And Bluiett was right in the middle of it all. So is there even more room for growth for Bluiett in his senior season?
“I think so,” Mack said. “He’s such a prolific scorer at times so I think the challenge for him is to be an all-around player every single night, be that rock for your team every single night. And I think he has really grown in his leadership qualities over the last 12 months. It’s a lot more mature Trevon that I have now than I had when he was a sophomore, but he’s still every bit as good a player. But now I think he values some of the things that earlier in his career he didn’t because it makes us a better team and him an overall better player.”
The Musketeers were picked third in the BIG EAST preseason poll because not only does Bluiett return, but so do lots of his playmates, all with the hope of leading Xavier on another deep March ride.
In the backcourt there’s senior J.P Macura, who was second on the team in scoring last year (14.4 ppg.) and who, like Bluiett, is a career 1,000-point scorer. Sophomore point guard Quentin Goodin, who started the final 17 games of the season after Sumner was lost, averaged 3.4 assists per outing.
But as talented as that group is, Mack seems even more excited about his frontcourt this season, led by returnees Tyrique Jones, Sean O’Mara and Kaiser Gates along with 6-10, 250-pound graduate transfer Kerem Kanter, the younger brother of the New York Knicks’ Enes Kanter.
“I love our frontcourt because they’re all a little bit different,” Mack said. “We don’t have guys who are necessarily of the same mold. You look at Tyrique and he’s like a finisher, a rebounder who’s never going to back down from a challenge. Sean O’Mara, I think he can score in the low block as well as anyone in our league. Kaiser Gates is a guy who can stretch the floor and who is finally 100 percent healthy and we haven’t even talked about Kerem Kanter, who I think fans in our league and fans of our program are really going to enjoy watching play.”
But Kanter is not the only new blood that excites Mack. His latest recruiting class was ranked in the top 10 by many different organizations and will deliver Paul Scruggs and Naji Marshall this season.
“I think that each one of them can help us as freshmen,” Mack said. “They’re physically gifted. I mean, Paul Scruggs and Naji Marshall are built to play college basketball. They’re going to have phenomenal careers and they have some great players to learn from.”
What Mack has this season is a nice mix of veterans and young players ready to contribute. And, of course, he also has Bluiett. It’s a team that, on paper at least, looks built for a long run next spring and a chance for Mack to get his alma mater to the Final Four.
And it all starts Friday night when the Cintas Center should be jumping for the season opener against Morehead State.
“I’m really excited. I think we have everything a coach wants,” Mack said. “We have a really good mix of experience and we also have some talented newcomers. I think our team learned a lot a year ago, that there is a fine line between winning and losing. I was also that coach of a program that lost six games in a row in February (the longest losing streak for Xavier in 36 years). Whether it was injuries or guys were trying to establish different roles or whatever the case is, the bottom line is we still lost six games in a row. I think you grow as a person and a player when you go through those kinds of experiences and it doesn’t break you apart. Fortunately we had enough character for that not to be the case. I was really proud of those guys.
“But having said that it doesn’t earn us any chips for the coming year,” Mack added. “It’s a new season and a new team and a new group of teammates so we have to earn it this year.”