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Xavier Musketeers to retire Romain Sato's No. 10 jersey

shelby dermer, cincinnati enquirer
·2 min read

Xavier great Romain Sato is the fifth and final name of an elite short list of men's and women's basketball players chosen to have their jersey numbers retired at a future day, the school announced Monday.

Sato's No. 10 jersey will permanently hang in Cintas Center. Tu Holloway, Trevon Bluiett and women's basketball stars Amber Harris and Ta'Shia Phillips were selected earlier this year.

The announcement of these jersey number retirements culminates a multi-year process to develop a standardized approach to jersey retirements and conversations within Xavier Athletics. Individual jersey unveilings and recognitions will take place in the coming basketball seasons.

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Romain Sato helped lead Xavier to the NCAA Tournament four times, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2004.
Romain Sato helped lead Xavier to the NCAA Tournament four times, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2004.

Sato, who was selected to the FIBA Hall of Fame's 2024 class in April, was a Dayton Christian product who helped lead Xavier to four consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. Sato was a four-year starter under Skip Prosser and Thad Matta and was a double-digit scorer each season at Xavier.

For his career, Sato averaged 15.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. During Sato's time, Xavier won two Atlantic-10 regular season and conference tournament titles. He was a three-time all-conference and all-defense selection and averaged a career-high 18.1 points per game as a junior in 2003. One year later, he was the leading rebounder and put up 16.3 points a night to help lead Xavier to its first-ever Elite Eight appearance.

Sato was a 2003-04 Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American and an All-District 10 first-team selection. Sato sits fourth all-time on Xavier's scoring list (2,005 points) and eighth all-time in rebounds (892). Sato still holds the school record for most consecutive starts (130) and most consecutive free throws made (310. Sato's 307 career 3-pointers is second only to Bluiett in program history.

Sato was a second-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs in 2004 and enjoyed a long professional career overseas as a four-time champion in the Lega Basketball Serie A (LBA) in Italy.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier Musketeers to retire Romain Sato's jersey