When sitting at the podium last October at Madison Square Garden for Big East Media Day, Xavier head coach Sean Miller said his new-look roster was like, “putting a puzzle together.”

A myriad of factors led to that puzzle ultimately being incomplete five months later when Xavier wrapped up its first losing season in nearly three decades.

Just six weeks after Xavier’s 16-18 season ended with a first-round NIT loss, the Musketeers’ outlook for the 2024-25 campaign has done a complete 360. Miller will once again work with a slew of new players, but there’s an abundance of optimism from multiple national pundits based on Xavier’s work via the NCAA’s transfer portal.

In Fox Sports’ John Fanta’s latest Way-Too-Early Top 25, Xavier clocks in at No. 19. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein has the Muskies at No. 20 in his Top 45. Over on ESPN, Jeff Borzello has Xavier at No. 24. 

Is it enough? Did Xavier plug the holes that led to its first missed NCAA Tournament under Miller since 2005? Here are the problems from last season and Xavier’s plan to fix them.

More: Where Xavier Musketeers' roster stands as NCAA transfer portal closes Wednesday

Inexperience

By the time Xavier arrived in The Bahamas last August for the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League, Miller knew it would be an uphill climb in the Big East. Jerome Hunter had suffered a cardiac episode that sidelined the forward indefinitely. Zach Freemantle was still recovering from foot surgery and would later need a second operation. Both went down after Xavier’s recruiting window had closed and the perfect storm of struggle began.

Xavier had 10 new players and sophomore Desmond Claude was the only healthy returner.

Xavier’s top-20 Class of 2023 recruiting class had to grow up fast. Xavier freshmen played 2,004 minutes last season, the most in the Big East. Coupled with the growing pains, Xavier lost two freshmen, Reid Ducharme (concussion) and Dailyn Swain (appendectomy), during the year. Sasa Ciani, one of three international additions who didn't pan out, was limited down the stretch with a heel injury.

Four weeks into this season’s summer workouts, Xavier doesn’t have a true freshman on the roster. Instead, the Muskies ushered in a seven-player transfer portal class that ranks No. 36 in the country by 247Sports.

At their previous spots, those seven players have combined to play 564 college basketball games, nearly 400 starts and score nearly 5,800 career points.

An inconsistent frontcourt 

If you could sum up Xavier’s season in a 20-minute segment, it’d be easy to highlight the second half of the Big East Tournament Quarterfinals. No. 1 UConn, which would go on to repeat as national champions, shot 19-of-21 from inside the arc. The Huskies racked up 54 points in the paint to run away with an 87-60 win. 

The Freemantle/Hunter injuries left Xavier with inexperience, especially near the rim in a grueling, physical conference that veteran forwards and center feasted against. Xavier gave up 10.7 offensive rebounds per game, which tied for the most in the league.

Ultimately, Xavier’s inability to limit second-chance opportunities led to 11 losses by seven points or less and kept the Musketeers from bolstering an NCAA Tournament resume with a quality win.

The fix is evident. Fremantle and Hunter (who also suffered a torn Achilles in February) are expected to be back this season. Oklahoma transfer forward John Hugley IV averaged 7.9 rebounds per game in his only full season to date (2022 at Pittsburgh) and Long Beach State transfer Lassina Traore averaged a double-double (12.4 points, 10.4 rebounds) over the last two seasons.

Cam'Ron Fletcher is a solid depth piece for Xavier as he recovers from back-to-back injury plagued seasons at Florida State.

Replacing production 

Miller said Quincy Olivari was a “godsend” to Xavier despite the losing season. Olivari was Xavier’s leading scorer (19.1) and shot over 40% from beyond the arc.

At times, Olivari was a one-man wrecking crew for Xavier, especially from deep as Claude and Trey Green were inconsistent from downtown.

Xavier got to work in replacing Olivari and Claude, who left for USC. Marcus Foster (Furman) and Dante Maddox Jr. (Toledo) are 1,000-point collegiate scorers. Maddox is a career 40.1% three-point shooter and was top-5 in the MAC last season in triples.

Indiana State transfer Ryan Conwell has already excited Xavier fans with one video of pouring in treys at Cintas Center. Conwell shot over 48% from the field and over 40% from deep with the Sycamores last season.

Of course, running the show is Dayvion McKnight, who enters next season as one of the best points guards in the Big East. One year after finishing top-20 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, McKnight should have a field day running Miller’s up-tempo style and feeding to multiple scoring options both down low and on the perimeter.

Xavier’s strength of schedule should regress

Xavier had the No. 9 hardest schedule last season, according to KenPom. That schedule would’ve been difficult at full strength. With Xavier’s injuries, it was despair.

Xavier went 1-10 against NCAA Tournament teams and 0-5 against teams that later earned a No. 1 seed. That shouldn’t be the case in 2025. The Gavitt Tipoff Games, which landed Xavier at Mackey Arena against national runner-up Purdue, are no more.

Xavier visits TCU in this year’s Big 12-Big East Battle. Jamie Dixon’s Horned Frogs have been a consistent winner with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, but not to the pedigree of Houston, which beat Xavier last season.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Big East basketball: Is Xavier a top-25 team in 2025?