With 13 new players on Xavier’s roster, this season was destined to be filled with growing pains for the Musketeers.
First-year head coach Richard Pitino hopes a tough nonconference schedule will have the Musketeers ready for Big East play — and they’re guaranteed two games against high-major foes in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic.
Xavier (3-2) takes on Georgia (5-0) on Friday night in Charleston, S.C. It’s the Musketeers’ first game in this year’s event, which features a new format this season.
Eight teams compete in the event, but are split into two four-team brackets. Xavier and Georgia are in the Palmetto Bracket with West Virginia and Clemson.
The Musketeers are coming off a 99-69 win Tuesday night against Old Dominion, snapping a two-game losing streak built against Santa Clara and Iowa. Pitino made big changes to the starting lineup following back-to-back 19-point losses.
“I’m feeling them out as much as they’re feeling me out,” Pitino said. “I’m working on a million different combinations (and) establishing a culture of how we want to play. I’m certainly searching for the right lineups.”
Seniors Tre Carroll (15.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and Roddie Anderson III (14.8 ppg) have been linchpins in almost every lineup combination for Xavier.
Georgia averages 99.4 points per game, ranks No. 2 in the country in scoring margin (plus-36.8 points per game) and first in fast-break points (32.8 per game).
Led by Jeremiah Wilkinson (15.6 ppg) and Blue Cain (15.0 ppg), the Bulldogs have six players averaging more than seven points per game. They’ve been utilizing an 11-man rotation through five games.
“I hope that we can be this deep here in January and February,” Bulldogs head coach Mike White said. “We’ve got talented freshmen. We’ve got a couple older guys coming off the bench. We’ve got depth in our backcourt. I think with these 11, if we can get eight or nine to play really well, we can probably beat some pretty good teams.”
