By: Josh Bozzick ~Guest Writer~

Mignight Madness tip-off events are a tradition to kicking off the season for college basketball teams. Getting lost in all the chaos of 3-point shootouts, dunk contests and intrasquad scrimmages is the amount of recruits these events draw. Madness events also serve the purpose of hosting many recruits on campus at the same time. It’s typical for schools to host anywhere from 10 to 30 recruits at these events. For

Xavier that is no different. On Friday night, Xavier hosted a number of prospects who come from the 2016, 2017 and 2018 high school graduating classes.

Two of the three commitments in the 2016 class made an appearance. Kentucky pre-season Mr. Basketball Quentin Goodin and Vermont Academy’s Tyrique Jones were at the event. Four-star recruit Goodin is a 6-foot-4 point guard and is ranked as the no. 92 prospect according to ESPN. Connecticut native Jones is also a four-star recruit. The power forward is 6-foot-8 and ESPN has him as the No. 88 prospect in the 2016 recruiting class.

The third member of Xavier’s highly ranked and anticipated 2016 class was not able to attend. That member is 6-foot-8 power forward Eddie Ekiyor, who is from Canada. Rivals.com tabs him as a four-star prospect while Scout.com sees him as a three-star. Ekiyor will be enrolling at Xavier next semester as a redshirt freshman. The move will give him an extra semester to prepare for his first season next year at the collegiate level.

Scout.com currently has Xavier’s 2016 class No. 23 in the country. Of course it is still early in the recruiting season, and all commits are verbal. November is when national letters of intent will be signed and the commitments solidified.

It looks like the 2016 class will be only Goodin, Jones and Ekiyor. However, highly touted ESPN four-star point guard and No. 30 ranked Bruce Brown was part of the Madness on Friday. Brown and Jones are teammates at Vermont Academy. There is a small chance Brown teams up with Jones for Xavier. Originally from Massachusetts, Brown is speculated to be leaning toward the Indiana Hoosiers.

The biggest recruit Xavier hosted was 2017 big man Ikey Obiagu. Obiagu is a five-star prospect and 7-foot tall center. A Nigerian native, Obiagu lives in Georgia and attends Greenforest Christian Academy. ESPN has him as ranked as the No. 10 ranked prospect in its 2017 top 60. That puts him as the No. 2 center in the entire class.

Other 2017 recruits included 6-foot-9 point guard Abayomi Iyiola, 6-foot-7 point guard Victor Enoh, 6-foot-7 shooting guard Jamal Cain and 6-foot-5 small forward Jalen Adaway. Like Obiagu, Iyida is from Nigeria. Both he and Enoh are high school teammates with Obiagu.

The 2018 recruits were 6-foot- 10 and 300 pound center E.J. Williams, 6-foot-7 point guard Darius Bazley and 6-foot-5 small forward Jerome Hunter. All three are from Ohio.