Photo courtesy of basketballrecruiting.rivals.com | Shooting guard Keonte Kennedy from Westlake High School (Austin, Texas) is Xavier’s top-ranked recruit in the 2018 class, committing to the school earlier this fall. He is currently ranked as the 23rd best player in Texas.
A year removed from one of Xavier basketball’s best recruiting class in history, the 2017-18 class seems to be falling a little bit behind.
This should not be anything that should worry fans for the program’s future, however, because of the young roster and recruiting class that arrived on campus this fall.
With two of the three big men on the roster being seniors this season, head coach Chris Mack and his crew went after three-star recruit Jake Walter from nearby Covington Catholic in Kentucky.
Walter is a fundamentally sound center who stands at 6’10” and weighs 265 pounds. Walter seems to be quite comparable to current senior captain Sean O’Mara based on videos and player reviews.
With the way Xavier develops its players, Walter has the potential to be productive down the road.
Xavier also picked up four-star recruit Keonte Kennedy. The 6’4,” 175-pound two guard from Austin, Texas is said to be very athletic with a quick first step. Kennedy is also a sound shooter from beyond the three-point line.
Kennedy is the 23rd ranked player in the state of Texas, according to 24/7 Sports.
When Kennedy arrives on campus and starts going through the program’s strength and conditioning, he will be able to put on some good muscle and surely has the potential to become another key guard for the Xavier program.
Even with the lack of recruits scheduled to arrive on campus next fall, there is no cause for concern. It’s not the first time in recent years Xavier has had a small recruiting class.
The 2015 class had one lone recruit, current junior forward Kaiser Gates. Mack has proven people wrong year after year and continues to develop the basketball program to be a contender in the Big East.
It is only November, so no one should worry too much about the current recruiting class.
The worst-case scenario is Mack recruits a top transfer player in the country, like he has done in the past with players such as Matt Stainbrook, Remy Abel, Malcom Bernard and most recently, Kerem Kanter.
The basketball program seems prepared for the future with a young core of Quentin Goodin, Tyrique Jones, Paul Scruggs, Naji Marshall and Elias Harden.
Even with only two recruits in this year’s current recruiting class, one cannot question Mack and this Xavier program because of the success it has had the past few years.
All in all, this program seems to be in good shape.
By: Tim Kramer ~Staff Writer~