By Ryan Ottiger, Staff Writer 

        After a disappointing 2025-26 campaign for Xavier basketball, success landing talent in the transfer portal leaves a lot to be excited about for fans in the upcoming season.  

The Musketeers added University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) star Chance Westry, with a bevy of other high-end contributors like Mike Nwoko, Tru Washington and Rubén Dominguez. 

Westry was one of the top point guards in the transfer portal, having averaged 15.5 points per game, 3.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists for a 20-12 UAB team. Nwoko is also coming in after averaging 13.4 points and 5.9 rebounds for Louisiana State University.  

As for Washington from the University of Miami, he proved to be a high-end defender who showed promise as a 3-point shooter, likely to mesh well with Westry. Dominguez lives and breathes 3-point shooting, as he showed for Texas A&M University, which should be a seamless fit in the offense. 

Xavier also retained one of the top players on last year’s team, Jovan Milicevic, who averaged 12.4 points per game with incredible 3-point efficiency. The team also kept Gabriel Pozzato, who was sidelined all of last year with an injury and is looking to make his return as a microwave scorer at small forward. 

The Musketeers also added layers of depth behind their key pickups with players like Rolyns Aligbe from Southern Illinois University, Nikos Chitikoudis from Robert Morris University and Braden Appelhans from Drake University.  

A strong freshmen class will also likely contribute, with two highly rated prospects in Kalek House and Asher Elson, as well as Cameroon native Gedeon Basson, who produced big numbers in the U19 World Cup. Aligbe’s brother, Harrison, is another freshman looking to make an impact at the forward position. 

The team’s starting five will look something like Westry, Washington, Dominguez, Milicevic and Nwoko, allowing for what will likely be one of the nation’s top offenses, with the facilitation of Westry coupled with Dominguez, Milicevic and Washington’s 3-point shooting. 

Beyond this analysis, the consensus according to 247Sports is that Xavier’s incoming transfer portal class ranks 17th nationally, with other college basketball analysts like John Fanta and EvanMiya projecting them around the top 25 range — a huge leg up from finishing 94th last year via KenPom.  

On the flip side, the Big East Conference as a whole largely got better, and Xavier will have many tests throughout conference play to determine if it can reach toward the top of the conference.  

With that being said, the NCAA Tournament also expanded to 76 teams, featuring more play-in games to qualify what will still be 64 teams in the first round. This means that if Xavier does not live up to expectations, the team will likely still be able to at least play for a spot in next year’s NCAA Tournament, barring major injuries or shocking circumstances. 

The team will be more exciting and more than likely a better team than last year. Previously, Xavier had to scramble for players, having just signed Richard Pitino as the transfer portal had already begun. Now, Pitino is established after his first season and had no trouble landing many high-level prospects without the chaos that ensued last season.