First-year head coach Richard Pitino must be feeling better about his Xavier team following a strong showing at the Charleston Classic down in South Carolina.
Even though the Musketeers (4-3) didn’t win the championship, they followed a one-point loss to Georgia last Friday with a 78-68 win over West Virginia where they made 16 of 25 3-point attempts.
The Musketeers are now home in Cincinnati for their next five games, starting Friday night against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
For a team with 13 new players on this year’s roster, Xavier is starting to find some rhythm and camaraderie.
“I feel like we’re starting to get a feel for playing with each other and when you make shots, the game’s easy,” center Jovan Milicevic said.
Milicevic is the Musketeers’ second-leading scorer at 13.7 points per game (behind Tre Carroll’s 15.9 ppg), and he leads the team with 19 3-pointers.
Through seven games, the Musketeers have 117 assists and are shooting 39% as a team from 3-point range.
Three players — Roddie Anderson III, Filip Borovicanin and Malik Messina-Moore — have 20 or more assists, while Carroll, Milicevic and All Wright are shooting better than 42% from 3-point range.
“They’re playing the right way,” Pitino said. “They’re sharing the basketball, they’re shooting the ball well, taking great shots and doing a lot of great things.”
Coming off a 122-75 win over Division III Howard Payne that snapped a four-game losing streak, the Islanders (2-4) are looking to build on their school-record scoring performance ahead of the start of Southland Conference play.
Nick Shogbonyo leads the Islanders in scoring at 14.5 points per game. Sheldon Williams leads Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with 7.7 rebounds and D’Avian Houston has a team-high 26 assists.
The Islanders average 75.8 points per game but also allow 74.5 points per game. They average 37.3 rebounds and are shooting 42.9% from the floor.
This is Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s fifth road game in its last six games.
