Tru Washington to Xavier

Those orange jerseys are fire | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

So this Richard Pitino guy might have a bit about him. Xavier has landed Tru Washington from the portal. That means that the roster currently stands at eight players, with Kason Westphal hanging in limbo but predicted to return at the moment. Xavier’s team last season was fun to watch and tried incredibly hard at all times. What they lacked was top end talent. That same kind of effort out of this group of guys is fun to contemplate.

So what does Tru Washington bring to the Musketeeers? Well, for one, he’s played for Coach Pitino before. Prior to leaving when his coach did last season, Washington had two good seasons for Pitino in New Mexico. He averaged 6.6 points as a freshman, 11.1 as a sophomore in Pitino’s system. There is one other thing he does that jumps off the sheet, but more on that in the moment.

If you aren’t familiar with Washington, he’s a 6-4, 204 pound guard from Phoenix, Arizona. He’s used three years of eligibility to this point, I’ll let you decide what that might mean to the NCAA. Washington’s first two season were at New Mexico, as mentioned, before he played last season for the Hurricanes of Miami. In his season there in a definite step up in competition he averaged 11.9/4.0/1.8 on 44.3% from the floor and 35.2% from behind the arc. If you like saying true like you are Two Chainz, well, he’s probably your favorite player.

What Washington really does well, though, doesn’t show in anything mentioned above. He is an absolute ball hawk. His steals rate in three seasons of play have been 4.3%, 4.1%, 3.8%. Those aren’t huge numbers unless you stare at steals rate a lot. As you probably don’t, allow me to inform you that those are top 50 in the nation type of numbers. Washington was fourth in the ACC in steals rate last year, and that includes a couple games limited by a return from injury. He had a career high six against Boston College and got Louisville and Florida St. for four each. That’s a lot of thievery. For some comparison, Roddie Anderson led Xavier last year with a 3.1% rate, good for 159th in the nation. Washington is absolutely elite.

So Xavier has shored up their backcourt, added to their frontcourt, and has some freshman coming in. The roster is starting to take shape. The Musketeers still need a point guard and to just add some players, but you can see where Coach Pitino is going. This has been a good couple of days.