Xavier adds Virginia big man Anthony Robinson from the transfer portal

The ingredients are still a little raw, but Richard Pitino appears to have a stew going.

First, the news:

A 6’10” center listed anywhere between 230 and 250, Anthony Robinson joins the nascent Xavier Musketeers roster from Virginia, where he was a freshman last year. He averaged 3.6/2.4/0.1 in under 10 minutes per game as a Cavalier. He joins Roddie Anderson, All Wright, and Filip Borovicanin on Richard Pitino’s made from scratch roster, leaving Xavier just shy of enough dudes to field a starting lineup.

Robinson was almost exclusively a paint threat last season. In fact, given that he was just 2-4 from the mid-range and beyond, you could generally call him just a rim guy. He boarded well at both ends and was a very good rim protector, including memorably meeting Cooper Flagg at the tin and sending him packing.

Of course, he wasn’t without his warts. The offensive production was blighted by a TO rate over 20%. His capacity as a rim protector came with 6 fouls per 40 minutes played. He drew a ton of fouls but only shot 62% from the line.

Still, replacing no one with someone is almost always an improvement, and it certainly was in this case. Robinson was a big name in the portal because of his raw tools and potential to develop into a dominant player. At least for the time being, that development is going to happen at Xavier.