Xavier Lands Valpo Transfer All Wright

Xavier’s roster is back up to 3 as they haul in the reigning MVC Freshman of the Year

First the news:

Wright is originally from Durango, Mexico, but played his high school basketball in Joplin, MO after moving to the states at the age of 2. He was not highly recruited out of high school, but found a landing spot in Valpo where he could take advantage of the freedom of movement players currently experience. Wright began the year coming off the bench and did not crack 25 minutes or 13 points until December when his 26 point explosion against Central Michigan proved a portent of things to come. He followed that up with 22/4/3 on 8-15 shooting at Ohio State. A respectable 15 points on 5-8 shooting was his line in the only other Q1 outing he had, a January loss at Drake. As the season progressed, Wright operated off the ball more and more and was the Beacons’ primary scoring option by season’s end, leading the conference with a 31.9 shot rate. His efficiency numbers dipped as he worked out his role, but over his final 9 games, Wright averaged 22.9/2.6/2.0 with 1.6 steals for good measure on a shooting line of .438/.449/.845, numbers which included a series of performances at Arch Madness that took Valpo to the semifinal and landed Wright on the All-Tournament Team.

In terms of shot selection, Wright most closely resembles Souley Boum in terms of recent Xavier players, being committed to scoring the ball at all three levels, although he has yet to demonstrate the same ability to get himself to the line and his percentage on two point jump shots in 8 ticks lower. Wright ended up creating for himself much more than anyone on Xavier did this past season, but being on a roster with other guys who can make their own shots will likely take the pressure off him to do so and see his efficiency numbers rise. A huge question with players making the jump from a league like the MVC will be defense and, while it is hard to to put much stock in defensive metrics due to the difficulty of quantifying defensive stats, Wright profiles as a work in progress at that end who can be disruptive to opposing guards at times, but does not consistently excel.

With the news that Roddie Anderson III is sticking around for the coming season, the Xavier backcourt is taking shape with a couple of guys who have very different skill sets. Anderson has a boatload of speed and athleticism that he brings to bear to give opposing guards headaches and keep the pace high. Wright gives Xavier a outright scorer who can catch and shoot or put the ball on the floor and get to the midrange and rim to put points on the board. Richard Pitino continues to build his first Xavier roster, but since the departure of Lassina Traore, Xavier has gotten back to back doses of good news after a long stretch of roster departures and we can now look forward to the rest of the pieces coming together over the next few weeks.