By Cord Rankin
CINCINNATI — The Xavier men’s basketball team will open the season with a charity exhibition game vs. the Dayton Flyers at the University of Dayton Arena on Sunday, October 20 at 5 p.m. It will be Xavier’s only public exhibition before opening the regular season on Monday, Nov. 4 vs. Texas Southern at Cintas Center.
CareSource and UD host the game, which is one of the community engagement events championing adolescent and young adult mental health and suicide prevention. All net proceeds from ticket sales for the NCAA waiver-approved charity game benefited the Jay’s Light, the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation and other charities within the Dayton and Cincinnati footprint.
Xavier returns two starters from its 2023 NCAA Sweet 16 team, Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter, who had to sit out last season for medical reasons. XU returns three scholarship letterwinners from last season led by Dayvion McKnight, who was second in the league and 19th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio last season. Dailyn Swain and Trey Green both made last season’s BIG EAST All-Freshman Team.
Head coach Sean Miller has six transfer newcomers on the active roster: Roddie Anderson III,Ryan Conwell, Cam Fletcher, Marcus Foster, John Hugley IV and Dante Maddox Jr. There is one other transfer on the roster. Lassina Traore suffered a season-ending knee injury in an October practice session.
TV, STREAM, RADIO AND LIVE STATS
TV/Stream: Bally Sports Ohio and ESPN+ with Alex Mikos and Matt McCall.
Xavier Radio: 55KRC and the Varsity Network with play-by-play from Xavier Hall of Famer Joe Sunderman (’79) and analysis from XU all-time leading scorer and Hall of Famer Byron Larkin (’88).
Live Stats: Statbroadcast.com and GoXavier.com.
COURTESY XAVIER ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
