Xavier WBB 2023-24

The non-conference schedule was announced today.

Nov. 8 at Youngstown State - TBD
NOV. 11 vs JAMES MADISON - 7 PM
Nov. 14 at Old Dominion - 6:30 PM
Nov. 18 vs BOWLING GREEN - TBD
Nov. 21 vs KENT STATE - TBD
Nov. 27 at Miami (Ohio) - TBD
Dec. 1 vs Temple ^ - TBD
Dec. 2 at Arizona State ^ - TBD
Dec. 7 vs OAKLAND - TBD
Dec. 10 at Cincinnati # - TBD
Dec. 15 vs SIUE - TBD

Home games in BOLD CAPS
Home games played at Cintas Center (Cincinnati, Ohio)
^ Arizona State Tournament – Tempe, Ariz.
# Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout – Fifth Third Arena

This is definitely a slightly upgraded schedule from last season. Perhaps more notable is that it appears last year's Big East All-Freshman team member, Fernanda Ovalle, is no longer with the program. The official release notes:

Xavier returns three of its top five scorers from a year ago in Mackayla Scarlett (10.9), Taylor Smith (7.5) and Nila Blackford (6.3). Blackford also led the team in rebounding (5.5).

We already new that Courtney Prenger transferred out (to FIU), and the other member of the top five scorers from last year was Ovalle. Ovalle was the first Xavier player to earn all-freshman honors since 2018.

The 2023-24 roster isn't live on the site yet. Per wbbblog.com, Xavier has added two transfers for this season. Tay'Lor Purvis (5-7 junior PG) averaged 1.7 PPG for Houston last year, and Loren Christie (6-3 grad student center) averaged 4.8 points and 3.4 rebounds for San Francisco. It will be interesting to see the full roster later this summer/fall.

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Originally Posted by HomerCecil

This is definitely a slightly upgraded schedule from last season. Perhaps more notable is that it appears last year's Big East All-Freshman team member, Fernanda Ovalle, is no longer with the program.

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I did a quick search on Twitter to see if I could find something, and it appears Fernanda has joined Special at Jacksonville. Makes a lot of sense as she played for Special at Montverde and has no connection to the current coaching staff. Either way, Coach Chambers has a lot of work to do. It still amazes me how big a flop Mel Moore was as head coach, but our AD is a big part of the problem as he has been in charge of now two disastrous tenures.

The schedule is definitely upgraded from last year. Wonder if Chambers had any say in that?

I'm not kidding myself though. It'll be another long season.

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Originally Posted by cinskyline

I did a quick search on Twitter to see if I could find something, and it appears Fernanda has joined Special at Jacksonville. Makes a lot of sense as she played for Special at Montverde and has no connection to the current coaching staff. Either way, Coach Chambers has a lot of work to do. It still amazes me how big a flop Mel Moore was as head coach, but our AD is a big part of the problem as he has been in charge of now two disastrous tenures.

The schedule is definitely upgraded from last year. Wonder if Chambers had any say in that?

I'm not kidding myself though. It'll be another long season.

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Take a look at all the other coaches he has hired and tell me he's the problem. I'd put him at about a 90% great hire rate.

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Originally Posted by 94GRAD

Take a look at all the other coaches he has hired and tell me he's the problem. I'd put him at about a 90% great hire rate.

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I don't particularly care to have this argument again, but his basketball hires (correct me if I'm wrong, but this is a basketball board, no?) outside of Sean Miller--a hire my beagle could have made--have been Brian Neal, Melanie Moore, Travis Steele and Billi Chambers.

Not a bad OOC schedule for out of towners who like WBB back to back with MBB games. If I did this correctly: James Madison , UC weekend, and SIUE. Maybe @Miami will be early enough for double header.

I expect lots of losses

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Originally Posted by cinskyline

I did a quick search on Twitter to see if I could find something, and it appears Fernanda has joined Special at Jacksonville. Makes a lot of sense as she played for Special at Montverde and has no connection to the current coaching staff.

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Just wanted to say that my information is incorrect. Ovalle is not with Special in Jacksonville. I don't know where she went, but she is not on Jacksonville's team.

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Originally Posted by cinskyline

Just wanted to say that my information is incorrect. Ovalle is not with Special in Jacksonville. I don't know where she went, but she is not on Jacksonville's team.

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She very well may have just returned home to Chile.

The roster is now online, and I'm pleasantly surprised to see a five-woman freshman class (in addition to the two transfers we knew about). That's pretty impressive given the late start this staff got to building a roster. One of the freshmen is a 6-4 forward/center from Georgia (the country, not the state). Two of the freshmen are from Spain. Good to see the women's team also looking internationally for talent.

Doubt this comes as much of a surprise, but Xavier was picked to finish 11th in the Big East. Full release at link below:

https://www.bigeast.com/news/2023/10...ason-poll.aspx

Billi Chambers takes over at Xavier after 10 seasons as head coach of Iona. The Musketeers return leading scorer Mackayla Scarlett, while Chambers signed seven for the 2023-24 season. XU went 7-23 overall last year and 0-20 in BIG EAST games.

That press release was actually put out a couple of days ago. Yesterday Georgetown head coach Tasha Butts passed away due to breast cancer. Sadly she never even made it to her first game as head coach on the Hilltop.

Butts was a freshman for Tennessee when Xavier beat the Lady Vols in Birmingham in the Sweet 16 in 2001.