I’m sure Dru and the staff did their due diligence on John regarding his physical and mental health. Being from Cleveland, I’m sure that there has been a lot of contact between John and the Ohio-centric Dukes staff over the years. Hopefully John can get back to the level of play he showed as a sophomore.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/john-hugley-1.html

I was hoping we would reach out to him. This is a big get for the Dukes. Pretty sure we recruited him out of high school.

He's a solid depth piece, he isnt playing over Wiborn, Dixon or Necas.   He avg 10 min and 2.9 ppg for Xavier.   He is not the same guy pitt was going throwing parties over.   Its still a good signing.   Cant really count on Barre.   Need a big man, esp in A10 who can throw his body around and be a force, block out those 6'11'' euro players some schools have.  This will be his 6th yr playing college ball.

Wonder if this signing will give Necas more time at the 3. I'm hoping he can somewhat get back to his Pitt and Oklahoma form. Didn't get much run at Xavier. He's played against a lot better competition than he will here and has had some success.

CLK wrote:

Hugley has not been the same player since his knee injury and surgery. I view him like I did Mahorcic. I hope he is fully recovered and becomes an All League player, but would be happy if he can give us 10 minutes of solid play per game. I believe both Dixon and Wilborn will benefit as they can possibly play some minutes together with the additional big. We now need an experienced big point guard to captain the ship.

Good comparison to Dusan's situation here, CLK. The good news is that he did play in all 34 Xavier games last year; unless he has had a recent setback, he probably is more ready than Mahorcic ever was.  I'm wondering if Chabi's injuries and other health issues have finally caught to him and his basketball career.

Here's a look at Hugley's advanced stats:
T-Rank Player Stats - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank  

The key is that Hugely gives the half-court offense a big guy to throw the ball into in the post!  He can score from the post as I recall.  They had no post players last year.

With Hugely IV committed, I think we need one or more high-level 3-point shooters to stretch the defenses.  We’ll need one of those guys to primarily handle the point.

Last edited by levon1975 (4/11/2025 2:22 pm)

I see nothing but upside with this signing. It's probably unlikely he returns to the form he was in last time he was in the Steel City due to all the injuries, but the talent is obviously there; and you can't coach size. We haven't had a true big man of his size and ability in quite awhile. Even though he's only a 5 his presence continues to give us versatility; as with all of our frontcourt depth I'd expect to see two bigs in way more often than we have (is it even possible to do it less?). Best case scenario he is finally fully healthy and he locks down a starting role and is one of the best big men in the conference. Worst case scenario he gives us front court depth and the ability to matchup with teams we haven't been able to recently for 10 or so minutes a game. Now we need to find a point guard!

I look this signing too as there is a high ceiling and the floor is still beneficial.  Now as noted by FAM and Lucky let's get that PG that has some height!!!  If we can get the PG and one knock down 3 point shooter I would be really stoked for next year with what we already have coming back.