New Haven's Desmond Claude playing key role as freshman for Xavier men's basketball team

PORTLAND, Ore. — When Desmond Claude committed to the Xavier men's basketball team back on Jan. 20, the New Haven product figured his lengthy recruiting process was over, and that he'd be playing for coach Travis Steele for the foreseeable future. Less than two months later, Steele was fired after four seasons at the helm, even with the Musketeers in the midst of a run to the NIT finals. Just like that, Claude's recruiting process began anew. Sean Miller, the former Xavier coach who more recently had had a successful, if controversial, stint as Arizona's head man, was hired back to Xavier. One of his first priorities was to re-recruit players like Claude who had already committed to the program. "It went great," Claude recalled. "He tried to call me as much as he could. He told me how much he wanted me. It was a good process." "Plus," the 6-foot-5 guard added, "his resume was really good, too, on top of that." “We had the opportunity to recruit him and his family,” Miller said. “We’re certainly thrilled that he made the decision to stay with us.” Indeed, on April 2, a couple of weeks after Miller's hire, Claude announced that he was sticking to his commitment to Xavier. Preseason speculation had Claude battling with UTEP transfer Souley Boum for the Musketeers' starting point guard spot, and though Boum eventually won the job, Claude has played a key role as a freshman so far. Through Xavier's first six games, Claude was averaging 4.2 points in 17.6 minutes of action off the bench. On Friday in a Phil Knight Invitational semifinal game at Moda Center, there was Claude playing key minutes down the stretch against Duke. He hit a lane jumper with 5:51 left to play to pull the Musketeers to within 63-60. Unfortunately for Claude & Co., that was as close as Xavier would get in a 71-64 loss to the Blue Devils. Claude finished with five points, hitting both his shots (including a 3-pointer) and grabbed four rebounds in a season-high 24 minutes of action. "It was a good experience," Claude said shortly after the game. "I mean, it was a tough loss, but it was a good experience just to be out there, try to do my best. Although I wanted to win, it's a good experience being here." Claude began his career at Hillhouse before starring at both St. Thomas More and Putnam Science Academy. He was a national top-75 Class of 2022 recruit. Some 3,000 miles from home this past week, Claude bumped into some familiar faces, in the form of a pair of UConn freshmen, at the team's downtown Portland hotel. He nodded to fellow Connecticut native Donovan Clingan as the two passed each other en route to their respective practices. Then he saw Alex Karaban, his former teammate on the Expressions Elite AAU team, and chatted with him for a bit. Their paths will cross again shortly once Big East play begins. Xavier will host the Huskies on New Year's Eve day, then will be in Storrs on Jan. 25. Until then, Claude hopes to "just keep playing my role, do my best." And what is that role? "Take care of the ball, facilitate, score, and play good defense," he said. Xavier, picked to finish second in the Big East preseason coaches' poll (UConn was picked to finish fourth), was 4-2 heading into their PKI finale against Gonzaga on Sunday night. "We're getting better, I think, from where we first started to where we are now," Claude said. "I think we've accomplished a lot of things that we were struggling at at first. Obviously, we have stuff to get better at, but we'll get there as the season goes." THIS WEEK'S AP TOP 25 BALLOT Virginia Purdue Arizona Creighton Houston UConn Indiana Baylor Texas Gonzaga Maryland Tennessee Kansas Alabama Michigan State Kentucky Illinois Iowa State North Carolina Duke Miami Arkansas Auburn UNLV TCU david.borges@hearstmediact.com @DaveBorges

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