According to a report from college basketball insider Jon Rothstein on Monday, Xavier (8-3 straight up, 5-6 against the spread) star power forward Zach Freemantle is out indefinitely due to a lower body injury.
This is a brutal loss for the Musketeers, who already lost starting center Lassina Traore to a season-ending injury. Per Rothstein, Sean Miller and his staff will know more about the extent of Freemantle’s injury when he’s re-evaluated later this week, but he’s expected to miss at least several weeks.
Freemantle is leading Xavier in scoring (16.9 points per game), rebounding (7.7 RPG) and blocked shots (0.8 BPG). He’s also averaging 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Freemantle has hit 54.4 percent of his field-goal attempts, 26.7 percent of his 3-pointers and 76.4 percent of his free throws. In Saturday’s 68-65 loss at Cincinnati, the 6-foot-9 New Jersey native finished with 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Freemantle missed all of last season due to a lingering injury that was sustained late in the 2022-23 campaign. In 22 games two years ago, Freemantle averaged 15.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.9 APG.
Xavier will play its Big East opener Wednesday at UConn.
FanDuel has Xavier with 30/1 odds to win the Big East’s regular-season championship. The Musketeers have 200/1 odds to win the national title.