Ryan Conwell was the linchpin of Xavier’s incoming group and he’s already delivering.
Ryan Conwell is that newest of college basketball inventions, the journeyman guard. Conwell is entering his third season of college ball and has played for three different institutions. Conwell started at USF, gave it a go at Indiana State, and is now at Xavier. He’s scored, and scored efficiently at times, at his previous stops.
Conwell missed his first three pointer for Xavier. That slowed him down exactly zero. Conwell profiles as an unrepentant gunner. Last year he took 410 shots and 260 of them came from behind the arc. Last season he had 18 games in which he took eight or more threes. He had 13 in which he made four or more. There is not a situation in which Conwell won’t hunt his shot.
There is, of course, a darker side to that. Conwell was 1-10 from the floor in the NIT championship last season. When he’s not hitting his shots he doesn’t really move the ball all that well, posting an assist rate of just 12.8%. Unlike a lot of guys who get a lot of shots up, Conwell tends to stop shooting when his shot isn’t going. That’s good, he only took 9.8 shots per game in the games where his offensive efficiency was under 100. That can also be bad. Rarely does Conwell get himself into a hole and shoot his way back out of it.
He does score consistently, though. In 37 games last year he only didn’t crack the double digit mark four times. That is because, for a guy who shoots a lot of jumpers, Conwell also gets to the line a decent amount. His rate so far this year is 39%, up a bit from previous seasons. His volume from the line isn’t great, but he’s deadeye when he gets there. In his career he’s attempted 174 free throws and only missed 25.
Conwell isn’t just a shooter, though. This year he hasn’t flashed it much for Xavier, but he’s an excellent defensive rebounder. His rate of 15.9% last season would have been third among Xavier’s rotation players and bested both Gytis Nemeiksa and Sasa Ciani. This season he’s handling the ball less (and has only turned it over once in 64 minutes) and getting involved in the rebounding less than he has in the past. That doesn’t mean he can’t.
This season Conwell is going to be one of if not the ultimate focal point of Xavier’s offense. He can score at the rim and from deep. He can get to the line and convert there. He can rebound and he doesn’t turn the ball over. If all that sounds like a star to you, well, there’s a reason for that.