Quick quiz: which member of the 2026-2027 Xavier Musketeers has appeared in the most games for Richard Pitino in his college basketball career? If you read the title of this article, you probably have gathered that it is Tru Washington, who comes in just ahead of Filip Borovicanin and Jovan Milicevic having appeared in 69 games to Borovicanin’s 68 and Milicevic’s 67. The Arizona native turned down attention from Arizona State, TCU, and LSU among others to commit to Pitino’s New Mexico out of high school and established himself in the Lobos backcourt rotation quickly due to his defensive intensity and trustworthiness with the ball. His role grew as a Sophomore as he started 33 of the 34 games that season and stood out against Marquette in the NCAA Tournament, posting 12/6/2 with a block and 3 steals and helping keep Kam Jones quiet as New Mexico eliminated the Golden Eagles. From there it was off to Miami (FL), where he started 19 games and posted a career high 11.9 ppg, ranked 4th in the ACC in steals per game and steal rate, and improved his shooting splits across the board. All that led him to being ranked 9th among the shooting guards in the portal this offseason and a reunion with the coach who recruited him out of high school.
Washington hangs his hat on the defensive end of the floor, as did Pitino’s teams he was a part of at New Mexico. He was top 50 in the nation in steal rate his first two seasons and 57th last year, having provided multiple steals in 48 of his 100 career games so far. While defensive stats are a bit difficult to contextualize, EvanMiya gives Washington a DPBR of 2.07, for comparison Roddie Anderson’s was 0.30 last year and he was the best among Xavier’s guards. Washington should provide the high pressure on ball defense that Pitino’s teams at New Mexico thrived off of, which is something Xavier lacked a lot of the time last season. On the other side of the ball, Washington is not a player who turns the ball over a lot, even though he is a guard who works mostly off the drive. He takes the highest proportion of his shots at the rim, where he converted at a roughly similar clip to Roddie Anderson last year. He takes about a third of his twos from the midrange, where he is serviceable, and has improved his three point shooting each year in college, hitting 35% on his 3.4 attempts per game last year. He is a reliable source for double figures on most every night, but has cracked 20 just three times so far in his career with his high being 25 against Jerrod Calhoun’s Utah State.
Every team needs a 3rd or 4th option on offense and what Washington provides in that slot is someone who is content to let his teammates get their shots while he harasses the opposing guards into mistakes and turnovers. He’ll pick his spots and score his buckets, but his biggest impact is going to be in doing the dirty work and helping provide Xavier’s defensive identity by making opposing guards’ lives hard each time down the floor.