Transfer Player Spotlight: Roddie Anderson III (Xavier)

Xavier’s roster is officially complete with the addition of Roddie Anderson III from Boise State. The 6-3 point guard spent his freshman year at UC San Diego where he averaged 13.1 points. He then transferred to Boise State for his Sophomore year in which he averaged just 6.5 points. This drop off can be attributed mostly to joining a winning team where he was not relied on to be a main offensive scoring piece. He now comes into a Xavier roster in which he is not going to be a main piece of the puzzle. This has resulted in speculation that he might be redshirted this year. From the perspective of Xavier staff, they could save a year of eligibility for Anderson while also not sacrificing much for their current roster. Xavier has three players already who can run the point guard position so while Anderson is more than good enough to be in the rotation now. With a full year of developing within Xavier’s program Anderson will be a main piece of 2025’s roster and have another year of eligibility. On the other hand, there are some holes on Xavier’s roster that Anderson could immediately come in and help fix.  

Offense is the struggle for Roddie Anderson, he is very raw and unpolished there. The bright side is he is extremely quick and athletic with all of the tools to be a great offensive piece he just has not put it all together quite yet. One area of the offensive game that Roddie is very polished and good at is off ball movement. He is a very timely cutter which creates easy baskets but most importantly he is always cutting to be a safety blanket for his teammates. Having a player who is always in the right spot to bail his teammates out if they are in a bad position so they can reset the possession is incredibly valuable and limits unnecessary turnovers. When he does work on ball most of his offensive plays at Boise State came in the pick and roll. He has all of the talent to be great in pick and roll scenarios, but his tendencies need to be fixed. The first of which is he needs to find the roll man more. He is an exceptionally talented and good passer, but he struggles to look for the roll man a lot of the time. The next tendency is the type of shot he should be looking for in the pick and rolls. In the pick and roll Anderson makes one of two reads. They go under the screen, and he shoots the three or he drives straight to the basket and tries to use his athleticism to get a layup. While he is extremely athletic and has great body control to finish layups it often results in highly contested layups that he can’t finish. One thing that would really help him is using his mid-range game more in the pick and roll. It would take pressure off of his drive and give him overall better looks. The one overarching change that could help fix all of these tendencies is for him to be more patient in the lane and not force anything. If Anderson could slow himself down within the lane it would allow him to get to better shots and hit the roller more often. One good thing for Roddie is that one Xavier’s other transfers Dante Maddox excels at being controlled in the lane and dissecting a defense. Maddox could be a great mentor to Anderson and really take his offensive game to the next level. The other issue is that a lot of the time Anderson does everything right to get to his spot and create separation but just misses the shot. Whether it’s layups, mid-range shots, or three pointers he seems to just miss too many open ones. This leads to him being an overall very inefficient player on offense. The good news for Anderson is that all three of Xavier’s transfer guards so far Mcknight, Olivari, and Boum, have all seen significant increases to their efficiency once they got to Xavier’s system. That is definitely in the cards for Anderson and any player who comes to Xavier because of their pace and motion offense. It is tailor-made to get easy looks especially in transition. Which happens to be one of the areas of strength for Anderson. He really excels at pushing the pace and finding his teammates in transition. Which is what a Xavier point needs to be able to do and it is why Anderson is more than capable of being a rotation piece for Xavier this year. If Anderson can just push the pace, create easy looks for his teammates in transition, and initiate the offense he is going to be more than good enough for this Xavier team especially with his elite defense. His offense still has a lot of work to do but with his quickness and athleticism the ceiling is through the roof. Sean Miller is known for getting the most out of his players, especially guards, there is no reason he can’t do that with Roddie Anderson. Xavier fans should be ecstatic to get a player like him in their program. 

The part of Roddie Anderson’s game that makes him such an intriguing transfer for Xavier is his elite defense. At Boise State he was asked to guard the other team's best guard every single game and he did so very effectively. The most remarkable of which was in the first four game against Colorado Anderson was tasked with guarding one of the best scoring guards in the nation in KJ Simpson. His constant pressure led to an inefficient game from Simpson where he scored almost all of his points on switches and overall, Anderson's defense was a big reason Boise State held Colorado to one of their lowest scoring games of the season. He is very quick and physical defender he uses these attributes to stay in front of his opponents very effectively. While still being able to apply a level of pressure that would lead to most guards getting blown by consistently. He is an overall pest on defense. If he is not redshirting would be the second-best perimeter defender on the team and would have the best chance to shut down the premier point guards in the big east. This was an area where Xavier really struggled last season. Against Xavier last season Kam Jones scored over 30 twice, Trey Alexander had 27 points, Jayden Epps had 32, and Posh Alexander had his highest scoring output since February of 2022. Having a defensive stopper like Roddie Anderson could help this team immensely this season. While he is a great one on one defender, he is also a good off ball defender. He has highly active hands and is always looking to make a play to get a steal. He has one of the highest steal rates in the nation at 2.6% which would’ve been second on Xavier’s roster last year only behind Dailyn Swain. The main concern for next year’s roster is the defense and adding another impact defender is going to help that if he plays. The best version of Xavier’s roster next year is with Roddie Anderson playing but having him wait in the wings and be the Dayvion Mcknight replacement after this season is not the worst thing in the world for Xavier. After all, in the ever-changing world of college basketball consistency is more important than ever.