Xavier snagged a commitment from four-star guard Nyk Lewis on Thursday, as head coach Sean Miller and company won a recruiting battle they first entered in June of last year. Below, Rivals national recruiting director Rob Cassidy explores what the Musketeers are getting as well as how Xavier pulled it off.

An athletic and aggressive lead guard that can get buckets in a number of ways, Lewis is almost always in attack mode and can get down hill in a hurry when need be. He gets up and down as quickly as any guard in the country and the pressure he puts on defenses pays off in a number of ways. He plays much bigger than his 6-foot-1 frame, especially on the glass where he impacts games rather consistently for a guard of his size. He’s a streaky but incredibly capable long-range shooter that could become more consistent as he matures from a shot-selection standpoint. Defensively, Lewis is a bit limited from a matchup standpoint because of his lack of elite positional length. That said, his motor and athleticism allow him to terrorize passing lanes on the perimeter. He’s probably at his best in transition at this point, but he makes wise decisions in the half-court as well. Lewis is rightly categorized as a score-first point guard but showed progress as a facilitator this summer.

The hay has been in the barn with Lewis for some time, as the talented guard began informing teams that missed out on his commitment roughly two weeks ago. Lewis’ decisiveness was the result of a longstanding relationship between the four-star guard and the Xavier staff, which started more than a year ago. The Musketeers were among the first schools to contact the four-star when schools were first permitted to call 2025 prospects on June 15 of 2023. Even in the NIL Era, relationships still matter in some capacity and this result is proof of that. Assistant coach Adam Cohen along with head coach Sean Miller spearheaded Lewis’ recruitment for Xavier and deserve plenty of credit for holding off programs such as Michigan, Seton Hall, LSU, Georgetown and Creighton to land his pledge.