Xavier is entertaining big expectations as it opens the season against visiting Texas Southern on Monday in Cincinnati.After a disappointing 16-18 campaign that included season-ending injuries to two starters before it ever began, the Musketeers enter this season on the brink of the Top 25 poll.In forwards Zach Freemantle and Jerome Hunter, Xavier returns two starters from its 2023 NCAA Sweet 16 team. Freemantle, a grad student, sat out last season with multiple surgeries on his left foot. Hunter missed last season recovering from a heart attack and has been cleared for the 2024-25 campaign.Freemantle has averaged 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds in 105 career games with the Musketeers.With seven players scoring in double figures, the Musketeers showed their potential in their only exhibition game of the preseason, a 98-74 blowout road win of Dayton on Oct. 20.”We did learn a lot about our team. We had a lot of quality play in that game, certainly some things that we know that we have to clean up and get better,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said.