By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

There's no question David West and Romain Sato will get the bulk of Xavier's scoring opportunities this season.

But now, instead of just one point guard distributing the ball, the 16th-ranked Musketeers (2-1) have two, in senior Lionel Chalmers and freshman Dedrick Finn.

Finn became XU's starting point guard in its last game, against Florida A&M, and he had seven assists. Chalmers is a natural shooting guard who has played point guard since last season, but he now will share the position with Finn.

The setup might free Chalmers for more offensive looks, which he already has been doing on his own. Chalmers is averaging 15 points through three games, including a team-high 20 in the Preseason NIT loss to Stanford.

"Whatever it takes," Chalmers said. "This is a team effort, and whatever I have to do to get wins, I'll do."

Finn primarily concerns himself with passing the ball and hasn't emerged as a major scoring threat in the first three games. That role is fine with him.

"It's the same as it was when I was coming off the bench," Finn said. "Distribute the ball and get everybody else involved. Help the All-Americans score."

But there will be times when Xavier needs him to score. Many of Finn's shot opportunities will come from 3-point range, which is why he spent 15 minutes after Saturday's practice shooting 3-pointers.

"That's what I work on every day in practice," Finn said. "(Defenses) are going to double-down on West, an All-American, so I pretty much have to be able to fire up and shoot."

HABITUAL HACKER

If there's one thing XU center Will Caudle has been consistent in doing, it's getting in foul trouble. That's part of the reason he averages just more than 16 minutes a game.

In his first start, against Florida A&M, Caudle was an early offensive factor but saw limited time the rest of the game because of foul trouble. The last few days of practice have given him a chance to alter his defensive approach.

"I'm going to work on a lot of things in practice, especially bad habits," Caudle said. "The things I've been doing like fouling, I'm going to try and stay away from and try and change my ways.

"I'll barely bump somebody and that might be a foul in the game, but you can be a little more physical in practice. They let us play. I get used to that practice style, and in the game I push somebody and they say it's a foul when I think I barely touched him. So I'm trying to play smarter and be smart about fouls."

DEFENSE FIRST

Like Caudle, Sato is also focusing on his defense during this practice period. He said that, more than offense, would make the most difference throughout the season.

"We don't worry about who's going to score the most," Sato said. "We worry about winning. I'm focusing now more on defense because defense will win the games."

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com