There are some athletes who have mastered the skill of the sport to the point where they can pretty much develop it as often as they want and remain successful. Randy Johnson has one of the most impressive bodies of work an MLB pitcher has ever had over a 22-season career in which he threw almost exclusively home runs and home runs, with the occasional changeup mixed in for a laugh. It doesn’t matter that Batman, especially Batman left, knew what was coming, they weren’t going to hit it. Is this the inside of me saying that Ruben Dominguez is the Randy Johnson of basketball? Yes, clearly. Put him in Cooperstown, and stick the jersey in the rafters, the guy is a legend.
In basically everything that can be tracked on the basketball court, Dominguez was pretty pedestrian last season at Texas A&M. In particular, he didn’t rebound well, had a season-high five, didn’t generate a steal or block, didn’t collect many assists, didn’t get to the free throw line very well, and shot 17-38 (45%) from inside the three-point arc. However, one thing he did well is really, really well and that is why he is so sought after on the transfer window and why he is considered one of Xavier’s key additions this year. Dominguez made 215 three-pointers last season, 58 more than anyone in Xavier, and made 40% of them. He had 16 games where he scored three or more, including the first NCAA game against Saint Mary’s, and Texas A&M ranked the school with 10 in one game. To be clear, it is not there to put someone on the poster, block the best scorer of the opponent, or make a jump to set up a teammate. There is a machine to catch and shoot and make opposing defenses pay for taking care elsewhere or being slow on the move.
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What this all means for Xavier’s roster is that guys who put the ball on the floor and attack opposing defenses like Westry Westry, Tru Washington, and Gabriel Pozzato will have more space or be an absolutely lethal shooter on the perimeter. In modern college basketball, offense is all about space, and there are few spaces better than Dominguez. I don’t put the stat sheet in a different way, but his attack is far from the limits to take so many shots that his gravity from the basket opens things up for the rest of the team.