Since he was hired before the 2009 season, Coach Mack has landed at least 15 verbal commitments, many from highly-rated recruits. Standing on the cusp of the 2012-2013 season, though, only five of those players are on the Xavier roster.

How have so many players gotten away from Xavier?

Coach Mack has established a reputation as an up-and-coming young coach, thanks in large part to his two conference championships and two Sweet Sixteen appearances in his first three years at Xavier.

The stars and most of the role players on those teams - Jordan Crawford, Tu Holloway, Mark Lyons, Jason Love, Kenny Frease - were brought in by Sean Miller.

Beginning with this season, the Musketeers should be seeing the fruits of Coach Mack's recruiting since being named the Head Coach.

Here is a year-by-year breakdown of players who have verbally committed to Xavier under Mack's watch and what they are doing now:

(Description of each of Chris Mack’s 15 commitments.)

The bottom line is this: programs at Xavier's level are built on talented incoming players developing into functional upperclassmen. Missing one one or two players hurts a school; missing on a whole class leaves a gap in the ranks when those players should have been juniors and seniors.

Mack was hamstrung by his late promotion in 2009 and whiffed on the 2010 class. He lost the gem of the 2011 class when Dez Wells was expelled and again ran into eligibility issues in the 2012 class.

This should be the time where the team is transitioning to all players recruited by Coach Mack.

Instead, there are eight scholarship players on the roster, holes are being plugged by transfers, and the whole thing seems poised on the brink of collapse.

This year is going to be a huge challenge for Xavier on the court, but what happens on the recruiting trail may well determine the success or failure of the program for the near future.