We are counting down the days to the start of the college basketball season.
If you’re reading this on the day is was published, we have 47 days to the official start of College Basketball, and 36 days until we can see the team in action against K-State (presuming it’s televised).
The Full Non-Conference Schedule:
- October 23rd — at Kansas State (exhibition)
- October 29th — at UNLV (exhibition)
- November 3rd — vs Cleveland State
- November 6th — vs Saint Louis (in St. Louis)
- November 9th — vs SIU-Edwardsville
- November 15th — vs Marquette (in Chicago)
- November 18th — vs Alcorn State
- November 20th — vs Le Moyne
- November 24th — vs Evansville
- November 27th — vs Arkansas Pine Bluff
- December 1st — vs Pittsburgh (ACC-SEC Challenge)
- December 6th — vs Kansas (in Kansas City)
- December 12th — vs Nebraska (in Kansas City)
- December 18th — at Indiana
- December 20th — vs Illinois (in St. Louis)
- December 22nd — vs Chicago State
After the last few years of a poor lineup of Q4 games in the non-conference schedule, Missouri pulled a 180 and have schedule as well as anyone in the country. On top of playing Illinois and Kansas as previously scheduled, the Tigers are playing neutral court matchups against SLU, Marquette, Nebraska, and a road game at Indiana. There’s no question Dennis Gates stepped it up.
Let’s Meet: the SLU Billikens
What is a Billiken? Many people are asking.
It’s a dumb story, but a Billken is basically a charm doll from forever ago. For some reason these things were popular in the early 1900s, they resemble a kewpie, which is another weird mascot (Editor’s Note: Sorry, Hickman alum, Matthew Harris). But the football coach was said to look like this doll, so they started calling his team the Billikens and it stuck. Not exactly the storied naming coming from the Missouri Tigers, defenders of Columbia. But it’s unique, so that’s kind of fun, I guess.
What is now Saint Louis University was founded in 1818 as the St. Louis Academy, but after two years they dropped Academy and went with College. It’s the oldest school west of the Mississippi, which is probably aided by the fact that it’s very close to the Mississippi, and was founded just before the city incorporated in 1822.
Football was the main sport for SLU in the early going. In fact SLU is credited with the first legal forward pass in collegiate history. But they stopped fielding a program in the late 40s. The school also has a prominent soccer program, with 10 national titles, although none since 1973.
Basketball is the main driver, however, even though success has been up and down. They won the NIT in 1948 and made the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament in 1952. ‘Easy’ Ed Macauley is probably the most famous alum, but Larry Hughes, Jordan Goodwin, Anthony Bonner, and Bob Ferry were all NBA players (Goodwin is still in the league).
Through the 50s the Billikens were considered a top program, ending the season ranked in the AP Poll 7 times from 49-60. Things went dark until the late 80s when the team lost in back to back NIT finals in ‘89 and ‘90. Then, Charlie Spoonhour took over, taking the program to three NCAA Tournaments in seven years, and set most of the roster for Lorenzo Romar to take them to another in his first season in 2000.
But it wasn’t until Rick Majerus took over did things really get going again. Majerus needed four seasons to start things up but in year five, SLU went 26-8 and landed a 9-seed. But Majerus’ health sidelined him to start the next season and Jim Crews took over. Majerus died in December, but SLU soldiered on and landed a 4-seed. The next season they were a 5-seed.
But Crews wasn’t the recruiter Majerus was, and things fell apart quickly. Travis Ford took the team to one NCAA Tournament by winning the auto-bid in 2019. But nobody has quite built the hype machine the way Josh Schertz has.
Head Coach | Josh Schertz | 3rd Season 48-21
If you haven’t already, I recommend reading (friend of the pod) CJ Moore’s deep dive on Josh Schertz from a few years go.
If you’re a hoop head, you are well aware of the head coach at SLU. You know what he built at Lincoln Memorial, a D2 school in Harrogate, Tennessee. You also enjoyed watching his teams at Indiana State, led by a goofy 6’10 kid with glasses who looks slow, but can shoot it and pass it like few others his size.
Indiana State was left on the doorstep of the NCAA Tournament in 2024, despite a 26-5 regular season record, and a KenPom rating in the 40s. ISU lost to a really good Drake team in the MVC Final. So instead of the NCAA Tournament, they went to the NIT and nearly won it, losing to Seton Hall in the finals. Schertz then took the SLU job, despite playing some footsie with Louisville, and began building.
He’s very close with Dusty May, and many have him pegged for the Michigan job if things don’t work out with Mike Boynton. It’s unlikely that Schertz finishes his career at SLU, but they’re giving him a great budget to compete, and he’s turned SLU into a buzzsaw in the A-10.
Series History | Mizzou leads 7-6
Sometimes there’s a fun picture in our photo tool, but this is as close as I could get. Wesley Stokes, in the Braggin’ Rights game, a few weeks after Mizzou beat SLU the last time these two programs played. Stokes is the reason the Tigers won the game, as he untied a game at the buzzer with a mid-range pull up jumper, and the Tigers won 69-67.
That was the last game in a three-game series in which the Tigers won the last two games, and lost the first. They also won two games against SLU in 1979 and 1980. Before that the two teams played an 8-game series from 1963 through 1970. Mizzou went 3-5 in those matchups.
So eight straight games in the mid-late 60s, a pair in 79 and 80, and then nothing until Quin Snyder set up a three-game set in 1999.
The idea of these two programs playing is often more attractive than the execution, but its nice to have some regional intrigue on the schedule again.
What about the team now?
With a good budget, SLU was able to bring just about everyone they wanted back for another run. Last year SLU went 29-6, and 15-3 in the A-10, with a deep roster of players, none of which averaged more than 13 points. But four players averaged in double figures, and another three were north of 9 points a game.
And most of those guys are back.
The main cog, Robbie Avila, is in the same place as Mark Mitchell. He’ll be a Billiken as long as the restraining order is in place for him to play. Avila is a 5th year player, but no obvious NBA future. He’s tall and super skilled, but struggles defensively, and to keep up athletically.
So Schertz surrounded him with great length and athleticism. Oh, and shooting. The Bills shot 39.6% from distance last season, and bring back three players who all shot over 40%. Trey Green, a senior transfer from Xavier, shot 44.2% from distance last season, in 30 starts. Ishan Sharma, a Virginia transfer, shot 41.7% off the bench, but played 22.2 minutes a game. And Avila buried 41% of his outside shots. SLU’s offense is fun to watch in that they get shots at the rim, and shots behind the arc, and little else.
In all, six of their top seven players return, and they added Colorado transfer Alon Michaeli, South Carolina transfer Elijah Strong, and Marquette transfer Sheek Pearson.
Another returner is Kellen Thames, son of former Tiger Kelly. Kellen has battled some unique injuries but has turned into one of the most exciting players in the A10. He was a former Cuonzo recruit who picked SLU as the Mizzou program was switching from Martin to Dennis Gates.
Early BartTorvik.com projections has the Billikens 68th out of 365 teams. But that’s without Avila. If you add him in, they jump into the top 50, and even that projection seems conservative. They were 34th last season, and return nearly everyone, and got better depth. SLU fans should expect a top 40 finish and another NCAA Tournament. Mizzou fans should expect a battle on November 6th.