SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Anyone who travels in or adjacent to men’s college basketball circles will be hearing Josh Schertz’s name quite a bit over the coming weeks.
Saint Louis carries the nation’s second-longest winning streak into the Ryan Center for a Tuesday night tip against the University of Rhode Island and is ranked No. 21 in the latest national polls. The Billikens are a statistical marvel at both ends of the floor, dominating their opponents via effective field goal percentage offense and defense.
Doing this in the Atlantic 10 will make Schertz a coaching candidate for programs with larger budgets and bigger platforms. He’s already been mentioned on the mythical list for Kansas State after the school fired Jerome Tang over the weekend. The Wildcats presumably wouldn’t be alone if they opted to contend for Schertz’s services.
The simplest thing, of course, would be for Schertz to stay at a place where he’s 24-1 overall and 12-0 in conference play. Saint Louis has won 18 straight and counts only a one-point loss to Stanford as a blemish. The Billikens are on track for a first NCAA Tournament appearance since securing the league’s automatic berth in 2018-19.
“They’re a team that analytically stacks up – that can win in any league,” URI coach Archie Miller said Monday afternoon. “Which bodes well for them as March continues to go. We have to be really, really good in certain areas in this game.”
Per KenPom.com, Saint Louis entered Monday as the No. 2 offense and No. 1 defense nationally in effective field goal percentage. That’s a marriage between 2-pointers and 3-pointers attempted and made. In overly simplistic terms, the Billikens have the right shooters taking and making the right shots and force the wrong shooters to take and miss the wrong shots.
“They’re a team that beats you not just with a mesmerizing style of play on offense,” Miller said. “They beat you with tremendous effort. They beat you with physicality on defense.”
Schertz is a 50-year-old Brooklyn native who cut his coaching teeth in North Carolina while serving on staffs at Queens and High Point. He moved to Tennessee in 2008 while accepting a Division II head coaching job at Lincoln Memorial and was a prolific winner, reaching a national championship game and two other Final Fours. Schertz also had a 32-1 season halted when COVID-19 forced a cancellation of remaining games in 2019-20.
Schertz continued to Indiana State and helped transform an 11-20 team in his 2021-22 debut into an NIT runner-up at 32-7 in 2023-24. Saint Louis lured him from the Missouri Valley thanks to a program that sits at or near the top of its conference in terms of available resources. The Billikens play on campus at Chaifetz Arena, make use of an adjoining practice facility and, according to an IRS Form 990 obtained by ProPublica, paid predecessor Travis Ford a reported $2.77 million in his eighth season in 2023-24.
Schertz reportedly signed a six-year, $12-million deal to leave the Sycamores, and he’d be in line for a significant raise if any other school could convince him to turn elsewhere. Miller has experience with this sort of thing after reaching an Elite Eight in his third season with Dayton and following with another three straight March Madness appearances. He eventually signed a seven-year deal with Indiana ahead of the 2017-18 campaign, leaving the Flyers after winning at least 25 games in each of his last four years and putting together a combined 52-18 conference record.
“You’re not in a place because you did something extraordinary,” Miller said. “You’re usually, as a coach, in a place because a lot of people around you – from administration to your staff to your players – have all come together and put something together that’s really worth watching and looking at.
“I’m sure it’s two feet on the ground. I don’t think I handled anything different than I would whether it was going good or bad. I think it’s about the day.”
Miller enters the week attempting to rally the Rams (14-11, 5-7) from a bitter Saturday overtime loss to Fordham. URI has dropped two straight since a 4-1 stretch in league play, and both of those defeats have come without versatile wing Jahmere Tripp (lower body). The Rams are all but certain to be without Tripp again and could be a double-digit underdog on their home floor.
“Not a very fun team to prepare for,” Miller said. “One of the best teams I’ve encountered in a long time – really at any level.”
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island men’s basketball to face No. 21 St. Louis in home stretch