Raise your hand if you're the stupidest mascot in the nation.
Sunday afternoon the St. Louis (just kidding run49er), I mean Saint Louis Billikens take to the Halton Arena floor to square off against our beloved Charlotte 49ers (11-5). The Billikens enter the game sporting the same 11-5 record on the Niners but enter the contest with a 2-0 conference record. Saint Louis has defeated Richmond at home and most recently posted an impressive double-overtime win at Duquesne.
A welcome addition to svelte Head Coach Rick Majerus’ squad is freshman import Cody Ellis. Ellis, a 6’8″ power forward finally received clearance to play by the NCAA (we know how that goes) and has posted a 12 point average in two games coming off the bench. Despite being unproven in live game action, Ellis has logged an average of 27 minutes in this two games, and has pulled down 8 rpg. His addition brings a very welcome addition for Saint Louis and changes the complexion of the team as well as how teams will have to prepare for them.
As young as the Xavier squad was that the Niners fell to on Wednesday, Saint Louis is even younger. With Paul Eckerle out with a pre-season knee injury, the Billikens are comprised of entirely Freshmen and Sophomores. According to Ken Pomeroy, that makes the Billikens 2nd least experienced team in the nation. Leading the Billikens in scoring is So. PG Kwamain Mitchell, who puts up 16.2 ppg. on 46.6% shooting from the field and 36.1% from behind the arc. Giving the Billikens good inside balance to go with Mitchell is post man Willie Reed. Reed is also a So., and averages 12.8 ppg. and 8.6 rpg. giving Saint Louis along with Ellis a pair of very good, young post players.
Rounding out the main starting unit for Saint Louis are wing players Brian Conklin (7.8 ppg.) and Christian Salecich (7.6 ppg.). Coming off the bench to give the Billikens a boost from the perimeter is diminutive Fr. G Justin Jordan. Jordan hits on 40% of his 3-point attempts and contributes 6.6 ppg. in just over 20 minutes a game.
As a team, Saint Louis provides a stark contrast to the Niners’ style of play, preferring a slower tempo and grinding out victories. Saint Louis “only” averages 64.3 ppg. and limits the opposition to 58.5 ppg. More impressive is their ability to force defenses into poor shooting, limiting them to just 38.0% from the field and 26.3% from the 3-point line. The Billikens do have some weaknesses though that the Niners can hope to exploit. Though a respectable team at blocking shots, Saint Louis does not excel at rebounding, allowing the opposition to out-rebound them by about 1.3 rpg. Chris Braswell and KJ Sherrill could have big games on the glass, as the Niners will likely need plenty of second-chance scoring to overcome the Billikens’ excellent floor defense.
Additionally, Saint Louis is a bit suspect from the line, particularly at the F positions, where they convert just 63% of their attempts from the charity stripe. If players like Phil Jones and Shamari Spears get beat on defense, strong fouls might be a better alternative to giving up the easy basket. Of course, that’s not a good strategy if it leads to following out or extended stretches on the bench, of course.
For the Niners, some consistency in scoring is absolutely needed. Though DiJuan Harris appears to be breaking out of his funk, Derrio Green needs to utilize better shot selection lest he fall in a slump of his own. The Niners can ill-afford another 0-9 performance behind the arc from Green, particularly with the defection of Shamarr Bowden. As for Shamari Spears, I’m going to be a broken record. When he gets the ball early in the possession he’s deadly. If he’s not double or triple teamed, that is. If he does receive pressure after the catch, he absolutely must do a better job of getting the ball back out, whether it’s to a backdoor player, a slasher like An’Juan Wilderness, or back out to the guards. Too often has he forced the ball up in a crowd either missing the shot or getting stripped. That’s not to say he’s a poor player; Shamari has been terrific. But he can’t be his best until he can also use the attention he draws in the post to make his teammates get better scoring opportunities.
Two other players to keep an eye on are Fr. F Gokhan Sirin and So. F Javarris Barnett. Both received more action in the Xavier game and this trend may continue as the Niners look to replace the perimeter offense of Bowden. Sirin in
Rick is bringing sexy back.
particular, despite missing all his attempts against the Musketeers, continues to look more comfortable in the offensive flow. One can only hope more opportunities leads to more improvement. As for Barnett, it’s hard not to notice that he tends to do good things in the few minutes he receives. Against Xavier he drilled a 3 in the corner that was waived off due to an offensive foul, and hit a little flip shot in the paint while collecting 2 rebounds in just 6 minutes. Though he’s neither a true guard or true forward, his blend of skill and size can potentially lead to matchup problems in the time when he’s on the court.
Another player to keep a watch on is Wilderness, who is shooting a sizzling 63.9% from the field since his return from an early season calf injury. Though Wilderness continues to struggle at the line, he is a terror around the rim and is probably the Niners best finisher close to the basket.
This game is going to be tougher than some anticipate. A very young Saint Louis squad continues to improve and the addition of Cody Ellis will only help. If the contest was at Chaifetz, I’d put this down as a loss, but I think the Niners go to 2-1 in A10 play by grinding out a victory tomorrow afternoon. The rebounding of Braswell and the rest of the squad will be the determining factor, as the Niners will prevail in a game that will probably be ugly in terms of scoring and field goal percentage.
Oh, and kennethhouck gave a little tid bit in the comments to the X game that I’m going to pass along to anyone who hasn’t seen it.
Tough loss to X.
For St. Louis, do you know what a Billiken is? It’s a Blue Demon. Do you know why SLU has a Blue Demon? Did you see the Exorcist? The movie is based on a real story. The real exorcsim was in a building on the SLU campus. No one goes in the room where the exorcism takes place. It’s sealed up. A window cleaner was on the fire escape cleaning windows, & went down to the floor to clean the outside of the window of the sealed room. He was scared s**tless when he saw a blue demon in the room.
The Niners will have to perform a real life exorcism to beat Rick “tub of lard” Majerus. SLU always has tough defense. We had a game there one time where both were in the 30′s with 3 minutes to go.
Pick: Niners 13, Scary A** Window 12.
We’ll move this to the predictions tomorrow when J Felt gets off his butt and writes it. Or gets on his butt. I really don’t want to know in what state of being he writes his articles now that I think about it. I’m going to go bleach my eyes now.
Recent Comments