Tomorrow, the Saint Louis University Billikens play in their first NCAA Tournament game since 2019. In his second year at the helm, Josh Schertz led the Billikens to their first at-large bid in over 10 years, and after Schertz agreed to a lucrative extension that shows SLU’s commitment to NIL and revenue sharing, the Billikens’ long-term outlook is wildly exciting. It’s a great time to be a Billiken fan.
In the short term, SLU finds itself as a 9-seed in Buffalo, having struggled in the final stretch of the season. The Billikens went 4-4 in their final games, after lighting up the A10 in January. Taking into account games played since February 1, SLU is only 109 on T-Rank from barttorvik.com. After a controversial loss to Dayton in the A-10 semi-finals, the Billikens arrive in Buffalo with a winnable game against 8-seed Georgia, but they’ll need to rediscover their earlier season form.
It’ll come down to rebounding and defense. Georgia is a team that plays at a lightning fast pace and has a ton of athleticism. They also aren’t a great defensive team that mostly relies on full-court pressure. It’s an interesting matchup that ultimately might come down to who is able to impose their game on the other. If SLU can get stops and exploit Georgia’s defense, they have a great shot of winning. It’s also easy to see SLU struggling to stop Georgia’s guard trio of Jeremiah Wilkinson, Smurf Millender, and Blue Cain, who are big-time shotmakers, and struggling to keep hyper-athletic big man Somto Cyril off the offensive boards.
Georgia has small guards who aren’t great defensively, which could help SLU’s screening and movement be more effective. Robbie Avila’s ability to space the floor could be massive in negating Cyril’s elite rim protection. Amari McCottry and Kellen Thames have the physicality to neutralize Kanon Catchings despite giving up a few inches in height. SLU doesn’t match up poorly with Georgia, but they don’t match up well if their rebounding looks like it has the past month and a half.
In short, if SLU wants to win, they need to get stops—and then rebound the ball after they get the stops—so Georgia can’t set up their full-court pressure. Everything will flow from that.
SLU showed signs of improvement in Pittsburgh and a week of practice for Josh Schertz could be valuable for getting the team to shake off its doldrums. No one is more determined to make a big tournament run than Josh Schertz, who wants to reward Avila for his loyalty and help him end his career on a bang. SLU’s shooting and oft-cited “spurtability” gives them the potential to make some noise in March, but they need to clean up the defense and the rebounding in order to do so.