Billikens

Brian’s latest mock has the 19-1 St. Louis Billikens as a 7-seed. The presumptive A-10 champ has a 13-game winning streak and look to end a tourney drought that dates back to 2019. Legit mid-major monster or a likely opening weekend loser?

The Billikens have the nations best effective fg% on both defense and offense. That’s remarkable. They’re 4th in 2-point shooting and 6th in 3-point shooting on offense and 3rd in both on the defensive side. Overall, they’re 39th and 25th in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency because that’s all they do well in the four factors except defensive rebounding.

What does it mean? If you’re going to lead in something in the Four Factors, it’s the two they lead in. It’s easily the most important but it does mean there are concerns. They don’t turn teams over and they foul a lot. They’re a bit loose with the ball and don’t get to the line. However, given what they do well, as a potential 7-seed, I wouldn’t want to see them on opening weekend.

The schedule hasn’t been very tough. Their best non-con wins are Santa Clara and Grand Canyon. The lone loss was to Stanford. They won’t get a marquee matchup in the league as VCU is the only top-50 KenPom team in the A-10 (they did win at VCU). Hard to see them earning anything higher than a 5-seed or so.

Robbie Avila followed Josh Schertz to St. Louis and continues to be a productive player. Trey Green is shooting 48% from 3. They have a lot of good college basketball players that each do something well. Love the mix on this team.

Hard to gauge just how good they are but are certainly capable of a Sweet 16. Josh Schertz will be a popular name in the next coaching carousel.