The phone didn’t ring.

The Saint Louis University men’s basketball team was hoping for a postseason birth, but they weren’t invited to either dance. The NCAA and the NIT passed on the Billikens and now their season is complete.

While Conference USA rivals Cincinnati and Memphis continue on their respective tournament runs, the Bills will spend the rest of March watching from their couches.

“It was disappointing for us to not reach the postseason, because that’s our goal every year,” said coach Lorenzo Romar. “We had our opportunities, but some lapses along the way cost us some victories.”

“I would have liked it to end better like in the NCAA tournament or the NIT,” said senior forward Maurice Jeffers.

“I think we had an OK year; we beat some teams that no one thought we would.”

SLU was knocked out of the C-USA postseason tournament two weeks ago by the University of Southern Mississippi.

“It was a good defensive game,” said USM coach James Green. “Jeffers did a good job of breaking us down and getting to the free throw line.”

“It was played the way we thought it would be, a grind-it-out defensive struggle,” Romar said. “Unfortunately we didn’t come out on top.”

“We were kind of struggling. You have to give credit to them,” Jeffers said.

Jeffers led the Billikens with 21 points and six rebounds in his final game. Southern Miss center Vandarel Jones posted 20 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds.

After returning to St. Louis the Billikens were hoping for a phone call. It never came. Neither the NCAA nor the NIT found the Bills 17-14 overall record worth a ticket to either dance.

Now the Bills have to retool as they prepare for next season without three of their starters and one of their key reserves. Jeffers, center Chris Heinrich and forwards Justin Tatum and Matt Baniak have all completed their careers as Billikens. Romar will have a hard time trying to replace these four floor leaders.

“We’ll miss our seniors, because that group accomplished a great deal,” Romar said.

“They won the first conference championship that this program has seen in 30 years, and they went to a pair of NCAA Tournaments.”

The Billikens lose their only true center in Heinrich. The 6’10” Heinrich was one of the biggest bodies in the middle of the paint every year in C-USA.

“He’s one of the few guys who can slow Alton [Ford] down,” said University of Houston coach Ray McCallum. Ford, 6’9″, 265, is one of the largest players in C-USA, and most centers can’t handle his mobility and size.

In Tatum, SLU loses one of its toughest competitors. A constant competitor this season, he finished with 8.9 points a game and 5.1 rebounds a contest.

Tatum led the team with 27 shot blocks and is fifth on SLU’s all-time shot block list, even after the NCAA took a year and a half of eligibility.

Tatum split time with Baniak in the power forward position as Romar rotated the two in the starting line-up.

Baniak was the Bills most improved player as shown by his late-season run that was highlighted by him scoring 12 of the Billikens last 14 points against the University of South Florida. Baniak is fourth on the all-time shot block list with 87.

Jeffers was the heart and soul of this Billiken squad. He was both the leading scorer with 16 points and rebounder with 6.1 per game.

He was a human highlight reel with his thunderous dunks that brought the Savvis Center crowd to their feet.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet that I won’t be playing,” Jeffers said. “I’m going to miss playing.”

Jeffers was recruited by former Billiken coach Charlie Spoonhour, but decided to come and play under Romar.

“I had a difficult time with it, I had second and third thoughts about it,” Jeffers said.

“I felt comfortable with him and I’m glad I came and played here. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever played under,” Jeffers said.

Even though the Billikens are losing so much, Jeffers is confident that they can continue on their way back to the NCAA Tournament. “They’ll be pretty good next year. Marque [Perry] will score more and he’ll become even more of a leader.

“With him as the point guard he has to be the leader; he has to lead the team,” Jeffers said.

“You’ll see a lot of people step up. Good teams always have people step up,” Jeffers said.