he Brooklyn Dodgers had a saying: “Wait-til next year.” Well for the Saint Louis University men’s basketball team, next year is here.

It’s been eight months since the Bills lost to Southern Miss in the Conference USA tournament and thus ended their season. The Bills have spent the past eight months working, training and looking toward their season opener against the University of Tennessee-Martin. Tomorrow night the wait is over.

“Everybody is pumped up and ready to go,” said Marque Perry.

As they should be.

The Bills return four senior starters and eight players overall from a team that last year went 9-9 in conference play.

If there is one thing above any other that the 2002 installment of the Billikens possesses, it is experience.

Seniors Josh Fisher, Drew Diener, Marque Perry and Kenny Brown will all start for the Bills and senior Chris Braun will see extensive action off the bench throughout the season.

“We’re a senior-dominated team, and I can tell the difference in practice and the games,” Braun said. “When things get a little haywire for a minute, you look around and there are four other guys on the floor who have been through it.”

The Bills wrapped up their exhibition schedule last night against the Athletes in Action, at the Savvis Center with a 66-58 victory. This was also the final exhibition game for AIA. They had previously lost close games to Alabama and Arkansas, both perennial Southeastern Conference Powers, and Tuesday night they beat the University of Washington and former Bills coach Lorenzo Romar, before catching the red-eye to St. Louis to play the Bills.

AIA is an all-star team comprised of former college players who also have a self-proclaimed relationship with God.

The Billikens implemented a three-guard lineup to start off the game and held pretty close to that the entire night.

The starting Bills guards were Marque Perry, Josh Fisher and Drew Diener. Perry scored a game-high 16 points, and Fisher led the Bills with seven assists.

Perry is undoubtedly the key player for the Billikens this year. He is coming off of a second team All-C-USA selection last year as well as being named the Bills Most Valuable Player last year. Perry was also the Bills scoring leader last season.

Diener was three of four from behind the three-point arc.

“Josh is a great passer because he’s always looking for me, Drew and Chris Sloan coming off screens,” Perry said.

Sloan started at forward for the Bills last night and added 6 points to the Billikens’ win. Known mainly for his defensive prowess and his knack for rebounding last year, Sloan has developed a better scoring touch on the floor and it looks to make him more of a weapon throughout the season.

Brown was the starting center and contributed another 6 points.

However it was on the defensive end that the Bills performed the best, ending the game with more rebounds and more assists than their AIA opponents.

“We are pleased but not satisfied,” Braun said. “We are happy to come away with a win.”

The Bills leading scorer off of the bench was Braun, who put in 11 points in extensive duty, totaling 21 minutes of playing time.

The Bills bench is a little thin to start the season, though. Aside from Braun, Ross Varner is the only other Billiken substitute on the roster who has seen extensive playing time in a Bills uniform.

Philip Hunt will be able to provide valuable spot time at any guard spot this season, and so will freshman Anthony Drejaj but both are relatively untested and are not ready to carry the load yet.

Transfer Izik Ohanon, from Israel, will have to sit out the first eight games of the season, due to playing some professional ball back in Israel.

Until about midway through the season, when those players start to gain a better grasp on the offense, the Bills will be playing with a relatively short bench.

“I have no problems playing with a short bench. It kind of makes substitution patterns easy,” coach Brad Soderberg said. “We played well on both ends, running a smooth offense and playing solid defense.”

And while Soderberg is by no means looking past Tennessee-Martin tomorrow night, he does see the bigger picture and is trying to instill that mindset in his players.

“This whole thing is a process and this game is just another step in that process,” Soderberg said.