Throughout my childhood and young adult years, I have spent a considerable amount of time from November to March attending Saint Louis University men’s basketball games. The first team I remember watching was the 1988-89 team. I turned five years old near the end of that team’s season, which resulted in a runner-up finish in the National Invitation Tournament.
I have seen the Billikens call three different arenas their home court, and play home games in two other venues in St. Louis as well.
I have seen four SLU teams earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament and I have also seen two SLU teams finish a season with fewer than 10 wins. I have seen four different men lead the Billikens as head coach and I have seen two former Billikens selected in the first round of the NBA Draft.
In spite of the many differences in the team from season to season, one thing seems to remain the same for the fans of the program: It’s not easy to be a Billikens fan.
When I say this, I mean no criticism of the program, because quite honestly it is for that reason that I find following SLU basketball to be so enjoyable. Nothing is a sure thing, which makes any outcome of any game a possibility, whether SLU is playing the top-ranked team in the nation or a team ranked around 300th.
The past few weeks have been the epitome of this mindset for the devoted SLU fan. Just a few days before Christmas, the Billikens gave Gonzaga University, ranked among the top 10 teams in the country, all they could handle for the entire game, which ended in a 60-57 loss. SLU had both the lead at halftime and a shot at the buzzer which would have tied the score.
It was a tough loss to take, considering how close this young Billikens team was to a major win, but in the end fans were left to take away any positives they could find and file it in a category that is sometimes hated by coaches, players, and fans alike: a moral victory.
Less than a week later, that same SLU team that battled Gonzaga for 40 minutes pulled out a 58-52 win over Chicago State, a team ranked closer to 250 in the Ratings Power Index. It seemed odd that a team that could hang with a top-10 squad would be tested by a lower-ranked team like Chicago State, but some people might have been able to look at the game and conclude that the 2004-05 edition of the Billikens might not have garnered a win when they weren’t at their best offensively.
Two nights later, SLU would fall 60-50 to a very solid University of Iowa team. The game would have been closer had Iowa not shot the lights out from behind the three-point arc, shooting at a clip above 50 percent.
The start of a new year and the beginning of SLU’s inaugural season in the Atlantic 10 Conference has done little to ease the hearts of SLU fans; all three A-10 games as of Monday night have come down to the last possession in regulation.
The Billikens won their opener against St. Bonaventure in a nailbiter.
Freshman guard Kevin Lisch, who missed a long 3-pointer that would have tied the game as time expired against Gonzaga, had better fortune against the Bonnies and tied the game up with a three, with 34 seconds left on the clock.
Following a missed shot by a Bonnies player, SLU junior center Ian Vouyoukas snared the rebound, getting fouled in the process and being awarded a 1-1 at the free-throw line. Vouyoukas made both free throws, to give his team the lead, then the Billikens dodged a bullet when a three-pointer by Ahmad Smith of St. Bonaventure just missed as time expired, giving SLU a win in their A-10 opener.
Another opportunity to slay a ranked team presented itself to the Billikens last week against George Washington University. The Billikens led the 17th-ranked Colonials throughout much of regulation, including in the final minute of the game, before falling to GWU 69-64 in overtime in Washington D.C.
The Billikens had the last shot to win it in regulation, with freshman guard Tommie Liddell driving toward the hoop, before finding a hot-shooting Danny Brown in the corner for an open 3-pointer. Brown received the pass but lost the ball as he went up for the shot, sending the game into overtime-another close-but-no-cigar scenario that tugged at the heart of SLU fans.
Finally, at the St. Charles Family Arena on Saturday, Liddell hit a jumper with 1.5 seconds remaining to give SLU a 50-48 victory over the University of Massachusetts and a 2-1 record in A-10 play.
It was another down-to-the-wire result, but this time they left the arena victorious.
For the time being, SLU fans can do one of two things. The first is to just enjoy the exciting finishes.
The second, for those eager for the future, is to look forward to when the close finishes against top teams regularly come out in favor of the Billikens. This is a young but talented SLU squad, and those wins could come as soon as this season. If they don’t, then it’s a good bet that, as the teams grows, the big wins will come.
