When the Saint Louis University men’s basketball team scored only 20 points against George Washington University on Thursday Jan. 10, Men’s Basketball Coach Rick Majerus made one thing perfectly clear: He did not choose the team he currently coaches.
“It’s like being a step-parent,” Majerus said. “I didn’t pick them. They didn’t pick me.”
The fact that the Billikens scored a record low for points since the beginning of the shot-clock era made SLU a subject for discussion on ESPN Jan. 11. Sports show announcers were talking about the Billikens again a week later when SLU upset then No. 23 Rhode Island 68-61.
“Basketball is a crazy game,” senior forward Luke Meyer said. “We had a terrible night [Thursday Jan. 10 against GW]. We had to move on, and we did. It feels good beating a ranked team because they are going to be a force in the conference.”
In their most recent matchup against Temple University Jan. 20, the Billikens were edged out 54-53 in overtime.
The Owls scored the first five points of the extra session, but the Billikens rallied with four consecutive points. The Billikens made a defensive stand and took possession of the ball with the shot clock turned off, but they were unable to get off the game-winning shot.
“We had a play for Luke [Meyer], where he would get a jump shot, but they switched it, and he wasn’t able to shoot,” junior guard Kevin Lisch said. “So Tommie [Liddell III] penetrated and then kicked it out to me [for the] over-and-back.”
Temple coach Fran Dunphy said his team came into the match knowing it was going to be a hard-fought battle.
“They are a terrific defensive basketball team, and they gave us everything we could handle,” Dunphy said.
Lisch led the Billikens with 17 points in the match, while Liddell narrowly missed a double-double with 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
“We played hard, but we made some mistakes down the stretch and didn’t get up some shots,” Lisch said. “But we’ll come back and learn from it.”
The next game for the Billikens is set for Saturday, Jan. 26, against La Salle. The Explorers are currently on a three-game winning streak.
The series is tied 5-5, including 1-1 since the Billikens joined the A-10, with the home team winning on both occasions. Last year, Kevin Lisch poured in 24 points as the Billikens won 59-55.
Following the match against Temple, the Saint Louis University department of athletics announced that the game at Dayton on Wednesday, Jan. 30, will be made available for viewing via the Internet through Billiken All-Access.
“We are glad that we have been able to make an arrangement with CSTV so that fans of Billiken basketball will be able to see the Dayton game over the Internet,” associate director of athletics Kosha Irby said. “This is part of our ongoing effort to put as much extra programming on the web as we can.”
