Going into the season with six freshmen and four sophomores, this year’s Billiken squad is truly young at heart.

Saint Louis University men’s basketball head coach Rick Majerus took charge of the program in the 2007-2008 season, and the team finished the year with 16 wins. The following year, the Billikens increased their win total by two. And last season, SLU finished the year with 23 victories.

The Billikens of last year earned those victories and a fourth place finish in the Atlantic 10, despite being picked by the coaches to finish tenth in the conference. This season, SLU has been picked to finish sixth.

Sophomore Cory Remekun said he does not care about preseason predictions, and neither does junior Kyle Cassity.

“It really doesn’t matter where we are picked to us—we’re going to play hard no matter what,” Remekun said.

“It’s preseason,” Cassity said. “It means nothing. When conference games start, that’s when we’ll start worrying about where we are. Last year, we were picked tenth and finished fourth. So it really means nothing.”

For history to repeat itself and for SLU to exceed preseason expectations, the team will have to overcome a couple of major hurdles.

The first and most obvious bit of adversity to overcome will be the lack of two regular starters from last year’s squad, Kwamain Mitchell and Willie Reed. Although this challenge was unexpected, the other crucial challenge confronting the 2010-2011 Billikens will be a familiar one: playing without any seniors on the roster.

Last year’s team achieved 23 victories without a single senior on the roster. If the Billikens are to improve their win total this year, they will have to do so without seniors yet again.

Juniors Kyle Cassity and Brian Conklin, together with redshirt junior Paul Eckerle, will begin the season as the most experienced players on the roster that will have to fill the void that comes from having no seniors.

“It’s a little less of an impact this year, though,” Cassity said. “Last year was the first time we’ve ever been through it, but now at least we have been through it. And Paul Eckerle is basically a senior, although he is technically a redshirt junior. But it’s not going to bother us… You just have to come out and play no matter how old you are.”

If you are accustomed to inexperience, does that make you experienced?

Billiken fans are hoping so—because many coaches, players and journalists are anticipating a very strong A-10 Conference, perhaps even better than last year when four A-10 teams qualified for the NCAA tournament.

“I believe it’s an improved conference,” Cassity said. “It’s a great conference, I think. [Coach Majerus] sometimes talks bad about it because of all the travel, but I like it, and it makes it almost easier to get into the NCAA tournament, being from such a good conference.”

SLU will face stiff competition from a variety of A-10 teams. Cassity singled out Temple, Dayton, Xavier, Charlotte and Duquesne as teams to watch out for.

“The team that surprises you is Duquesne. They’re always normally pretty good, and so is Charlotte. Those are two teams that a lot of people don’t think of. It’s a really good conference because you have those big schools, like Dayton, Temple and Xavier, and then you also have those schools that aren’t always talked about, like Charlotte,” Cassity said.

Perhaps one of the reasons that the A-10 has so many contenders has to do with the sheer size of the conference. The A-10 consists of 14 teams, which means that every team in the conference plays every other team once, then plays three teams twice in one season (once at home and once on the road). This season, SLU will play twice against Xavier, Dayton and Duquesne.

“It’s not easy, but that’s exactly what we wanted. We wanted those extra games with Xavier and Dayton,” Cassity said.

Although the multiple games against two conference favorites is a daunting task, it may also turn out to be a blessing in terms of SLU’s strength of schedule. Last season, the Billikens played a lighter schedule than Dayton, and Dayton ended up competing in the NIT, despite the fact that they finished behind the Billikens in the conference standings.

The extra games against Dayton and Xavier should give SLU a boost in terms of strength of schedule. The December road game against preseason No. 1 Duke will also certainly help SLU’s strength of schedule.

But in the meantime, the Billikens are preparing for their tougher schedule by improving on last year’s weaknesses.

“Our defense was really good last year; we need to keep that where it’s at,” Cassity said. “But sometimes our offensive can become a little stagnant; there were times last year where we didn’t move too much. But other than that, our defense just needs to stay where it’s at, and individually for me, I need to work on my jump shot and be a little more aggressive on the offensive end.”

Remekun also mentioned stagnation as a problem from last year’s team that has been addressed in preseason practices. In particular, Remekun wants to avoid the slow starts that plagued the Billikens last year.

“As a team, we need to work on coming out harder,” Remekun said. “A lot of times last year, we would start off slow and be down at halftime. We got into trouble playing down to the level of our competition. We just need to come out and play hard from the beginning every game.”

An increased emphasis on up-tempo, transition offense might alleviate these slow starts that Remekun speaks of.

“We’ve been working on getting up and running a little bit in practice,” Cassity said. “Obviously, we’re never going to be a team that runs up the floor and shoots a pull-up jumper with 30 seconds left on the shot clock. We have worked on pushing the ball up the court a little bit, but we’re going to also be able to pull back and run our half court offense.”

Question marks litter the 2010-2011 SLU men’s basketball team. How will they compensate for the permanent absence of Willie Reed and the uncertain future of Kwamain Mitchell? Will Cody Ellis, Christian Salecich and newcomer Rob Loe comprise a majority-Oceanic starting lineup? Who will be the starting point guard?

No matter what, the Billikens’ goals will not change. Winning the Atlantic 10 and qualifying for the NCAA tournament are the goals that motivate SLU. Their pursuit of these goals begins on Nov. 12, in the Chaifetz Arena, against Austin Peay.