As fans at the Nov. 3 exhibition match-up against Harris Stowe saw, this Billiken team and this season are far different from the last. Losing all five starters, the winningest class in SLU history and arguably the most talented, SLU fans have justification behind being skeptical of their team to start the season.
The 2013-14 Billiken squad with seniors Rob Loe, Dwayne Evans, Mike McCall Jr., Jake Barnett, and Atlantic-10 -Player-of-the-Year Jordair Jett, led SLU to a 27-7 record, a record-setting third straight NCAA Tournament, and a ranking as high as No. 10 in the nation, is definitely not the same as this year’s team. However, though SLU is picked to finish ninth in the Atlantic 10 pre-season poll, fans could be in for a pleasant surprise when they see the team on Nov. 15 against Southern Illinois.
“From this team, I want everybody to realize that this isn’t last year’s team or the team before that, it’s brand new. We’re not looking to emulate the same record or anything like that. It’d be good if we did that, or bettered that, of course, but ultimately we want to get back to the tournament. Definitely getting back to the tournament is the goal for us,” senior forward Grandy Glaze said.
If the Harris Stowe exhibition game is any indication, SLU fans could be in for a pleasant surprise this season. SLU looked like an offensive force against Harris Stowe, putting up 86 points. SLU had 11 different scorers in the game, with junior Austin McBroom leading the way with 19 points.
“I think we have a good chance of being pretty good offensively. You’re going to have guys that are up and down; some days they’ll look really good and then the next day you won’t really notice them too much,” head coach Jim Crews said.
One thing to look forward to this season is the appearance of redshirt junior Ash Yacoubou, who sat out all of last season after ransferring from Villanova. The much-talked about guard/forward played 21 minutes in the exhibition and had 16 points, second most on the team behind McBroom in both categories.
A few things that SLU needs to work on this season that could hinder them in upcoming matches is fouling and turnovers. SLU committed 27 fouls in their exhibition game and allowed 19 turnovers.
This season, with the new mix of players, SLU could be a more offensive-minded team that scores more points off of runs, and more quickly overall than in years past, led by the quickness and athleticism of McBroom and Yacoubou. There will also be more than last year’s typical 7-9 players playing in each game. Against Harris Stowe, SLU played every single player on scholarship, and they all had at least 10 minutes or more in the game. No one single player played more than 25 minutes, the average being just above 15 minutes apiece.
Though this season looks a lot different than last’s, SLU will hold the same defensive mindset as in previous years, and continued the “team together” motto started by late head coach Rick Majerus.
“We can’t dwell on being last year’s team. We have to understand that this is the 2014-2015 Billiken’s team, and we need to take it one game at a time and live with the results we get. If we put in the work, we’ll get where we want to be,” Glaze said.
