Saint Louis University Billikens

[LIONS90045]

Saint Louis University Billikens

Member: Atlantic 10

Record: W 1 – L 1
Record (2023-24): W 13 – L 20
Conference (2023-24): W 5 – L 13

slubillikens.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2024-25
slubillikens.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2023-24

Roster: slubillikens.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

Leading Scorers:
Gibson Jimmerson G 6’5” 215 RS SR 22.0
Isaiah Swope G 5’10” 175 SR 16.0
Kellen Thames G 6’6” 210 RS SO 16.0
Robbie Avila C 6’10” 240 JR 16.0
Larry Hughes II G 6’4” 190 JR 7.5

The Billikens loss this season was to Santa Clara 78-85. They have guard heavy scoring with a talented center.
Head Coach Josh Schertz is in his first season with the Billikens.

The Lions should match up well in this game but will have to shoot better than the Irvine game. I bet and hope that Alex will not have another game as bad (0-9 shooting) all season.
I don’t see a well-oiled Lions team after out first two games. Lots of individual efforts.
I suspect Amey needs more touches to be as effective as he can be; Stone-Carrawell as well. Vide and Johnson need to find ways to involve other players more on offense. Porter was very good but can be better if he doen’t have to carry such a load on offense.

Gametime: Saturday, Nov 16, 5 pm in St. Louis.
Video: ESPN+.

[boothlion]

Current line has St. Louis favored by 6. Their message board and local beat reporters are saying an illness has hit the St. Louis team and they have been practicing with 8 players this week.
Robbie Avila is still out with the ankle injury from the Santa Clara game. Kobe Johnson, their transfer from West Virginia, who they were hoping for this game is looking like he is still unavailable. Kalu Anya, their leading rebounder has been out sick this week and is “questionable” for the game. Same with Kellen Thames, listed as “questionable.”

[lambdachi1988lion]

Nov 15, 2024 13:20:07 GMT -5 boothlion said:

Current line has St. Louis favored by 6. Their message board and local beat reporters are saying an illness has hit the St. Louis team and they have been practicing with 8 players this week.
Robbie Avila is still out with the ankle injury from the Santa Clara game. Kobe Johnson, their transfer from West Virginia, who they were hoping for this game is looking like he is still unavailable. Kalu Anya, their leading rebounder has been out sick this week and is “questionable” for the game. Same with Kellen Thames, listed as “questionable.”

Promising news. Sounds like we might be getting the nice opportunity to play a quality team at a time of challenge for them. Just the kind of game IMHO to give the team confidence to build on if we are going to have a strong season.


I am familar with one of their new players, Kalu Anya, as I am currently getting my Masters at Brown and he played last season for us in Providence. Part of me will be sad to not see him get to play against my Lions, but the other part is happy since he is quite the player (and I was sad with him leaving the Bears for the Bilikens).

Even the Ivy League schools like Brown are having a tough time keeping quality players for four years with all they can offer in academics, experience, etc

[boothlion]

Nov 15, 2024 13:20:07 GMT -5 boothlion said:

Current line has St. Louis favored by 6. Their message board and local beat reporters are saying an illness has hit the St. Louis team and they have been practicing with 8 players this week.
Robbie Avila is still out with the ankle injury from the Santa Clara game. Kobe Johnson, their transfer from West Virginia, who they were hoping for this game is looking like he is still unavailable. Kalu Anya, their leading rebounder has been out sick this week and is “questionable” for the game. Same with Kellen Thames, listed as “questionable.”

Per Jon Rothstein; Kobe Johnson, Kalu Anya, and Kellen Thames are all "available" for tonight's game.

Big Rick is listed as out again.

[LIONS90045]

As Booth noted, the Lions are underdogs again. Las Vegas doesn’t think much of the Lions early in the season and it’s interesting how often they are correct. I would like to be surprised by an upset by the Lions.
Elsewhere, Irvine is favored by 15-1/2 over Pepperdine tonite.

[LIONS90045]

Not sure where the game will end but I feel a lot better about our offense early on.
Gotta watch that Jimmerson guy!

[LIONS90045]

Like what I see from our players
We’ll get better as the season progresses

[golions1444]

I dunno. Some good individual plays but our offensive sets and strategy is hard to watch. I’m still not sure I’ve seen one good solid effective screen set in the Stan Johnson era…

[boothlion]

Well that’s a terrible way to end the half. Cut it down to 2 and then Saint Louis goes on a 12-2 run. They have done a good job of shutting down Porter. I’m not seeing it from Matar; he does nothing on offensive and is too big of a lability on defense. I understand with Rick out you want the size; but I’d rather see McBride get the start next game if Rick is still out.

[LIONS90045]

Single digit lead with 3:26 to play

[lambdachi1988lion]

Team has good fight and when they put their mind to it can play some solid D, but still shows they are still coming together in playing as a team. SLU is not a bad team at all so this would be a huge W on the road if we completed the comeback.

[LIONS90045]

McBride earned a start after this game

[boothlion]

It’s a loss and the better team won but I saw improvement. Irvine I saw panic, frustration and lack of composure. They were down all of the game but I didn’t see panic. I also didn’t see any killer instinct and desire to take over the game that I briefly saw from Porter in the Irvine game. As of now, even with all the depth; it’s going to come down to how MJ and Porter do.

[thx4leavinjimlynam]

It’s early in the season, there’s a lot to figure out. I do like that Stan is staying with the hot hand late in games, for example he stuck with Vide late in the UCI game. Today he stuck with McBride.

And I agree that St. Louis is a pretty good team, just like UCI.

I’d rather play these games and lose than play cupcakes and win. These games will make us better.

[lmu2015]

The last two minutes of the first half and first 2ish minutes of the second were tough. It was nice to too Merkviladze bounce back. Johnston is keeping us competitive, I would have thought we'd lose by over 20 if you told be MJ and Porter would be as inefficient as they were. We definitely look like a team figuring things out but I agree with the sentiment that these games are making us better and will help us be more competitive in league play. Also agree that McBride has a lot of potential and would like to see him play more minutes, he could develop into a really good 4 year player for us.

A bit disappointed that our freshman have been MIA, hopefully they aren't getting frustrated and have bought into a 4 year plan.

I expect us to be favored in our next two games at home, hopefully we can get two wins and get some momentum going.