The Saint Louis Billikens Control Their Own Destiny

At the Xavier Musketeers and at home versus the La Salle Explorers. That’s what stands in the way of the Saint Louis Billikens‘ first regular-season conference title since 1971. The Atlantic 10 Conference is in the midst of one of its most exciting seasons to date and, barring a tremendous collapse, Saint Louis should outlast the VCU Rams (one game behind) f0r the A-10 regular-season crown.

The Rams have a home game against the Richmond Spiders and finish off the regular season away against the Temple Owls.

Now, nobody’s saying the Musketeers and Explorers are pushovers, but the Spiders beat VCU in overtime earlier in the season and the Owls are 14-4 at home, even though Temple and the Rams haven’t met this season. The Owls, though, are in the midst of a five-game win streak in which Khalif Wyatt averages 19 points per-game.

A slightly more impressive win streak would be 11 games, held by the Billikens. SLU is a defensive team predicated on rebounding, hustle points and well-timed three pointers. VCU is another defensive team but isn’t as good in transition and has less success setting up dagger threes.

Saint Louis can score from deep with a multitude of people, though, and missing a rebounding opportunity isn’t something the Billikens give up lately, so that kind of patience pays dividends in the transition game. It’ll also pay off in the standings, too.

 

Mike Gillmeister can be reached at [email protected], or on Twitter:@mgillmeiRantCBB. Like his Facebook page here for updates on Big 12/A-10 men’s basketball.