Climbing Billikens

(St. Louis, MO) – Saint Louis University is climbing in the national consciousness. The Billikens are one of the hottest teams in the country and are tied for first place in the Atlantic Ten Conference and they’re doing it Jim Crews’ way.

They pack it in defensively, share the basketball and play the game with great fundamentals. Crews, both a Bobby Knight and Rick Majerus disciple has the Billikens playing a game that would make them both proud.

SLU leads the A-10 in scoring defense, scoring margin, defensive shooting percentage for both 2 and three point shots and they’re second in free throw shooting percentage and are third in assists.  Those are numbers that Coach Knight could gush over.

Saint Louis has finally climbed into the national rankings at number 24 and are 16-2 and undefeated against everybody they’ve played except for games with number three Wisconsin and fifth ranked Wichita State.

After a recent win, Billiken forward Dwayne Evans said being ranked isn’t anything special.

“I wouldn’t say there’s much pride in being ranked at all,” Evans said. “It’s a cool number next to our name when we play games. That’s really about all it is. We’ve been here before. We knew we were going to have a target on our back, even if we weren’t ranked, coming off of last year.”

Evans leads the Bills in scoring (15.2) and rebounding (6.2) and is the heart and soul of Crews’ team, but there are other very valuable parts.

Jordair Jett is a guard with a linebacker mentality. He leads the club in assists and in hair length and is a favorite target of opposing fans, but make no mistake Jett provides a toughness and will to win that is essential.

Stretch forward Rob Lowe, off guard Austin McBroom provide perimeter threats and Crews has played a deep eight man rotation all year, but is starting to get production from other players like Mike Crawford too.

A-10 supremacy will be determined by two upcoming games against Virginia Commonwealth. SLU hosts VCU February 15^th and travel to Richmond for a game with the Rams on March 1^st.

This is turning into another special season at Chaifetz Arena.

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