SLU Versus Valleys

(St. Louis, MO) – Saint Louis Univrsity was at one time rumored to be potentially joining the Missouri Valley Conference. That didn’t materialize but this basketball season the Billikens are playing six “Valley” teams (three from the Missouri Valley and three from the Ohio Valley).

Those leagues will be affected by how the Billikens play all season. RPI, the Holy Grail of college basketball will be largely impacted in both Valleys by SLU’s performance in the rugged Atlantic 10 Conference.

So why did Saint Louis schedule so many Valley schools? There is great logic behind the decision. SLU has played a very respectable schedule and at the same time they brought in these Valley teams that would largely be considered underdogs, but have legitimate RPIs.

SLU scheduled Louisville and Kansas State outside of the Valley schools. When you add Wichita State (MVC) you have three very significant opponents, one at home, one on the road and one on a neutral court.

Saint Louis traditionally plays either Missouri State or Southern Illinois Carbondale and this year the Bills play the Salukis. Recently, Southern Illinois Edwardsville has become an annual opponent. So the other three opponents Morehead State, UT – Martin and Indiana State are legitimate opponents.

UT-Martin is struggling this season, but went to the CIT semi-finals last year. Indiana State is perennially an upper level MVC team and Morehad is a team on the rise. The SIUE game is an easy travel game, missing a limited amount of class for the student athletes.

In a year when Jim Crews couldn’t have been optimistic about having a great season, playing a lot of home games against worthy, but beatable opponents (they bought several of these games) was a wise way to test his team, give them a chance to build some confidence and to develop their roles and rotation prior to the meat grinder of the A-10 season.

No, SLU probably shouldn’t have joined the MVC, but it makes sense for the Billikens to play a significant number of Valley teams.

Do Good