Billikens Struggle While Trying to Adapt
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Rick Majerus and his team are going through the trouble that can happen when there’s a coaching change. Sometimes the change in playing styles is just that drastic, and Saint Louis is seeing that right now.
This was perhaps no more apparent than on Tuesday night, when the Billikens lost 61-39 at Boston College in a game that wasn’t even that close and wasn’t a contest. Once the Eagles ran off 14 unanswered points to turn a close game into a 23-5 cushion, the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
A look at the box score shows a thorough domination by the young Eagles, including on the boards by a 36-21 margin. This isn’t an Eagle team loaded with inside firepower, although Tyrelle Blair blocked seven shots on the night, so that had to be a concerning stat. It certainly was for Majerus.
“It was the first game in my life where a two, five and a four didn’t get an offensive rebound in the first half,” said Majerus. “That’s indicative of a lot of issues we have.”
Although the Billikens return four starters, the one they lost is steady inside producer Ian Vouyoukas. So now they go with seven-footer Bryce Husak, a role player at best, and undersized Luke Meyer in the frontcourt. (Meyer started last year.) That’s where the issues start on a team with a good perimeter unit led by shooter Kevin Lisch and versatile Tommie Liddell. Lisch was held in check, going just 1-7 from the field.
Majerus said the locker room after Tuesday’s loss wasn’t that of a 6-4 team, but more like an 0-10 team. Clearly, the players weren’t happy with how they played, and Majerus sees a positive because he can see that they aren’t satisfied and thus should have one more motivator to improve. He knows where this team stands right now, and that it’s not going to be easy going forward even though they have talent there.
“I realize the position I’m in here now,” said Majerus. “These guys didn’t pick me, I didn’t pick them. We’re in each other’s world and we’re looking at each other like…”
The players have to learn a new system, one they didn’t play at the beginning of their college careers. They are going from running set plays to a motion offense, so the timing is all off for them. This is one thing that can happen when a coaching change takes place, as there can be a clash in styles. A coach is going to go with what they know, for obvious reasons – it’s hard for someone to be something they aren’t – and players will be the same way.
The Billikens have had something else work against them: practice time. Not only does the season start earlier now, giving them less time to devote to initially learning the new system, but injuries haven’t helped. Danny Brown suffered a bad kneecap injury but can’t redshirt, while Husak missed all of the preseason, including their scrimmage against Memphis. Once the season got started, there hasn’t been much time in between games – they have played their 10 games in a stretch of less than three weeks – and mandatory days off.
And it’s not going to get any easier.
“We’re caught in another situation where we play another game in two more days,” noted Majerus. “Then, when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s a freight train because in the middle of exam week, we play Southern Illinois. Then we come out of exam week and play another game at the end of it.”
Throughout the press conference, you could sense that Majerus feels a long season could be ahead. He noted that they have had to gut out wins thus far, as opposed to simply being a clearly better team all the way. Looking at the schedule, one can understand what he’s getting at. This team’s six wins have for the most part come against teams they should beat, from Houston Baptist to a Detroit team that had its best player leave the team and a rebuilding Furman squad right down to a Long Beach State squad that looks nothing like the one that won the Big West last season. Not many have come easily; just a few days earlier, they had to hold off Long Beach State for a four-point win.
While saying all of this, you can tell he’s not trying to get anyone to feel sorry for them, but he just stated the reality he and the team has to live with. He likes the players a great deal and has found some positives to take out of it all, but from a basketball standpoint, this figures to be a challenging season.
In another year or so, as Majerus and his staff recruit players to fit their system, things figure to get better. In time this season, the current players should get more comfortable with his system as well, although it might come at the expense of a lot of losses or unnecessarily close games early on. Right now, he knows it won’t be easy as they have to go with who they have. He’s also not losing perspective of the bigger picture for the young men, as he notes one will go to medical school and he added that he would “much rather lose every game than have a kid put in a position not to do well academically.”
This is also not a good year for the Billikens to have the struggles they are currently having. The Atlantic 10 looks to be up this year, and the teams at the top look especially good. The depth in the conference looks to be better than some recent years as well, so there will be fewer easy outs. They didn’t get a break in terms of teams they play twice, as they will take on Dayton, George Washington and UMass – all of whom should at least be upper division teams if not contenders for the top – both at home and on the road. Majerus had a brief version at the end to sum up where the team is right now.
“We’re in a box, and we’re all trying to fight out of it together.”
