Billikens Close Road Swing at Southern Illinois
Dec. 1, 2008
THIS WEEK: The Saint Louis Billikens (2-3) close out a three-game road swing Tuesday, Dec. 2, when they head to Carbondale, Ill., to take on Southern Illinois in a 7:05 p.m. game. SLU begins a four-game homestand Saturday, Dec. 6, as Savannah State comes to Chaifetz Arena for a 7 p.m. contest. ABOUT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS: The Salukis (2-3) won their first two games this year but suffered losses to nationally ranked Duke and UCLA and dropped their most recent outing at Western Kentucky. Last season, SIU was 18-15, 11-7 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Carlton Fay leads the Salukis with 14.0 ppg and 5.2 rpg. Kevin Dillard adds 11.4 ppg, while Bryan Mullins is one of the nation's assist leaders with 42. SIU is averaging 66.8 ppg while giving up 72.8 ppg. The Salukis shoot 42 percent from the field, 43.4 percent from the 3-point arc and 65.9 percent from the free-throw line. Head coach Chris Lowery is 98-41 in his fifth season at his alma mater. The Billikens lead the series 25-23 and posted a 56-51 win last year in St. Louis. The Billikens are looking for their first win at SIU Arena since Nov. 29, 1997. ABOUT SAVANNAH STATE: The Tigers (4-2) have dropped their last two tilts at Clemson and at Michigan after winning their first four games of the season. Savannah State hosts Bowling Green Monday night before coming to St. Louis. Freshman forward Rashad Hassan is shooting 60.9 percent from the field, tops SSU with 11.7 ppg and is second with 5.0 rpg. Chris Linton adds 9.0 ppg and leads the team with 5.3 rpg. The Tigers are averaging 65.2 ppg and are surrendering 60.2 ppg. SSU shoots 41.7 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from 3-point range and 71.0 percent from the line. Head coach Horace Broadnax is 31-66 in four years at Savannah State, 73-154 in eight years overall. The Billikens won the only previous meeting 73-33 on November 24, 2004, in St. Louis. ON THE AIR: Billiken basketball can be heard this season on FM 101.1 WMVN. Bob Ramsey, who has served as the "Voice of the Billikens" for the past 22 years, will again provide the play-by-play. Earl Austin Jr., sports editor of the St. Louis American, will begin his 18th year in the analyst's role.
TICKET INFO: Season and individual tickets can be purchased online at www.slubillikens.com or www.metrotix.com, by phone at (314) 534-1111 or toll free at (800) 293-5949, and at the Chaifetz Arena Ticket Office. BILLIKEN ALL-ACCESS: All Billiken regular-season home games this season are video streamed live through Billiken All-Access at www.slubillikens.com. Subscriptions are available for $79.95 annually or $9.95 a month. GameTracker is again available free of charge in 2008. LAST WEEK: The Billikens dropped two road contests last week. Nebraska used a 9-0 run midway through the second half to post a 71-57 win in Lincoln. Brian Conklin scored 18 points and pulled down six rebounds, five on the offensive end, to lead the Billikens. With two minutes to play at Detroit, SLU cut an 11-point deficit to just one, but could not complete the comeback in a 62-57 loss to the Titans. Tommie Liddell III led the Bills with 16 points, while Kevin Lisch added 14 points. BILLIKEN BITS: In the latest A-10 statistical report, the Billikens lead the league in free-throw percentage at 74.5, are tied for the league lead in 3-point field goal percentage defense at 27.0 percent and are third in rebounding margin at +7.4. In addition, SLU is second in scoring defense at 58.4 ppg. Individually, Kevin Lisch is 11th in scoring at 14.5 ppg and is second in free-throw shooting at 94.4. Tommie Liddell III is seventh in rebounding at 7.8 rpg, and Kwamain Mitchell is tied for sixth in assists at 4.0 apg. CHAIFETZ ARENA: This is the inaugural season for the Billikens in Chaifetz (SHAY-fetz) Arena. The $81 million arena has a seating capacity of 10,600 and is located on the SLU campus along Laclede Avenue west of Compton Avenue. Chaifetz Arena functions as a true multipurpose campus events center, hosting a myriad of SLU events including men's and women's basketball, volleyball, commencement, cultural events, conferences and conventions. The arena houses the department of athletics offices as well as Chaifetz Pavilion, a practice facility for the basketball teams and the home facility for the volleyball team. The building is named for Dr. Richard A. Chaifetz, who donated a $12 million naming gift to the University. Dr. Chaifetz is a 1975 SLU grad and is chairman and CEO of ComPsych Corporation. HEAD COACH Rick Majerus: Rick Majerus is in his second season as head coach of the Billikens with an 18-18 record. He has a 22-year career mark of 440-165 and has never had a losing season. Majerus has taken 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament and four to the NIT. At the start of the 2008-09 season, his .730 career winning percentage ranked 12th among active coaches. RETURNING VETERANS: Four letterwinnners return to the men's squad, led by the senior guard tandem of Kevin Lisch (Belleville, Ill. / Althoff) and Tommie Liddell III (East St. Louis, Ill. / Hargrave Military). Lisch led the 2007-08 team with 14.6 ppg, 63 3-pointers and 97 assists, while Liddell added 12.3 ppg and is the squad's leading returning rebounder at 4.3 rpg. Senior forward Barry Eberhardt (Inkster, Mich. / Coffeyville CC) returns after averaging 6.0 points and 3.9 boards. Sophomore guard Paul Eckerle (Washington, Mo. / St. Francis Borgia) played in all 31 games and sank 22 3-pointers en route to 3.8 ppg as a freshman. FRESH FACES: The Billikens brought in the largest freshman class in school history with eight talented newcomers. The class was ranked in the top 40 nationally by recruiting service Scout.com, and Rivals.com considered SLU's class the second best in the A-10. PRESEASON AWARDS: The Atlantic 10 Conference announced that Saint Louis University senior guards Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell III were named to the league's preseason men's basketball All-Conference teams. In a poll of the league's coaches, Lisch was named to the first team and the All-Defensive squad, while Liddell was selected to the second team. LAST YEAR: In their first year under head coach Rick Majerus, the Billikens posted a 16-15 overall mark, 7-9 in the Atlantic 10. Kevin Lisch earned third-team All-Conference and All-Defensive team honors. ACADEMIC AWARDS: Kevin Lisch, a potential Academic All-American, was named to the A-10 Academic All-Conference team in 2007-08. He also will look to become the third straight Billiken to be selected to the NACDA I-AAA Scholar-Athlete team after Luke Meyer was honored following the past two seasons. |
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