Struggling SLU looks to bolster defense against Wofford

You can look at some of the St. Louis University’s recent games and say the Billikens have been unlucky. UMass Lowell took its game with SLU down to the wire because it shot 63.2% from the 3-point line. San Francisco shot 46% on 3s and Illinois State shot 47% in games that SLU lost.

Or you can look at what SLU didn’t do that allowed those teams to shoot so well.

“(Coach Josh) Schertz talks about in order to win games, you have to make your opponents play bad,” SLU center Robbie Avila said. “And we’ve failed to do that, especially in these first 10 games. We’re not really making opponents do anything. It’s either they’re going to make shots or miss shots right now. So whether our offense is going well or going bad at the beginning of a game, we have to do a better job defensively to make the opponent not play well on offense. I think that’s definitely a start.”

SLU’s next test as it tries to get itself on track with the start of Atlantic 10 play just two weeks away comes Wednesday night at Chaifetz Arena against Wofford (4-7), of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Schertz believes Wofford will be the toughest team on its non-conference home slate.

But SLU has in many ways been the toughest team SLU has had to deal with. Between injuries and illnesses, SLU has had a cursed corps of players to start the season — though Schertz was excited about the prospect of having everyone other than those out for the season or who have left the program in Tuesday’s practice, with AJ Casey looking ready to to return. But with the players it has had available, SLU just hasn’t done the things it needs to.

Yes, the Billikens scored 71 points over the final 30 minutes Sunday against Illinois State, but the defense didn’t make enough stops to put SLU over the top.

“There are pockets of time where we really don’t play on our identity,” Shcertz said. “We go through long offensive stretches where we don’t make shots. … The key to those runs not happening, the key to stopping a run, is getting stops. The key to creating a run is getting stops. It all goes back to your ability to generate stops. And we have to get better at that. That game was 35-13, instead of being 20-13 or 21-13, and if it’s 20- or 21-13, you have contact and then you win that game.

“And that’s where we just haven’t been able to stop the bleeding or be able to play through offensive droughts. Offensive droughts happen to every team. It doesn’t matter who you are. But our inability to to generate consistent stops.”

One thing that would help is the energy that Kellen Thames brings on a more regular basis, but he remains a mystery. He is fine to play on Wednesday, but does that mean 30 minutes or 10 or something in between?

He left the Illinois State game and did not return after cramping on the field with 7:57 left in the game. Thames spent a lot of time on the floor under the basket, which Schertz admitted was scary to watch, but ultimately what’s happened in the other games he’s been sidelined by cramps, this one just happened publicly.

“People forget,” Schertz said, “the first four games of the year, he’s averaging 15 points and 7½ rebounds a game and playing 30 minutes a night. He tended to have a great year. And this traveled just the head.”

The game will also be the next step in Dylan Warlick’s abrupt start to his SLU career. He played six minutes against Illinois State, ending what was expected to be a redshirt season.

“The perimeter is pretty thin right now,” Schertz said. “His streak is pretty long. He didn’t practice his summer and this fall. So he’s got to catch up to what we’re doing. He’s got to get fit. … There might be games where he plays five more eight minutes, but the three freshmen, we’ll kind of sprinkle them in and see who’s ready to go, what they can give us.

“The thing that Dylan does is he brings a level of physicality and toughness that we don’t have right now across the board. It’s an area where we need to be so much better in our physicality, our physical toughness, some mental toughness, but definitely the physical toughness. And you can make a case he is as physical a player as we have on both ends.”

And energy might be one of the things SLU lacks right now.

“I think our offense is going to be fine no matter what,” Avila said. “We might have a stretch where we don’t score the ball very well, but I think it’s just on our defense that we have to be better and have more pride with. That’s how we’re going to be able to win matches.”