SLU basketball schedule shows signs of taking a different approach (2024)

The space occupied by St. Louis University basketball after three months of the Josh Schertz era could be described as limbo.

It’s the stage where Schertz has finished building a roster with enough talent to raise eyebrows but accomplished nothing.

Thus, in seeking opponents for the 2024-25 season, many prospective teams have taken a wait-and-see approach to the Billikens, with numerous coaches deciding not to play them this early in the transition.

“We’re in a bit of purgatory in that people think we’ll be pretty good, but we haven’t shown it yet,” Schertz said. “They think we’re probably going to be better than 200 (NET rankings) but not 100% convinced we’re going to be top 50. In scheduling, if you’re a mid-major, you have to be exceptionally good or exceptionally bad to get the games you want.”

Schertz and his staff have completed about half of the nonconference schedule and are close to completion. It is already clear that this will not look like any schedule from the recent past.

There is a large focus on opponents west of the Continental Divide, a likely multi-team event at Chaifetz Arena and neutral-site meetings against solid mid-majors.

“It’s going to be a good schedule, it’s just not going to be a name schedule,” Schertz said.

SLU has known home games against Loyola Marymount, Wofford and Jackson State as it builds toward the required 19 games at Chaifetz Arena. The Billikens will play at San Francisco and Illinois State and have reportedly agreed to a game at Grand Canyon. Neutral-site games will be against Santa Clara, which is the season opener in South Dakota, and Wichita State in Kansas City.

Only the home nonconference schedule remains to be completed, and several opponents are lined up and waiting for contracts to be finalized. All of it is done with the NET rankings and the NCAA’s quad system in mind.

Schertz said a late start on the schedule kept SLU from getting into a multi-team event after the Jacksonville Classic fell apart. A long list of high majors and even mid-majors declined games.

The presence of Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope from his successful Indiana State team and the return of Gibson Jimerson have been enough to give coaches around the country pause about scheduling the Billikens.

“We’re on the radar enough that high majors are a no,” Schertz said. “If you get to a point that you’re good enough and your name brand becomes strong, teams will want to play because they think it’s a Quad 1 game at a neutral site. When Gibson came back and we got Robbie and Isaiah, people didn’t know where we’d be picked, but they saw people projecting us toward the top of the league.”

Schertz said that analytics make him believe that San Francisco and Grand Canyon could be Quad 1 road games. Santa Clara and Wichita State could be Quad 2 neutral-site opponents.

Additionally, SLU found out this week that it will play Dayton, Loyola-Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth and St. Joseph’s twice in Atlantic 10 play. All four finished in the NET top 100 last season.

Schertz said scheduling has been much harder than a year ago, when he built an Indiana State schedule that included Michigan State and Alabama.

“Scheduling is hard when you start in the middle of April with only one game on the schedule,” he said. “You’re building from scratch. We want a schedule that gives us a chance to be in the (NCAA) at-large conversation. One advantage of being in the middle of the country is it’s as easy to get to California as to the East Coast.”

The SLU staff has conferred with college basketball analysts Ken Pomeroy and Bart Torvik, among others, to understand what the data says will help.

The conclusion is that the current path could work, even without an Alabama or Michigan State on the schedule.

The multi-team event being constructed at Chaifetz Arena could include two teams with more than 20 wins last season. Wofford will return its top seven scorers.

“It’s hard because the high majors are in it for themselves,” Schertz said. “It’s human nature. They just try to close everybody else off. They want as many Quad 4s as they can at home and to play neutrals against each other.”