ST. LOUIS -- The Saint Louis University basketball team opens the 2013-14 season by hosting Southeast Missouri on Friday night at Chaifetz Arena. We take a look at five questions surrounding the Billikens going into the season.
The 2012-13 SLU hoops squad was one of the more remarkable stories in all of college basketball.
The Billikens announced in August that coach Rick Majerus would take a leave of absence because of an illness that he ultimately wasn't able to recover from, passing away on Dec. 1.
Jim Crews was named interim coach before the season and was able to hold together a team that was built by Majerus over his five years at SLU.
The Billikens were able to build on their 26-8 record and NCAA Tournament appearance from the previous season and turn in a historic campaign that included a 28-7 mark, which set a school record for wins, capturing the Atlantic 10 Conference regular season and tournament championships and advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
Crews, who was named the head coach in April, returns a strong cast of characters that includes several players who played key roles during the two tournament trips.
Only once before in the school's history had SLU made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances -- back in 1994-95 when Charlie Spoonhour's squads went 46-14 over two seasons -- and the Billikens have never made three consecutive NCAA appearances.
Crews' club was picked to finish second, behind VCU, in the Atlantic 10 in a preseason poll of coaches and media. It will be tough for SLU to top its 28 wins from a year ago, but it would be a disappointment if the Billikens aren't able to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
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The Billikens are blessed with a strong core group of five seniors, led by small forward Dwayne Evans, guards Mike McCall Jr. and Jordair Jett, power forward Rob Loe and reserve forward Jake Barnett.
Evans is a returning first-team all-conference player after leading SLU in scoring (14 points per game) and rebounding (7.7) a year ago and should be an A-10 player of the year candidate.
McCall (9.3 ppg) and Jett (9.0) ranked third and fourth, respectively, in scoring a year ago behind Evans, Kwamain Mitchell and Cody Ellis. McCall started 35 games while Jett, who led the team in assists, started nine.
Evans, McCall and Jett give the Billikens three consistent offensive threats.
Loe, the 6-foot-11 New Zealander, will be counted on to produce more this winter, following in the footsteps of Brian Conklin two years ago and Ellis from last season. He averaged 7 points and 3.4 rebounds per game as a junior.
Grandy Glaze, a 6-6, 230-pound junior forward, looked like a different player when the Billikens hosted Fontbonne in an exhibition game last week.
He said afterward that he worked hard in the offseason to shed about 25 pounds after playing at around 255 last season. The results showed against Fontbonne as he was more active on the floor and had a pair of rim-rattling dunks off of turnovers.
Glaze started 20 of the 25 games he played in last season but he averaged just 12 minutes per game and wasn't much of a factor scoring (3.1 ppg) or rebounding (2.6 per game). He won't be needed as a big scoring threat this season, but he's put in the work in the offseason to be a more significant factor on both ends of the floor.
With five seniors and two juniors returning -- Glaze and 6-11 center John Manning make up the junior class -- there may not be a lot of minutes left for anybody else.
Austin McBroom (left), a 5-9 sophomore point guard who sat out last season after transferring from Central Michigan, figures to see time as one of the regulars in an eight-player rotation.
McBroom averaged 10.9 points and 2.7 assists as a freshman at Central Michigan, when he started 30 of 31 games and was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Freshman team. He'll be counted on to spell McCall or Jett at times.
The top freshman to watch will be 6-8 power forward Tanner Lancona.
The California native will remind fans of Ellis because he's the kind of power forward who can stretch defenses with his perimeter shooting. Lancona will be able earn more minutes if he can prove himself to be a capable defender and rebounder.
This is a SLU team that returns a considerable amount of experience from last season's school-record 28-win squad despite losing two key players in Mitchell and Ellis.
The Billikens have the guards in McCall and Jett to replace Mitchell's production but will need someone to step up in place of Ellis. Of course, you could have said the same thing a year after as the team was trying to replace Conklin and the combination of Ellis, Loe and Glaze stepped up.
Crews and Co. haven't talked this preseason about any expectations other than winning games and this team is certainly capable of that.
Replicating its magical 2012-13 season will be a difficult task but with strong seasoned guards and a leader like Evans, these Billikens look poised to make another tournament run in March.
You can follow Nate Latsch on Twitter (@natelatsch) or email him at natelatsch@gmail.com.
