As Saint Louis enters a rebuilding year, Jim Crews stays the course
The old saying is that respect isn't given, it's earned.
Saint Louis has done more than enough to earn respect after winning 55 games and back-to-back Atlantic 10 titles the last two seasons, but the Billikens aren't receiving much heading into the new season. They're projected ninth in the league's preseason poll after all five of last year's starters graduated, not that coach Jim Crews is very concerned about the opinions of outsiders.
“Whose expectations are they?” Crews said.
“We’ve never put stock on any of that. I’m sure we were picked higher than that last year, but I don’t think we’ve ever been favored to win the league. That’s just all part of the hoopla of the whole thing and we appreciate it, but we don’t pay any attention to that. Pick us low, high, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s just totally irrelevant.”
The reason for the drastic drop in expectations from outside the program is that the Billikens lost more than 75 percent of their scoring from last season, including 2013-14 Conference Player of the Year Jordair Jett and All A-10 First Team selection Dwayne Evans. Saint Louis’ current roster features not a single double-digit scorer and just four upperclassmen, including Villanova transfer Achraf Yacoubou, who sat out last year per NCAA rules.
“We don’t want to replace them,” Crews said. “We don’t want to replace Jordair Jett because there is only one Jordair Jett, Dwayne Evans or Rob Loe, whichever name you want to pick. What we’ve got to be able to do is take the names of the guys we have now and their basketball talents and maximize what they can do, minimize what they can’t do and get them to understand what their teammates can do.”
Perhaps one reason there's a sense of calm from Crews is because he believes in the replacements for his departed stars.
The player most likely to emerge as a go-to scoring threat for the Billikens is 5-foot-9 point guard Austin McBroom, who averaged 7.3 points and dished out 56 assists last year as the first guard off the bench. Seniors John Manning and Grandy Glaze will be counted on for leadership, defense and rebounding and some timely interior scoring. And a six-member freshman class highlighted by combo guard Myles Reynolds will need to make an immediate impact.
“One of the things our guys have done a tremendous job of is just keeping it simple, I mean boringly simple,” Crews said. “They don’t worry about tomorrow until midnight, yesterday could have been good, yesterday could have been bad, but we don’t get carried away with it one way or the other. They are kind of stealth with their emotions and that has helped us with our consistency.”
Even if the Saint Louis program faces a down year while it rebuilds, Crews vows to keep the ship afloat and on course to creating another perennial contender.
“What we try and do is build a mentality," Crews said. "There is nothing more important than the attitude you bring.
“The number one thing is to be a good teammate, help the program. We don’t sacrifice those things and that gives us a chance. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, it’s happened the past couple of years, but it gives us a chance.”
