Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season

10. Saint Louis Billikens

2022-23 season record: 21-12 (12-6)

No team lost more talent this offseason than Saint Louis, with five of the top six scorers gone. That includes double-digit scorers Javon Pickett and Javonte Perkins, along with Yuri Collins, who led the country in passing for the past two years. The loss of center Francis Okoro is just as big, as the team doesn’t have any frontcourt depth at the moment.

If Georgetown transfer Bradley Ezewiro doesn’t get a waiver to play, it’ll come down to freshmen Stef van Buseel and Bruce Zhang to get minutes at the five-spot. Tulsa transfer Tim Dalger and Terrence Hargrove are the other key pieces in the frontcourt, with Sincere Parker set to get extended minutes on the wings.

The good news for Saint Louis is that leading scorer Gibson Jimerson (14.0 ppg on 40%) is back. He’s one of the best pure shooters in the country but he won’t have Collins passing him the ball. Instead, it’ll be Mike Meadows, the transfer from Portland who originally committed to Cal this summer. He’s a double-digit contributor but compared to Collins, is more of a scorer than a distributor.

Not knowing the status of Ezewiro, and whether he’ll be good enough for the Billikens is an unknown storyline weeks before the season. It’s likely that this team is going to slide down the standings but how far is the real question.