How Do They Match Up?
Saint Louis’ Robbie Avila may be the nation’s best passing big man and plays a ‘point forward’ position for Josh Schertz’s squad. Avila handles the ball on most of SLU’s possessions and if opponents sag off the 6’10 Chicago native he will let it fly and is making .467 of his long distance shots.
He will likely see a lot of 6’11 Lazar Djokovic. The College of Charleston transfer is having a solid season (13.3 & 5.2).
Both teams surround their talented bigs with numerous talented perimeter players. Saint Louis boasts of some the best depth in the nation. Nine Billikens are averaging over 16 minutes per game and 6.5 points-per-game or more. Five are averaging double figures.
While VCU isn’t as deep they have four double-digit scorers of their own in Terrence Hill Jr (14.0), Djokovic, Jadrian Tracey (10.5) and Nyk Lewis (10.2). Only six Rams play over 14 minutes per game and Saint Louis’ depth could be a huge factor in this game.
SLU is also much bigger. Of the Rams’ perimeter players, only Tracy is 6’6 and Jennings is the next tallest at 6’4. The Billikens are taller at almost every position. Amari McCottry (11.0 & 5.3), Kellen Thames (9.3 & 5.6), Brady Dunlap (7.3), Ishan Sharma (9.4) and Quentin Jones (10.7) all stand 6’5 or taller.
While Trey Green (11.6 and 40 triples) and Dion Brown (12.8) are on the shorter side, this talented team simply wears teams down.
VCU’s 6’8 Barry Evans (8.9 & 5.2) will need to come up big for Martelli’s squad to hold serve at home. This will be Saint Louis’ second true road game of the season. How Schertz’s team handles the hostile Siegel Center crowd, where the Rams are averaging nearly 7,600 fans per game will bear watching.
After this pivotal matchup, VCU jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire as the Rams play at George Mason on Saturday. Saint Louis travels to last place La Salle.