Jeff Gordon
St. Louis University men's basketball coach Josh Schertz and Mizzou men's basketball coach Dennis Gates face contrasting challenges early in nonconference play.
Schertz has largely established his player rotation, but he must develop his depth after losing two key performers to injury. Gates possesses unusual depth, but he still hasn't identified a consistent rotation.
So the early-season games offer value to both the Billikens and Tigers, albeit for different reasons.
In SLU's opening loss to Santa Clara, guard Gibson Jimerson played all 40 minutes. Isaiah Swope played 37:58 and Kellen Thames played 30:21 in the backcourt. Forward Kalu Anya played 32:02, and center Robbie Avila played 28:55 before suffering a sprained ankle.
Had West Virginia transfer Kobe Johnson been healthy, he would have bumped Thames to the sixth-man role. While Johnson recovers from his shoulder injury, Larry Hughes II is the sixth man instead.
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This is SLU's core group. These players know their roles. But Schertz needs more players to challenge for playing time.
Schertz used Sunday afternoon's 95-44 blowout of NAIA opponent Avila University as a teaching opportunity.
Freshman guard Amari McCottry started and played 22:59 after not facing Santa Clara. Max Pikaar and Kilian Brockhoff came off the bench and played 12:38 and 8:59 respectively after sitting out the opener.
Josiah Dotzler (13:43 Sunday, up from 4:52) and AJ Casey (12:03, up from 6:24) got increased playing time.
McCottry looked ready to muscle into the rotation. "He's an aggressive downhill driver," Jimerson said. "He's getting better at his reads, which is encouraging for somebody as young as he is."
Transfers Dotzler (Creighton), Brockhoff (UC Santa Barbara) and Casey (Miami) are all seeking bigger roles than they had at previous stops. Pikaar, a versatile freshman, needs time to fill out his 6-foot-11 frame and fulfill his potential.
The Avila game and earlier exhibitions allowed Schertz to reinforce the work done in practice.
"That's the biggest of this game, the chance for guys to play through mistakes," Schertz said. "When you get into a Santa Clara, when you get into a Wichita State, Loyola Marymount, it's hard to say, 'Hey, you can go out and play through three or four mistakes,' because those three or four mistakes cost you the game."
The Avila game offered no such danger, so the reserves could settle in.
"Everybody, basically off the bench, to me, in the first half ... was frantic," Schertz said. "They're playing hard, but they're playing frantically. They are playing so fast they aren't playing well. They are not making reads, they're not understanding what's going on, they're losing assignments, they're flying around but with no communication or purpose."
That changed in the second half as the Billikens took another small step in their evolution this season.
While SLU has 10 scholarship players, Missouri has 15 players at that level, plus three walk-ons. The Tigers' freshman class and their transfer class both ranked among the nation's best.
Sorting so much talent is a nice problem to have, but it's still a problem.
Gates played 11 players in the loss at Memphis, 12 (plus walk-on JV Brown in the closing seconds) in the victory over Howard and 12 while beating Eastern Washington.
Missouri suffered myriad offensive and defensive lapses again Monday. But for Caleb Grill's heroics -- 33 points and nine rebounds -- the Tigers would have lost.
Duke transfer Mark Mitchell is a cornerstone at forward. His buddy Tamar Bates is a fixture on the wing. Iowa transfer Tony Perkins will get point guard minutes, although he didn't start at Memphis. Also in the backcourt, Anthony Robinson II is pushing for a major role, and Grill raised his hand Monday.
But otherwise, the rotation puzzle remains unsolved.
Freshman Annor Boateng started two of the three games, but he played just 13 minutes. Freshman Marcus Allen played critical minutes at the end of the past two games after sitting out the opener.
Trent Pierce scored 13 points in 14 minutes at Memphis, but he has played just five minutes since.
"When I start to think about the game, you have to look back at practice and certain things like that," Gates said during Monday's postgame media session. "You know, once I saw that (Pierce) wasn't going to get in the game in that first half, just because of the rotation, at that point, I kind of just focused on what I needed to focus on with the guys, and we closed the game with a certain group."
Um ... OK.
SEC veteran Josh Gray has started at center, but Gates often deploys smaller lineups. Aidan Shaw, Marques Warrick and Jacob Crews have seen their playing time fluctuate.
As for the other freshmen, center Peyton Marshall has played just eight minutes, 7-foot-5 Trent Burns hasn't played due to illness and guard T.O. Barrett has remained inactive too.
While the Billikens are establishing their identity under Schertz, the Tigers are still searching for theirs under Gates. The work continues Thursday when Missouri hosts Mississippi Valley State and Saturday when SLU brings Loyola Marymount to town.
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