MCMelton

5 if you count Manning (aka Powder) twice, which I do.

The Epilogue to this when I say SLU is key "college basketball supremacy" in St. Louis is that the alternative (Mizzou) is not. If St. Louis is going to become a top Midwestern college basketball city, it's going to be because of SLU, not Mizzou.

So, we can all agree that the Cardinals rule the sports landscape in St. Louis. But with the Blues on a lockout (again) and the Rams sucking (again), I think this year offers a great opportunity for SLU to become 1A to the Cardinals in the STL sports headlines. Here's my argument in full detail... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1314132-st-louis-university-is-key-to-college-basketball-supremacy-in-stl But I think it boils down to two things: Cost and Quality SLU games are by far the most bang for the buck in STL sports. And the quality of the team and opponents has skyrocketed. Those who thought (or still think) the Billikens should be playing teams from Nebraska and Iowa as members of the Missouri Valley should hopefully by now see the benefit of playing metropolitan-based teams from Philly, NYC, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, etc. from the A-10. Let me know your thoughts.

For the record, I can't ever remember Jordair dunking the ball! I'm sure I'm wrong. But yes, you would need to remove layups from the equation in determining a shooter's overall accuracy.

No problem. I'd agree with you that the stats say Jordair is a decent shooter. His overall shooting percentage was .467, which as I detailed above is the highest for all returning players, and the highest for all starters. I think a better indicator is if you look at just his shooting percentages on 2-pointers. It's slightly better, at 48.7%. For comparison's sake, St. Joseph's led the A-10 in shooting last season, with 47%. So Jett is as good, if not better, than the best shooting team in the conference. I think there's an eye test factor that Jett struggles with. He doesn't look like a shooter. He doesn't have the smoothness or fluidity that we expect pure shooters to have. But shooting is not his game. He's a hard-edged, get to the basket, hustle, make something happen type of player. The free throws and 3-pointers poison the opinion of many others. Is Jett a pure shooter? No. But is he a good at making baskets with the ball? Hell yes.

The free-throw "problem" has always puzzled me, especially from last year. It does seem that SLU is a mediocre foul-shooting team. It does seem that the team leaves a lot of points at the foul line on missed shots. But the stats don't really back it up. SLU finished 5th in the conference last year in FT -- 72%. Had they made one more free throw over the course of the entire season, they'd have been 4th in the A-10. They were a little worse in only conference games, finishing 7th in the A-10. But that's still above average for the conference. For what it's worth, opponents shot worse than SLU did at the foul line. It's definitely an area that needs improvement, especially with the team's two best foul shooters (Conklin and Cassity) gone. But I don't think it's this big black eye that will kill the team's chances of competing.

I believe I qualified it among returning players who averaged more than 10 minutes per game. But yes, Jett did lead in FG%. Conklin had a higher %, but he's obvioulsy gone. Remekun led the team in FG% but he only played 9 mins per game last year, so I don't think that carries the same weight as Conklin's or even Jett's percentages.

Read and discuss. If anyone has other preview stories on A-10 teams, post them here. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1390727-st-louis-university-2012-13-basketball-season-preview