The Saint Louis Billikens embark on conference play tonight against Loyola-Chicago, hoping to kickstart a season that has been inconsistent at best. The Billikens started the year with zero centers due to eligibility issues, nearly lost at home to Dartmouth, got thoroughly embarrassed at Southern Illinois-Carbondale, losing by 39 points, and then proceeded to hang tough against Drake, Hofstra, Louisiana Tech and NC State, going 2-2 in that stretch but keeping every game close.
As it stands then, after non-conference play, the Billikens are 7-6, with one of those wins coming against a D2 team. They are ranked 221 in the NET, and their defense is ranked 301 in KenPom as of January 2. The defensive woes might be the most shocking. Travis Ford has always claimed to build his SLU teams on toughness and rebounding and SLU statistically has one of the worst defenses in the country. Offensive woes could be blamed on the loss of leading scorer Sincere Parker, but I’m not sure if anyone could argue with a straight face that Parker is the missing key to SLU defensive success. The defense has been putrid and it’s hard to imagine much improvement in the conference season with the personnel Travis Ford has recruited to SLU this season (standard disclaimer that I would love to be proven wrong here!).
While the non-conference season has been disappointing, there have been bright spots. Terrence Hargrove Jr.’s 11-point explosion in the final 28 seconds against Louisiana Tech, culminating in a buzzer-beating three to win the game, is one of the greatest Billiken moments I’ve ever witnessed live, made even sweeter by the fact that few Billikens have deserved an all-time great Billiken moment like Hargrove. He’s had a fantastic season, filling in at center due to eligibility issues and depth concerns, and rising to the occasion, averaging 13 points per game and 6 rebounds per game while standing at (maybe) 6’5.
Terrence Hargrove Jr. 11 Points. 28 Seconds. Buzzer Beater Game Winner. ROCKSTAR! 🎸🎸🎸 pic.twitter.com/EV2B6osT0m
— Jack Godar (@JackGodar) December 17, 2023
After various legal machinations that resulted in the NCAA waiving a white flag, 2-time transfer Bradley Ezewiro became eligible for the Billikens ahead of the Louisiana Tech game. In his two games for SLU, Ezewiro has been an electric presence. The 6’9, 265-pound big man has averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds in his two games, and has tried to dunk everything and anything, oftentimes with success. His size and athleticism calls to mind Hasahn French and he’s been exceedingly fun to watch.
While SLU has been largely fueled by upperclassmen, some of the younger Billikens have had bright spots. Cian Medley has done a solid job as backup point guard and had some of his best games while starting in place of an injured Mike Meadows. Sophomore Kellen Thames has often looked like the best Billiken on the floor, electric on both sides of the ball, but his playing time has been hampered by ankle issues. Freshman center Bruce Zhang is still figuring things out but he has flashed unusual skill for a freshman 7 footer.
The biggest question for the Billikens though is, “is this enough for Travis Ford to keep his job?” Frankly, if the season continues on this trajectory, the answer should be no by all logical accounts. Travis Ford is the highest paid coach In the Atlantic 10 (I may have mentioned this prior a time or two). In his time at SLU, he has not won a game against a Top 25 opponent, he has not earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, he has only one NCAAT appearance in eight years, he has losing records against Dayton and VCU and he has not won a single NCAA Tournament or NIT game. Paying a coach more than anyone else in the conference for nearly a decade and only having a glut of 20-win seasons and a few 4th place finishes to show for it should not be acceptable.
However, the biggest fear for many SLU fans is that Ford’s job is safe regardless of how conference play goes. While all logic would suggest that Ford’s seat should be hot, from the outside looking in, there hasn’t been much to indicate that Ford is indeed on the hot seat. It makes it almost impossible to predict what expectations Travis Ford needs to meet this season. The scariest possibility is that there are none. As a fan, the idea that the team I root for could be okay with paying a coach to $2.5 million to field a sub-200 team with a sub-300 defense is scary!
Realistically, it’s probably not true. It’s hard to imagine that SLU boosters and administration are so impressed with Travis Ford that they are willing to wave away the steadily mounting number of stats and numbers that show that Travis Ford isn’t performing his job at a level equal to his level of compensation if this season continues its trajectory and SLU winds up in a pillow fight. It’s even harder to imagine they can just wave away the horrific attendance numbers and lack of enthusiasm around the team currently. For example, SLU is playing a fellow Jesuit school from Chicago to open conference play, and interest is apparently so low, the ticket office is offering to give away 6 tickets to season ticket holders. Sometimes wallets speak louder than words.
I do think the administration and boosters want to continue employing Travis Ford and that they want him to do well and save his job. I also think Travis Ford will need to at least produce a simulacrum of doing a good coaching job in conference play (say, top 6 finish and maybe a nice win or two in the A10 tournament) to keep his job. That’s still bleak and should be unacceptable for a program that spends as much as SLU, but it’s better than the fear of Chris May and SLU justifying an endless string of “rebuilding” seasons that, in reality, are just teams filled with one-year portal mercenaries achieving mediocre finishes under Ford.
In the end, sports are supposed to be fun, and SLU has a team of players who are fun to watch (at least for the first 30 minutes of the game) and play hard to represent the school. They’re easy to root for on a game-to-game basis and they should have some fun moments throughout the next few months, and we should appreciate that. They’re doing the best they can to win, and so is Travis Ford. SLU isn’t making any decisions on his job until after the season, nor should they. Until then, all we can do is watch Billikens basketball, root for the team to win, and offer unsolicited armchair analysis—and valid, respectful criticism—along the way!
