GameNight: St Louis vs Kent State

Preview & Prediction: By Fairway Jay

St Louis looked horrible in its opening game win against D-II Missouri, 48-33. The Billikens started 3 freshmen and could find no scoring with senior shooting guard Kevin Lisch (14.6ppg) out with a tailbone injury. St Louis went six minutes at one point without a score and shot only 37.8% with 11 turnovers while only forcing a D-II team to turn it over six times.  Lisch returns for this contest and forms a solid senior backcourt with Tommie Liddell. 

Kent State has its three perimeter players back from last year and seem to be enjoying a seamless transition with the coaching change to Geno Ford.  Last November Kent destroyed St Louis 81-40 and has a majority of this same nucleus back.  Revenge motive noted, but redemption usually requires an equal or better team, and St. Louis is the inferior foe here.  St. Louis head coach Rick Majerus has noted that this is still a very young and apprehensive team learning their way with his disciplined style and system and deliberate offense, even with Lisch and Liddell in the backcourt.  St. Louis was the A-10’s worst scoring team last year, and their solid defense may take a little time to take hold with the influx of new players. 

New on-campus Chaifetz Arena for St. Louis, but a similar result to last year expected – a Kent State victory. 

Winner: Kent State