The Saint Louis University Billikens mens’ basketball team should be performing better. 
Everything was in place last year for an NCAA tournament appearance. Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell, both in the top 10 in career scoring at the school, were seniors and complemented each other nicely as players. Head coach Rick Majerus, with a nice contract upwards of $1 million per year, was starting his second season. And perhaps most of all, the $80.5 million Chaifetz Arena was unveiled.
The team finished 18-14, unable to reach the mark of 20 wins which Majerus’ predecessor Brad Soderberg set in 2006-2007. Soderburg was fired after the 20-win 2006-2007 season, the first 20-win season in eight years for the Billikens.
“It was determined that a coaching chance is necessary if the university is to achieve its goal of consistently having one of the nation’s top basketball programs,” the University said in its statement concerning the Soderberg firing.
It certainly does not seem like the Bills have come anywhere near the nation’s top programs, and concerning their team record and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), the team has actually gotten worse since Soderberg’s firing.
One can come up with dozens of excuses for the Billikens’ poor performance.
Until this year, I held the belief that last year’s seniors had trouble adapting to Majerus’ style of play, as their first two years in college were under Soderberg. However, every current and healthy member of the Billiken roster is either a freshman or sophomore. Therefore, they have played under only Majerus since entering college.
Since the team consists of all underclassmen, I was not expecting stellar performances this season. I thought the additional familiarity with Coach Majerus would balance the lack of upperclassman, and the team would finish with a similar record to the past season.
The team has shown streaks of brilliance, but a lot of inconsistency. I was not expecting the Billikens to do great this year, but I was expecting, however, more consistent play and fewer of the problems that hurt the team so much last year.
Through the first third of the season, the problems which have plagued the team are the same as last year. The team always seems ready to match up on defense, as they have guarded some of the nation’s best players in Luke Harangody and Craig Brackins very well.
However, the Billikens often cannot find a way to score.  This has been evident so far this season as well.  The team has not scored 80+ points all season, even against the much lesser teams scheduled at the start of the year.
The result of the Billikens’ lack of offense is a 5-3 record, even though they are holding teams to under 57 points per game.
Adjustments are usually not successful during games, and multiple times, the Billikens have gone minutes without a field goal during crucial points of the game. Even after time outs, the Billikens often don’t look any better than they did before they called a break.
And so far this year, it seems the Billikens will only win this year by consistently hitting the three-pointer. When the team counts on one shot to win, it is clearly lacking something, and one can blame only so many players before looking at the coach.
On paper, it does not look like Coach Majerus has accomplished anything since joining the program. And frankly, I am not sure if he has helped the program at all.  