Early-season surprises? Better include Saint Louis

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ANAHEIM, Calif. – Coach Rick Majerus’ Saint Louis basketball team is off to a 5-0 start but no one – least of all Majerus – is deluding himself about what that record might be in March.

“We’re only five games into the season – it’s early,” he said Friday afternoon after the Billikens’ decisive 80-68 victory over previously unbeaten Villanova during a semifinal of the 76 Classic in the Anaheim Convention Center Arena.

The Billikens, who will face Oklahoma in Sunday evening’s championship game, are assembling a respectable resume for an at-large bid, should that be the path they have to follow into the NCAA Tournament field on March 12.

They’ve got wins over two likely tournament teams – Villanova and Washington, which they knocked off by 13 points Sunday in St. Louis – and, with a Sunday victory, could take a 13-0 record into Albuquerque (when they face the University of New Mexico on New Year’s Eve) for final Atlantic 10 Conference tune-up.

But, as Majerus was quick to point out, the Billikens “don’t have a lot of margin for error”, and that’s true, especially if your perception of a an exceptional college basketball team is one with McDonald’s All-American alumni and/or soon-to-be NBA first-round draft choices on its roster.

Don’t spend a lot of time perusing Majerus’ roster for either – they are nowhere to be found.

That being said, the Billikens have played like a team destined to be one of the 68 teams in the tournament when the bracket is unveiled in Indianapolis.

They play exceptional half-court defense and rebound exceptionally, defensively.

Offensively, they’ve got a variety of deep jump-shooting threats, they don’t take bad shots and they rarely turn the ball over.

How rarely do they cough the ball up?

After turning it over four times during their first-round victory over Boston College on Thanksgiving, there were just seven giveaways Friday against a Wildcats’ squad that pressured them, man-to-man, the entire game.

And pity for those teams that find themselves trailing the Billikens by a double-figure margin.

Chipping away at that number is tantamount to putting a dent into the federal deficit.

Ask Jay Wright.

His Wildcats fell behind by 11 points five minutes into the second half Friday and were never closer than within eight points (with eight minutes to go) the rest of the way.

You want to try to press the Billikens, full court? Then you’re inviting them to make three quick passes and convert a layup.

“You have to be very disciplined to play defense against them,” Wright said. “They’re not going to turn the ball over and they are going to make you guard them and fight through a lot of screens.

“And, defensively, they are so physical and challenge all of your shots.”

Six players hit 3-pointers as the Billikens converted 14 of 27 shots from behind the arc – just one short of the program record.

There are three fourth-year players in the starting lineup (including forward Brian Conklin and guards Kwamain Mitchell and Kyle Cassidy), with four sophomores and two juniors rounding out a nine-man rotation gives Majerus the kind of depth his best Utah teams had.

And, yes, the Billikens are playing the same kind of defense that leads his peers to believe that he teaches it as well as any coach, on any leve.

“I’ve said it all season – our defense is what leads to our offense,” Conklin said.

Less than a week ago, only those who followed the Atlantic 10 – where the Billikens were picked to finish third behind Xavier and Temple – had a notion of just how good Majerus’ club was, and could be in March.

Now Majerus, and his players, are being asked about being ranked in the Top 25 next week – which they almost assuredly will be with a Sunday night victory.

It wasn’t difficult to guess who was more excited about the possibility.

“It’s nothing I’m thinking about,” Majerus said. “That’s for the media, with no disrespect to the media. (After all) I spent three years with the World Wide Leader (ESPN, where he was a basketball analyst before taking the Saint Louis job in the spring of 2007).”

As for Conklin, “Oh, sure . . . I’m sure people who vote for that stuff are watching us,” he said.

Conklin – who has already earned an undergraduate degree and is working on a Masters in Business Administration – didn’t have to pause to search for ways to describe what he and his teammates are experiencing right now.

“It’s sort of surreal right now,” he said, smiling. “After the Washington game it was like `wow!’ Now it’s ‘we should be doing these things.’ The shock faze is over.”

There will be plenty of Saint Louis opponents who will disagree about that “shock faze” being over once they getting bogged done by the Billikens’ defense, though.

TOURNEY NOTES: Oklahoma Coach Lon Kruger picked up his fifth win in as many tries in the event when the Sooners knocked off Santa Clara, 85-73, late Friday night in the other semifinal.

His UNLV team won the fourth 76 Classic last November with wins over Tulsa, Murray State and Virginia Tech.

Two-day all-tourney team: Brian Conklin and Kwamain Mitchell (Saint Louis); Steve Pledger and Sam Grooms (Oklahoma); Maalik Wayns (Villanova); Evan Roquemore (Santa Clara); and Tony Snell (New Mexico).