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December 14 Sheet

Dayton at St. Louis (+1.5) - 11:10am Pacific
This is a big game for first year coach Brad Soderberg and the Billikens. Soderberg served as interim head coach at Wisconsin when Dick Bennett retired midseason. He was looked over as head coach by the Badgers at the end of the year but was an assistant here last year and takes over this year with Lorenzo Romar departed to Washington. His style may not be pretty but he can flat out coach. He inherits a team loaded with experience. Four starters are back from last season, and the eight man rotation includes 4 seniors & 3 juniors.

It all starts with point guard Marque Perry who was only fully healthy in about half the teams games last season. A concussion problem slowed him all season. Perry is 1st-team C-USA material and should have a great senior season. He leads the team with 15.0ppg. Five players average between 5 and 9 points per game led by senior F/C Kenny Brown (9.0ppg), junior G/F Chris Sloan (8.6ppg), and junior guard Josh Fisher (8.4ppg). Senior F/C Chris Braun, senior guard Drew Deiner, junior forward Ross Varner and good looking freshman guard Anthony Drejaj (late signee) round out the rotation. This is primarily the same team who finished 9-7 in C-USA games last season, including 6 of 7 to end the regular season, and 6 of 8 at home.

The Billikens got off to a rocky start this year losing to UT-Martin by 5 and to SWMS in OT but bounced back with a high quality road win at St. Bonaventure (held Bonnies to season low 54 points). They were blown out as expected at #1 Arizona in following game but looked sharp in 15 point win over TX Pan-American in most recent game last week. They held TPA to just 25% shooting for the game. Holding St Bonnie to 54 points and TPA to just 25% shooting are strong signals that the tough defense Soderberg taught with Bennett at Wisconsin is being carried over here.

Dayton comes in with a 4-1 record that includes a 6 point win over Cincinnati. However, the Flyers have played four of five at home and were beaten soundly by 14 points in their only road game of the season at Miami, Ohio. The Flyers lost standout point guard David Morris (6.0 assists per game last year) to graduation. This year head coach Oliver Purnell has made a controversial decision to move last years leading scorer Ramod Marshall from shooting guard to point guard and last years back-up point guard Mark Jones to shooting guard. Both players have a lot of adjusting to do. Marshall is not a true point guard and Hall certainly is not a consistent scorer. The loss of Morris will be most felt in road games. This is just not a fluid offensive team right now. Following Miami Ohio loss, the Flyers scored only 59 points in an unimpressive win over UNC-Wilmington (3-3, has not looked good early on) in last game. I fully expect them to struggle offensively again on the road here against a strong SLU defense. First game in 7 days following finals week and early afternoon start time will not help them.

The Billikens are 46-13 (.780) against non-conference opponents at the Savvis Center and 111-34 (.766) in their last 145 home games overall. In meeting last year in Dayton, the Flyers won by just 6 points. I believe SLU has gained slightly in terms of returning talent. Revenge and exchange of home courts should be plenty to turn the tables this year.

St. Louis  1 UNIT

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