College Basketball Game of the Week: St. Louis at Davidson

Our game of the week features a team that's on a 15 game win streak and currently tied for least losses in the country with 1. Their single loss came on a neutral court in a one point game against Stanford. St. Louis will be playing Davidson in a conference battle to see if the Billikens can remain undefeated in conference play. St. Louis is 9-0 in the A-10 Conference and features a center in Robbie Avila who shoots 46.7% from three, averages double figures in scoring and 4 assists while only playing 25.6 minutes per game. To put this into perspective, if he were to play 36 minutes per game like most teams leading scorers, he would be putting up close to 20 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds per contest. These would be remarkable numbers considering how efficient he is. They also have a guard in Trey Green who transferred from a very talented Xavier team just a season ago. Green is shooting 48.2% from three giving St. Louis an extremely efficient duo. St. Louis is currently the 40th KenPom ranked offense and 20th KenPom ranked defense. On the other hand, Davidson comes into this game 5-4 in the A-10 and hoping to give St. Louis their first conference loss in an upset win. Davidson sits outside the top 100 offensively at 135th and 92nd defensively. Davidson comes off a 25 point win at Richmond and features a guard heavy rotation including their top 8 leading scorers.

Last season Davidson lost their regular season matchup to St. Louis by 1 point and their conference tournament matchup with them by only 8. This could indicate a potential upset if this year's matchup is similar to last season. As of right now, the Billikens are a projected 7 seed in the NCAA tournament in a potential first round match up against New Mexico in St. Louis. This game will be played on national TV and could give viewers their first glimpse into a potential March Madness sleeper.

A win here to continue their streak for St. Louis could bump them up to a 6 seed and even higher if they keep replicating their proven success. They haven’t made it to the NCAA tournament since 2019 and their highest seed ever was a 4 seed back in 2013 when they lost in the second round to Oregon after defeating New Mexico State. Can this St. Louis team go deeper into March than they ever had before?