College Hoops Team of the Week: St. Louis Billikens

Team of the Week: St. Louis

The Billikens were the team that many picked to win the Atlantic 10 this season, but they didn’t exactly start their season out on the right foot. After losing three of their first six games, Jim Crews’ club watched a nine-game winning streak evaporate when they lost at Temple and then dropped a home game in OT to conference bottom-feeder Rhode Island. 1-2 wasn’t exactly the way St. Louis wanted to start in arguably the deepest conference in the country.

But they bounced back, picking up tough road games at Duquense and St. Bonaventure, before making a statement this week. It started with a beatdown of Butler, where the Billikens forced 17 first half turnovers and brought home a 17 point win over the No. 9 Bulldogs. Then on Saturday, St. Louis thoroughly embarrassed a good Dayton team, dispatching them with a 29 point win.

St. Louis is now just a half-game back — tied in the loss column — of first place VCU in the At-10.

Teams that deserve a shout out:

• Air Force: The Falcons picked up a pair of wins at home this week, knocking off Fresno State and No. 22 San Diego State, to extend their winning streak to five games and move into a tie for second-place in the Mountain West standings. The win over SDSU was just the third time in 81 tries the Falcons have beaten a ranked team. Air Force has had a bit of a friendly schedule in league play; we’ll get a real sense of just how good this team is when they visit the Pit on Wednesday to take on first-place New Mexico.

• Oklahoma State: The Cowboys picked up a pair of massive wins this week, beating Iowa State on a Marcus Smart bucket with three seconds left and following that up by knocking off Kansas at Kansas. How big of a win was that? It’s only the second time in the last 104 games that the Jayhawks have lost at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The last time? The day after Thomas Robinson’s mother passed away.

• Miami: The Hurricanes notched a pair of big wins on the road this week. They came-from-behind to beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and followed that up with a thrilling win at NC State. More importantly, the Hurricanes are now sitting at 8-0 in the ACC with a two-game lead on Duke and a three-game lead on everyone else.

• Indiana: The Hoosiers picked up a pair of huge wins, blowing out Purdue on the road by 37 points and following that up with a win over No. 1 Michigan at home. That’s a big deal for Indiana because they took over a one-game lead in the Big Ten race, which gives them a bit of cushion with their tough, road-heavy schedule down the stretch.

• Stanford: Stanford thrust themselves back into the conversation in the Pac-12 with a pair of wins over the Oregon schools this week, including a 24 point victory against the No. 10 Ducks. Most importantly, Chasson Randle and Aaron Bright, who haven’t hit a shot all season long, are now a combined 15-25 from three over the last three games.

• Louisville: The Cardinals bounced back from their three game losing streak with a vengeance, beating Pitt at home on Big Monday and following that up with a fairly dominating win over Marquette on Sunday.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.