Head coach Josh Schertz has decided to stick around for another year to continue to build the Saint Louis basketball program on the national stage.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Saint Louis basketball
When Saint Louis hired Josh Schertz from Indiana State, the vibes around the program immediately shifted, and the on-court performance followed suit. In 2025-26, year two for Schertz, the Billikens won 29 total games and split the Atlantic 10 regular season title with VCU, the program’s first since 2013-14. He followed that up with Saint Louis’ first NCAA Tournament win since 2013-14, blowing out Georgia in an 8 vs 9 matchup.
Already a legend for the Billiken faithful, Schertz declined power conference opportunities to remain at an institution in a lower-ranked conference, an increasingly rare decision for modern college basketball coaches to make.
Part of what made another year so enticing for Schertz was that he could retain a core of last year’s roster. While fan favorite and offensive star Robbie Avila has (seemingly) had to move on, snipers Trey Green and Ishan Sharma are running it back, alongside playmaking guards Quentin Jones and Amari McCottry.
Once again, Schertz has compiled a personnel full of versatile, offensively-gifted players that should, in the aggregate, put up monster numbers in his system. Last season, seven players averaged at least nine points per game, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar trend in 2026-27.
Head coach: Josh Schertz (5th season overall, 2nd at Saint Louis)
2025-26 record: 29-6 (15-3)
2026 postseason finish: Lost to Michigan (95-72) in second round of NCAA Tournament
Notable departures:
- Robbie Avila (12.8 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.1 APG)
- Dion Brown (11.3 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.6 APG)
Notable non-conference games:
- vs. Missouri (Nov. 6) – Enterprise Center
- vs. High Point (Nov. 15)
- at Saint Mary’s (Nov. 20)
- vs. Grand Canyon (Nov. 24) – Acrisure Series
- vs. Colorado OR Stanford (Nov. 25) – Acrisure Series
- vs. South Florida (Nov. 29) – Columbus, OH
- vs. DePaul (Dec. 12)
Projected Rotation
PG: Trey Green (6-0, 168, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 10.7 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.7 APG, 44.2 3P%, 86.1 FT%
SG: Quentin Jones (6-5, 170, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 9.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.o APG
SF: Ishan Sharma (6-5, 192, Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 9.1 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.5 APG, 41.7 3P%
PF: Amari McCottry (6-6, 205, Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 10.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 2.9 APG, 51.7 FT%
C: Jax Kerr (6-11, 200, So.)
2025-26 stats: 2.8 PPG, 0.2 APG, 0.2 RPG
6: Kellen Thames (6-5, 200, Gr.-Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 9.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.3 SPG, 65.0 FG%
7: Elijah Strong (6-8, 225, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 10.0 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 0.9 APG (South Carolina)
8: Jermel Thomas (6-2, 170, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 193 ranked recruit
9: Alon Michaeli (6-9, 229, So.)
2025-26 stats: 7.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.0 APG (Colorado)
10: Luke Laczkowski (6-8, 185, Rs.-Fr.)
2025-26: Redshirted
247Sports Composite No. 432 ranked recruit (2025)
Saint Louis basketball team MVP: Trey Green
An argument can reasonably be made for five players to rise to the best on the team. This speaks to endless offensive firepower on the Billikens roster. In fact, Green is merely one of three returners on one of the all-A10 teams from 2025-26.
However, when it comes down to it, Green’s shooting ability is simply off the charts. Ironically, he was not classified as elite in this regard as a recruit, either out of high school or after shooting a modest 33.1% from three in two years at Xavier. Last season was a true breakout, where Green surged to 44.2% on 6.1 attempts per game from beyond the arc, displaying efficiency on both pull-ups and spot-ups, with space and contested.
Having played plenty of highly competitive basketball at 6-foot-0, Green has the tenacity to get downhill in spite his size. He has exceptional body control through traffic, and has averaged under a turnover per game in his career. As a bonus, Green can be disruptive as a defender at his size, despite not necessarily having elite numbers in the steals department.
Saint Louis basketball make-or-break player: Jax Kerr
As previously alluded to, the Robbie Avila era is over. Avila’s offensive ability was so great that Schertz was willing to sacrifice defense at the center spot. Now, he has to find a replacement alongside the plethora of guard/wing options.
Some lineup projections slot in Alon Michaeli as the starting center, but it is hard to believe that is sustainable given that he was a bench player for a bad Colorado team last season. One big man that Schertz has consistently been high on is rising sophomore Jax Kerr, who now will have every opportunity to earn minutes.
At 6-foot-11, Kerr ranked just outside the top 150 in the 247Sports Composite recruiting rankings and played sparingly as a freshman. Not only can Kerr complement the offense well with the ability to stretch the floor, he also has the capability to give Schertz his first legitimate rim protector at SLU. This makes the most sense as a prototype for Schertz’s starting center post-Avila.
Key statistic: Net effective field goal percentage
Every Schertz team has been ultra-efficient in terms of shot-taking. Effective field goal percentage, which weights successful three-point attempts as 1.5 field goals made (since threes give you 1.5 times the number of points as twos) illustrates that.
Going back to Indiana State, Schertz’s teams have ranked 4th, 1st, 12th, and 2nd in effective field goal percentage in his last four seasons. seasons. Last season, Saint Louis also ranked 3rd in opposing effective field goal percentage, allowing a rate of 45.2%, while posting 59.7% offensively. In fact, for a good chunk of the season, the Billikens ranked first nationally in both categories.
Because Saint Louis is so effective in the half-court setting, they do not need to be aggressive in running off of forced turnovers. This is why Schertz’s defenses typically outperform their personnel, which was especially the case in 2025-26.
Saint Louis basketball 2026-27 projections
Projected conference finish: 2nd in the Atlantic 10
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen