The Saint Louis Billikens practiced for 40 minutes on Wednesday ahead of their NCAA Tournament game. (photo/SLUBillikens.com)
The Saint Louis Billikens held a 40-minute open practice and got themselves familiar with the shooting background at the Amway Center in Orlando, FL., Wednesday afternoon in preparation for their NCAA Tournament game against North Carolina State Thursday at 6:20 p.m. (CDT).
The Billikens (26-6), who enter the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 21 in the USA Today coaches’ poll and No. 25 by the Associated Press, are the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region. SLU captured the Atlantic 10 Conference regular-season championship for a second consecutive year, but lost last Friday to St. Bonaventure in the A-10 Tournament on a last second shot. The Billikens lost four of five, but senior center Rob Loe is not concerned.
We’re good. We didn’t end conference play the way we wanted to, but we had fire. We’ve had fire in practices. We’ve had some great practices this last week, and I think we want to prove that we’re still a great team. We let it slip a little bit there at the end of the season, but we’re out to prove that we’re still a great team.”
North Carolina State (22-13) of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the No. 12 Midwest seed, advanced to Orlando by defeating Xavier 74-59 Tuesday night in a First Four matchup in Dayton, Ohio.
The SLU-North Carolina State winner will play either No. 4 seed and defending national champion Louisville (29-5) or No. 13 seed Manhattan (25-7) in the round of 32 Saturday.