Saint Louis basketball was one of the feel-good stories in college basketball this season, but the Billikens were not playing their best basketball coming into March Madness. However, the regular season champs in the Atlantic 10 were able to put that behind them in a dominant win over Georgia in the Round of 64.
The Billikens got contributions from all over their roster in this win. Eight players for Josh Schertz and company scored at least nine points en route to the 102-77 victory, the first time in NCAA Tournament history that has happened according to Jared Berson.
Simply put, it was an offensive exhibition for Saint Louis from start to finish, as it proved why it was in charge of the Atlantic 10 all season and spent much of the campaign ranked in the AP top 25. Dion Brown led the way with an efficient 18 points on 9-for-10 shooting in just 22 minutes, while star big man Robbie Avila added 12 to go with five rebounds and five assists.
On the other side, Georgia had no answers to stay in the game outside of Jeremiah Wilkinson, who dropped 30 points to lead all scorers off the bench for Mike White's team.
This is the second-straight year that Georgia has been blown out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, so the Bulldogs will have to go back to the drawing board coming into next season.
As for the 9th-seeded Billikens, they move on to the second round where they will take on top-seeded Michigan in the Midwest region. Saint Louis will be at a bit of a size disadvantage in the front court against the Wolverines' gigantic front line, but it has the advantage in guard depth.
Regardless of the challenge at hand, Saint Louis showed why it is one of the best offensive teams in the country on Thursday night. If it can put together a similar performance on Saturday, there is more than enough firepower here to give the Big Ten regular season champs a scare.
