Jan. 14, 2010

In his 22nd NCAA season and with a stint at ESPN on his resume in between, Rick Majerus knows a good team when he sees one.

And what Majerus saw as he prepared his St. Louis Billikens to face Duquesne on Wednesday night got his attention and then some.

"That Dayton game (a 78-72 OT win over the Dukes on Jan. 9) was a great game to watch," Majerus insisted. "I mean, I was riveted to it. I'll tell you something, it was like I was in a movie. I watched that, I had to pee, I remember that. I couldn't turn it off.

"I usually watch these things and study them. I just said, `Ok, I'm going to watch this as a fan.' And I got so mesmerized by the athletic ability and talent and (the) highly competitive game.

"And then I went back the second time, broke it down. But the first time I started watching (at) about the five-minute mark, 4:46, I think, they took the time out in the first half, I said `I'm putting away my pen and paper and I'm just going to watch and enjoy this game.'

"It was the old Runnin' Rebels vs. the Ragin' Cajuns. What a great college game. I mean, if you ever want to get a film of a game; that was a hell of a game. We had to be careful because if we get in that game (with Duquesne) it's lights out for us, school's out for the Billikens."

Majerus was able to avoid the potential track meet he dreaded at the Palumbo Center. At what Ron Everhart saw instead during what became a 79-75 double-overtime loss has him worried about much more than the impact of his team's fourth consecutive loss and fifth in six games on the overall record and the Atlantic 10 standings.

Suddenly, the Dukes' collective confidence is at risk.

"That concerns me more than anything right now," Everhart said. "In 16 years I've never really lost a team, or lost a group of guys. I've never lost their sense of urgency to play. Right now when you start out your league (schedule) 0-3 as a coach you really worry about that, I know that I am right now.

"Because we have guys playing their tails off, we really do. Effort wise, we're working, but we can't seem to finish the deal."

Against St. Louis, 23 points and 17 rebounds from Damian Saunders wasn't enough. A had-to-have-it three-pointer from Bill Clark with 9.1 seconds left in the first overtime, a shot that necessitated a second extra session, wasn't enough.

And 36 shots from the foul line, compared to 20 for the visitors, weren't enough, mostly because the Dukes missed 14 of them.

"I guess the frustrating part for me is, we're doing the things we want to do, we're getting the ball where we want to get it," Everhart said. "I guess when you miss 14 free throws it's hard to win. When you miss as many lay-ups as we missed, it's tough to win.

"We've got to shoot the ball better than 35 percent from the floor."

The figure was actually 35.7 percent against St. Louis. But why quibble?

It's frustrating rather than disheartening because Everhart knows his team is capable of better.

The challenge now, first and foremost, is to make sure all of these near-misses don't conspire to stifle the effort that's been a staple all season.

Keep that up and these Dukes may yet become more of a team and less of a collection of, as Majerus observed, "athletic ability and talent."

That needs to happen sooner rather than later, but the potential is still there.

For verification check the Dayton tape.