Josh Schertz knows all too well about being on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Schertz, in his second season at Saint Louis, previously guided Indiana State to a 28-6 record heading into Selection Sunday in 2024, but the Sycamores had failed to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Having missed out on an automatic bid, despite a top-30 NET ranking, they were relegated to the NIT, where Indiana State won four more games, finishing as tournament runner-up.
Now with the Billikens, who punched their ticket to the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinals Friday by topping George Washington, 88-81, Schertz hopes a similar dose of heartbreak isn’t on the horizon.
“I’m the worst at bracketology, and I have PTSD from Indiana State,” Schertz said. “Anything can happen, but I feel like we’ve built a pretty good resume over 32 games.”
Saint Louis, the top seed in the A-10 Tournament currently being held at PPG Paints Arena, is 28-4 following Friday’s win.
But entering play, the Billikens appeared to be on shaky ground, having dropped their regular-season finale to George Mason by 29 points.
Against George Washington, things could hardly have begun more catastrophically as Saint Louis trailed by as much as 21 early before going down 14 at halftime.
Rallying to take the lead down the stretch of the second half, the Billikens then had to fight off a determined Revolutionaries rally as the score was tied with 1 minute, 24 seconds to play.
However, over the final 90 seconds, Saint Louis did enough to win, averting a second straight loss that would have raised questions for the NCAA Tournament selection committee as to the Billikens’ overall worthiness.
Instead, Saint Louis fights on, an A-10 Tournament title game appearance within grasp, starting Saturday at 1 p.m. versus No. 4 Dayton.
Additionally, in Schertz’s eyes, Friday’s win further solidified the Billikens’ resume for the Big Dance.
“I think we have enough good wins so I’d be shocked if we weren’t just in, but in comfortably,” Schertz said. “Hopefully, now we’re just playing for seeding and playing for a championship, which, the one thing I know about the NCAA Tournament is, the more you win, the greater your odds are. You want to take all doubt and speculation out. The only way to do that is to win here in Pittsburgh and be the last team standing.”
To Schertz’s point, Saint Louis ranks No. 29 in the NET, is 2-1 in Quad 1 games and 6-2 in Quad 2 contests. The Billikens have one Quad 3 loss and won all 13 of their Quad 4 matchups.
Saint Louis players and coaches deserved to pat themselves on the back for rallying against George Washington, but if the Billikens are to reach their full potential and embark on a postseason run, more consistency is required.
Namely, the Billikens are well aware that moving forward, falling behind by a large margin like they did Friday and have at times this season might prove to be their undoing.
“We can’t really continue to put ourselves down in these 15-, 20-point games,” Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Robbie Avila said. “You’re not going to be able to dig yourself out of that hole every game, especially now, when it’s a win-or-go-home scenario. In the regular season, it was fine, because you got your next game, but in this case, you dig yourself in a hole like that and lose a game, then you’re not playing on Sunday (in the A-10 championship game).”
As he stays locked in towards the goal of leading his team to a league tournament championship and March Madness, Schertz was unavoidably prompted to zoom out with regards to his own long-term future.
That came as right around tipoff versus the Revolutionaries, Saint Louis athletic director Chris May revealed he’d reached an agreement in principle to extend Schertz long-term.
Schertz, who’d emerged as an attractive candidate for vacancies at Power Five programs like Syracuse and Kansas State, instead planted roots with the Billikens, who he has on the verge of a new program record for wins (29) and 11th ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
In an era when mid-major coaches often jump ship for more lucrative salaries and resources, Schertz opted to stay put and try to build something at Saint Louis.
“Everything that Saint Louis has done (has been) to try to continue to make this job better, better, better and I think we’re just scratching the surface of what it can be. I think we’ve got a good run ahead of us, hopefully this year, but certainly in the years to come.”