March 28, 2024
Postseason WNIT | 3/28/2024 1:50:33 PM
As it stands, with Rebecca Tillett running the show with the Saint Louis women’s basketball program, you run the risk of getting faked out by the blunt observation of the win-loss record.
Over her two seasons, the Billikens are straight-up even-steven overall, 36-36, with this year’s group at 19-18. But anyone paying attention will appreciate Saint Louis’ capacity to shock and amaze when stress and pressure is escalating – Tillett’s crew will bring those traits to the floor again for Friday’s Super 16 round of the Postseason WNIT, playing at Purdue Fort Wayne (23-12).
A year ago, the Billikens upset all comers in the Atlantic 10 tournament, including a frantic overtime win over UMass, clinching the first berth in program history for the NCAA Tournament. And this season, the squad reached the A-10 tourney semis after upsetting VCU in a 65-63 nailbiter and has won two tight contests so far in the WNIT.
Would Tillett prefer a bit more consistency and enjoy the sight of her team playing closer to its ceiling most nights? Well, sure, but the capacity to handle drama and duress is no small topic when building a program’s identity.
“As a group, we’ve tried to have it at this point of the year where the team is led by the coaches and the team,” said Tillett, who was head coach at Longwood for four years ahead of her current job, guiding the Lancers to their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. “The best programs I’ve worked with, leadership comes from both places, and I think you are seeing that now. Getting people to believe that no matter what is happening, even in high-pressure intense moments, we can figure it out together. That’s where the magic lies for our group.
“You’ll see some very intense communication between players, with staff and players, where we get into what we need to do in this moment. And we’ll take whatever is the best idea in that moment. The suggestion that sometimes wins the game won’t always come from the most expected place. We’ve built an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas, so that (clutch play) happens. And we can stay in the present moment, high pressure or not.”
Had the 2023-24 group caught just a few more breaks in terms of health, victories would likely have stacked up for Saint Louis. Most memorably, starting center Marcavia Shavers went down with a visceral mouth injury in the A-10 semis on March 9, two minutes after tipoff against Rhode Island – a 10-mnute delay while she was attended to and stretchered off clearly rattled the team, which still nearly fought back before losing, 68-62.
But that was the vibe all year, players going out and coming back, a parade of obstacles that kept the squad from reaching its level of being the preseason No. 3 choice in the A-10.
“We started on a high note, got upset wins against Missouri and Missouri State, and we were feeling great,” Tillett said. “Then we went to Hawaii (for a tournament) and had our first injury. Every team has injuries, so you don’t want to say things happen solely as a result of that, but the injuries put us in adverse situations we had to figure out, and it took us longer than we thought it would.
“We’d get a player back, start feeling good, and we’d have another high-production player go down. Then we’re back to trying to sort out what combination of players works best. Of all my teams, this is the one I’ve changed the starting lineup the most times. Right now, through it all, we can say we have our best chemistry of the season. We usually find it sooner, but we feel we are playing our best basketball and are still getting better.”
Part of the team’s ability to hang in comes out of its experience. Grad student Kyla McMakin is a true force, averaging 16.8 per game, with senior Peyton Kennedy right there at 16.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per contest. Another grad, Julia Martinez, leads the team in assists, is second in rebounds, and had a triple-double in that big upset of UMass a year ago.
You can see the steadying hand of those players in how Saint Louis dealt with the frustration of the good news/bad news flavor of this season.
“There was a long period where we would win a game, lose a game, win a game, lose a game. We kept saying as a staff, if we figure out how to win three in a row, I think this team will just take off,” Tillett said. “And that’s what happened in February. For our women, it was about staying the course with the lessons being learned. We scheduled hard in the non-conference, and I tell people, as coaches you better be able to handle that. If we go out and start jumping off cliffs, the team is going to. Our conversation around losses is, we have to learn these lessons together and grow from that.”
Saint Louis has reason to be encouraged about how those insights will help in seasons to come, and how the 2024 Postseason WNIT can help create momentum. The roster features an impact sophomore in Brooklyn Gray (11 points per game) with two juniors – Kennedy Calhoun and Tierra Simon – comfortable in important roles.
“We’re trying to build a sustainable foundation for a postseason team (identity),” Tillett said. “The history of the WNIT, you look at that and see teams who had success there have had success getting into the NCAA tournament or making a run there. We have huge respect for what the WNIT has historically done for the women’s game. We knew we’d likely be a NCAA bubble team, and we were so hopeful to get this opportunity because we are playing our best basketball.”
To continue its success in the WNIT, Tillett noted her team needs to be smart with the ball while staying aggressive on offense and getting to the free-throw line, where it shoots 78 percent overall. It would be nice to bang in a few more 3-pointers (SLU is just under 32 percent from long range), but defensively, the tools are there to deploy as the Billikens force right at 18 turnovers per game.
“Our defense during this run, and even ahead of the WNIT, has been improving steadily. Earlier in the season, that was not holding true for us.” Tillett added. “We have to compete in the rebounding battle, as we inevitably end up with a mismatch somewhere in size. On the offense side, we really are so dangerous, and it doesn’t make sense we don’t shoot the 3 better than we do. We seem to shoot better on the road, which is so unusual. We just can’t have the opponents go off there, because that becomes a harder gap to close.”