Teams that pick up the tempo seem to bring out the best in the Billikens, who if you haven’t noticed, have gotten back into the L-W-L-W-L-W pattern that was so much fun two years ago.

New AD Chris May was planning on going to the second half of the game, but his flight in from Denver was delayed and he got in late. He made an appearance at the women’s game Saturday night. His official introduction will be Monday.

SLU’s points per possession were .92. UMass’ was .76.

This was just the second game this season where SLU never trailed. The other was Houston Baptist.

SLU’s free throw shooting the past three games has been bad, a combined 62 percent.  It’s going to kill them at some point. Majerus made the case afterward that one reason is that SLU never practices at Scottrade, so they have just as much familiarity there as the visiting team. Which is true, except that SLU also shot poorly on the road, 41.7 percent at Dayton, 53.8 at La Salle, and they shot 90.9 percent at home against Temple. SLU’s 28 free throw attempts matched their season high.

SLU’s 44 rebounds were a season high,  helped along by UMass missing more shots, 46, than any SLU opponent this season. UMass was 0 for 13 on 3’s in the second half.

SLU blocked eight shots, easily a season-high.The Billikens also got 18 points off turnovers, matching a season-high.

UMass’ 30.3 percent shooting was the lowest for a SLU opponent this season. Same for the 9.1 percent on 3-pointers.

Tommie just missed his first double-double of the season. He had nine rebounds. He hasn’t made a 3-pointer since the Rhody game. In two of those four games, he didn’t try a 3.

Kevin was 0 for 5 on 3’s, though that number didn’t hit me until after the game. He was 6 of 8 on non-3-pointers.

Eberhardt played just eight minutes. SLU did such a good job of slowing the game down that Husak was able to play 28 minutes. You would think a run-and-gun team would leave the 7-footer dragging, but SLU dictated the pace enough that he could stay in. Majerus said afterward that Barry would have to lose weight if he’s going to play next season.

“We have a lot of issues,” Majerus said. “Look at Barry. We go inside to a 6-5 5-man. If he’s 6-5 and the other guy is 6-9, the other guy’s got a pogo stick and Barry does not have a lot of bounce. He’s got a lot of weight. For Barry to play next year, he’s going to have to lose weight. He doesn’t have fat, he has weight. I went through this with Doleac.  If he ever wants to be a good player, he has to eliminate body mass because he’s undersized.”

Eberhardt had no rebuonds. That his first game at SLU where he hasn’t had a rebound.

Luke Meyer would have been in double figures if he hadn’t missed three of six free throws. I don’t have the numbers for his freshman year handy, but in the past three seasons, it’s the first time he’s missed three free throws in one game. Luke had some foul trouble and played just 28 minutes. If he’d played a minute or two more, he might have had a double-double.

Dwayne Polk has four points, all in the first 90 seconds. “Polk tries so hard,” Majerus said. “He missed a shot on the left side, and your heart goes out to him. He tries so hard, he’s squeezing it. You try to tell him to relax, but it’s hard to relax when you’re not a good shooter.”

Husak played a career high 28 minutes and Majerus said it was the best game Bryce has ever played coming off a bad game. Husak had one rebound in 16 minutes against Dayton. He had six in 28 against UMass.

Knollmeyer didn’t start, which wasn’t a surprise since UMass had a 7-footer, which cried out for Bryce to start. Knollmeyer played just three minutes, all in the first half, so it might be back to the old days for him.

Marcus Relphorde played six minutes, one of his longest stints of the year, but I suspect Majerus was none too thrilled with the foul on the 3-point try early in the second half.

Danny Brown’s shooting in his first nine games: 3 for 13. In his past five: 15 for 26.

And the plus-minus winner is:

Meyer +20

Liddell +12

Lisch +12

Husak +12

Brown +6

Eberhardt +5

Polk +4

Knollmeyer -2

Relphorde -4

Eckerle -5 (his numbers were down and Husak’s were up because of late-game offense-defense subs.)

Majerus said that on Friday, no team  in the nation had a practice as good as SLU’s. Some may have been as good, but none better. They went four hours on Friday, much of it spent looking at film.

Majerus on loving his seniors: “I’ve never left this team to recruit and I never will. I keep telling my assistants, those four seniors are owed our responsibility. I’ve missed one practice and one individual session.”

UMass coach Travis Ford: “It amazes me how they (SLU) have struggled. Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch are two of the best players in the league. Period. Meyer is very good.”

Meanwhile, an interesting day in the A-10. St. Bonaventure knocks off Duquesne - so much for the at-large hopes of the Dukes - and Richmond goes on the road and beats Charlotte. (SLU’s win over UMass will hurt the Minutemen’s at-large hopes.) That leaves St. Joseph’s and Xavier on top at 6-1, followed by Rhody at 5-2 and Charlotte at 4-2. Richmond is 4-3 and with wins over Dayton and Charlotte I suppose has to be taken very seriously. (Those wins could be huge come tiebreaker time.) Temple is 3-2 and plays George Washington today, so they could jump into a tie for fourth. There are five teams, including SLU, at 3-4: Dayton, La Salle, Duquesne and UMass are the others. Fordham is 2-5, George Washington 1-5 and St. Bonaventure 1-6. If GW can’t beat Temple today, they’ll have the edge on being the other team not to make the conference tournament.