SLU hasn’t won on the road yet this season, and the four true road games, Nebraska, Detroit, Southern Illinois and Xavier, were four of the less impressive games of the season. So would a win on the road be a big deal for SLU? No, said Rick Majerus.

“Every win is a big step. I never got into that. I’ve really always been focused on the next game for you. I think the big thing for us is getting better. We’ve improved on some things in the last games, and in the last game we made some mistakes. I pointed that out and we righted that ship. …  I think it’s important we continue to make progress, that’s about it. I don’t look at it as road or home, that’s our next game. I’m aware we’re playing on the road. I’ve got a pretty good road record, and part of the reason is I don’t make a big deal of it.”

I mentioned that his team won a couple of nice road games last season, including one in Philadelphia against St. Joe’s.

“What people forget about last year’s team,” Majerus said, “we had Luke Meyer who was really a veteran and Danny Brown played sensational for us in January and February, especially February. Danny’s not coming in this February. Danny had a great senior season. If anything, we have to play our freshmen more. I’ve got to give Lisch and Liddell a bit of relief. To Tommy and Kevin’s credit, they’ve been real good, I’d like to get more out of Barry.”

The challenge playing Temple is to slow down Dionte Christmas. “He didn’t do much last year,” Majerus said “We defended him well and he got (20) against us. We hope to run a few different guys to him and stay fresh. Temple’s a perplexing team. They have a lot of good players who can shoot. Their biggest guy is their best perimeter shooter other than Christmas. There’s a balance you have to have. You don’t want to win the battle of Christmas and lose the war, but you’re not going to win the war without taking care of Christmas. We’ll selectively bring help. He’s really talented. He’s a phenomenal player. We’re well aware of that. Hopefully the guys will feel challenged rather than intimidated.”

Majerus had the flu on Monday and missed practice but was back on Tuesday. The team flew out to Philadelphia on Wednesday morning and practiced there Wednesday afternoon.