The list of things you could come away with feeling good about from the SLU-St. Ambrose seems pretty limited. Jeff Reid played an excellent 12 minutes. Christian Salecich and Justin Jordan hit some nice threes. Kwamain Mitchell had 23 points. SLU held St. Ambrose to 32.6 percent shooting. Willie Reed had a thunderous dunk.

Meanwhile … SLU shot 40 percent from the field, 37 percent in the first half. The Billikens had a 12-point first half lead and then fell behind by three in the second half. In the first 9:10 of the second half, SLU scored four points and committed eight turnovers. SLU shot 60 percent at the free throw line — 56.3 in the first half. Femi John was 0 for 8 from the field. Kyle Cassity was 2 for 9. In the first half, SLU’s five big men took a combined four shots. Jon Smith and Cory Remekun played a combined 27 minutes and didn’t take a shot. SLU committed 18 turnovers; everyone had one but Smith.

Fortunately for SLU, it’s an exhibition game, which means nothing in it really matters, except for the impressions it leaves. As the team learns, it will get better, but the lessons will start getting much tougher starting Saturday against SEMO.

Majerus said a big problem is continuity. With Paul Eckerle hurt and Cody Ellis in Australia, SLU’s down to 10 players and with small injuries here and there during the week, SLU has been practicing with nine guys at times. “If we got the swine flu, we’d have to forfeit a game,” Majerus said.

The start of the second half was, well, horrid. To wit, here are SLU’s 20 possessions at the start of the half:

1. Turnover, Cassity throws to opponent

2. Mitchell misses shot; Willie Reed called for foul on rebound

3. Turnover. Conklin called for illegal screen

4. Turnover. Jordan throws to no one

5. Turnover. Jordan throws away

6. Turnover. Mitchell travels

7. Salecich makes two free throws

8. Cassity misses shot on drive

9. Salecich drives baseline, misses

10. Reed dunks off Mitchell lob

11. Turnover. St. Ambrose steals after rebound

12. Turnover. Remekun travels

13. Salecich misses 3

14. Reed misses 1-footer.

15. Turnover. Conklin called for charging, gets hurt

16. Salecich hits 3

17. Femi John shot blocked

18. Mitchell makes one of two free throws. Remekun gets rebound on second, makes turnover with bad pass

19. Cassity misses; Reid travels with rebound

20. Cassity misses front end of one-and-one, Reid gets rebound, passes to Mitchell for layin. Order is restored.

“Our turnovers were … we’re making the same errors,” Majerus said. “Kyle’s a smart kid, he leads the half off in front of our bench throwing to Conklin, that’s a turnover. Then we told Conklin, you’ve got to make 45 dribble to a shot. Conklin lets 45 catch and shoot, without a dribble, twice. Those are two sophomores. That’s the scary thing.”

Around the lineup:

Conklin: It looks like we won’t know until Monday what his status is for next week. He got in first half foul trouble for the second straight game, which limited his minutes.

Reed: Took just five shots, and with one a putback, it means SLU got him the ball in position for a shot just four times in 30 minutes. St. Ambrose was working on denying him the ball, but down the road, there are a lot of teams that will do it much better than St. Ambrose did. He did have nine rebounds.

Mitchell: Shot much better after his awful performance last time out. 23 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists is a good line. Missed a day of practice this week with a blister on his left foot.

Femi John: 0 for 8 from the field is not good. “Femi’s a great kid,” Majerus said, “but how do you dribble at three guys and double clutch? He’s not Kobe Bryant, and Kobe Bryant wouldn’t take on 3 guys. He sat out last year, he didn’t really practice, he’s a young guy, he’s got to learn.”

Cassity: 2 for 9 from the field, 0 for 5 on 3’s, 0 for 4 at the line. He’s shown he’s more willing to shoot this season. Went for steal once, didn’t get it, which led to easy basket for St. Ambrose. “Kyle becomes his own worst enemy,” Majerus said. “Kyle’s a good shooter. I wasn’t worried about his 0 for 5 from 3 or his 0 for 4 from the free throw line. I was worried about the two baskets he gave up in the first half on end out-of-boundses. He’s supposed to be a veteran, but how much of a veteran can you be when you averaged one point last season and you’re a sophomore? He’s a good kid but he’s got to accelerate the learning curve.”

Jordan: Hit a couple of key 3’s. 3 assists, 2 turnovers. Still doesn’t have name on the back of his jersey.

Salecich: Played the point at times and hit a couple of 3’s. Is getting most playing time of the freshmen by far. Majerus thinks he needs to slow down on offense. (Actually, the consensus seems to be everyone needs to slow down on offense.) 3 turnovers to 1 assist.

Smith: No points, 2 rebounds in 14 minutes.

Reid: If you were at the game and thought Jeff Reid played well, consider yourself validated. When I noted after the game that they got a lot from Reid, Majerus said it was astute of me to recognize that. “His head was in the game before his body was,” said Willie Reed, channeling somebody, maybe Majerus. Majerus says Reid has a bunion problem on his foot and that if they decide to slice it off, Reid could be out for the season. Meanwhile, he’s credited Reid with “manning up” and playing through the pain.

Remekun: Missed one day of practice with an illness, was put into quarantine by a doctor, and was released just in time for practice on Friday. Had three rebounds and three turnovers. “Cory is zero for zero on field goals and free throws, but he’s got eight faces made,” Majerus said. “I never saw a guy make more faces than him, but that’s what you do with young guys.”

Darrin Young: Walk-on didn’t get in game, but did suit up, so apparently he’s been cleared by the NCAA.

xxxx

In the second half, Kwamain Mitchell was supposed to shoot a second free throw but was taken off the line because of blood. Under a new rule, the opposing coach gets to pick from among the four players remaining on the court. This caught the St. Ambrose bench flat-footed, and they quickly scrambled to figure out who they should choose. Now, looking at the court, the choice should have been easy: Willie Reed. But instead of saying 33, they said 23, which is Kyle Cassity. The St. Ambrose bench then tried to change it to 33, but the refs said they had to tae the first thing they said, which was 23. Cassity missed the free throw on an 0-for-4 day at the line. So ultimately, the choice worked out OK for St. Ambrose.

An interesting spread on the plus-minus, a 35-point gap between the high, Willie Reed at +24 and Femi John at -11. In a 14-point win, being a -11 is not too common. Also worth noting is that Brian Conklin and Jeff Reid each played 12 minutes; Conklin was -1, Reid was +6. Though if they both played 24 minutes, Conklin might well have had a better number because he’s in better shape.

Willie Reed +24

Salecich +16

Mitchell +15

Cassity +11

Jordan +8

Smith +7

Reid _6

Conklin -1

Remekun -5

John -11