I wasn't there, and I didn't write the game story for Sunday's paper, so some of this may be redundant, but let's start with some quotes from coach Rick Majerus, generously transcribed by Matt Vautour of the Daily Hampshire Gazette:

Asked about whether traveling back and forth to play Xavier on Wednesday before heading to Amherst had tired his team out, Majerus repeated a familiar complaint of his that Saint Louis doesn't geographically belong in the Atlantic 10.

If we really cared about the student athletes, and I think we try to, we don't belong in this league," he said. "I'm more concerned academically. The thing the travel compromises the most is their ability to get a good education."

But he wasn't ready to make travel an excuse for his team's poor play in the first half.

"I don't give a (expletive) how much travel you have. All you have to do is get your nose in the chest and defend," he said. "I don't care if we didn't shoot well. You can always defend. They played terrific with energy and effort. They played like they wanted to win. We played in the afterglow of a nice victory (over Xavier Wednesday) and that was it. We beat ourselves. Forget about the missed free throws of the turnovers. All that stuff is bull (expletive). We didn't come out and play. They exceeded us in intensity level and they won."

Despite entering the game 16-4, he didn't hold back his criticism of his players. He didn't think they appreciated the opportunity they had.

"You're 18, 19, 20 years old. A buddy of mine's cousin just died over in Afghanistan. Who knows how many kids will die there today and they're the same age. This is a game. They should want to play a game," he said. "It begins with me. I have to look at myself and say what didn't I do to provide the energy and effort that they need. Then they have to look at themselves."

He was frustrated with senior captain Brian Conklin for his early defense on Raphiael Putney and didn't think playing with a leg injury was an excuse.

"I don't care what his leg is. He's got some kind of leg injury. If you've got a leg injury, don't play. I'd rather have a handicapped guy covering him," Majerus said. "I used to coach wheelchair basketball. Those son of (expletives) came to play every night. The most rewarding experience of my life was coaching my wheelchair team and the Special Olympics that I ran and coached in Utah. I can get a a Special Olympian to get excited (to play). No derogatory remark to them. I'm just upset that (his current players) would not value the moment."

Majerus wasn't sure that some of his players even liked basketball.

"I may have a guy or two that don't play for the right reasons. College basketball is rife with it. They like being basketball players. They like being on the team, but they don't like basketball," he said. "But even if that's your deal in life, you have an obligation to your teammates and yourself. And someone gave you a scholarship. I've got three walk-ons that pay $46,000 a year. If I had any balls I would have played them."

 So I probably don't need to tell you it wasn't a good game as SLU lost 72-59. SLU doomed itself in a lousy first half in which UMass shot 65.5 percent from the field. (For comparison purposes, that's three times better than Duquesne shot in the second half of its game with SLU. Yes, they threw in some rather amazing outdoor shots, but it was obviously more than that. SLU got sped up, made silly turnovers, missed easy shots, and didn't defend well. And then to make matters worse, they couldn't make a free throw. All in all, a catastrophic afternoon.

The Atlantic 10 race is a mess. UMass, La Salle and St. Bonaventure are on top -- Bona comes to SLU on Wednesday -- though I'll caution you that at this point of the season, the standings are a reflection on who you've played. Bona has four of its five wins against four of the five worst teams in the league. La Salle has wins over Rhode Island, Duquesne and George Washington (though its wins over UMass and Xavier should count for something). Anyway, this will start to even out as the season goes on and UMass has a very tough stretch of games coming up in February when it plays Bona, St. Joe's, La Salle, Xavier, Dayton and Temple in a row. If they go 1-5 in that stretch, you'll hear about how their season has fallen apart, when in reality, it's just the order the games came in.

Oh, and Rhode Island beat Dayton. Not sure how to explain that.

SLU's points per possession was a dismal .79. That's SLU's worst by .11. (They were .90 at Dayton.) Defensively, they were .97.

UMass had 45 points in the first half. The only 20 minutes where SLU gave up more points was the second half against Loyola Marymount, which had 49. Needless to say, both of those halves stunk and were parts of losses.

Prior to Saturday, the most SLU had ever trailed all season was 14 points against Charlotte. Interestingly, they made up 14 points on UMass, cutting a 19-point halftime lead to five.

SLU shot 34.3 percent, a season low. The previous low was 38.7 against Dayton. Interestingly, the last time they shot worse? Last year against UMass, when they made 19 of 55 for 33.9 percent. But they made 10 of 31 3's and won the game.

The only time they shot worse on 3's than their 20.8 were the New Mexico (16.7) and Illinois-Springfield (17.4) games.

As for free throws, ah the good old days: SLU shot 30.8 at the line last year against Charlotte (4 of 13), in a game they won. After the Xavier game, Majerus noted that SLU's free throw shooting was "relatively" better. Thanks to their strong finish at the line in that game, they improved their bottom line, but until then, they were bad. As Majerus noted another time, when guys start missing free throws, it becomes deflating.

The 15 turnovers matched their third most this season, and while I haven't broken them down, these had to be pretty annoying to Majerus. Lately, by the way, SLU players have developed the habit of stepping out of bounds on routine plays. Is the Chaifetz court too narrow? These seem like pretty avoidable turnovers.

SLU's free throw defense needs some work. Xavier and UMass made 46 of 53 free throws, 86.7 percent. Part of that is fouling the wrong guy. Chaz Williams of UMass made 11 of 12. That's not unexpected.

Want to know something Majerus (and probably a lot of other coaches) doesn't like? Fouling a guy shooting a 3. For the second straight game, Kwamain Mitchell did that and the guy made all three foul shots. Not a good game for Mitchell. Just four points (off of nine shots), 0 for 4 on 3's, he fouled out and had just two assists. He was -24 in 36 minutes.

Kyle Cassity played just 12 minutes, took just one shot, a 3, that missed. His stat line was all zeroes except for a foul. This has been a tough stretch for Cassity, and teams have to increasingly expect him not to shoot. His experience is what's keeping him getting minutes. He's averaging 15.5 per game over the past four games. He was +1.

Also not a great game for Dwayne Evans, who had seven points on 12 shots and was 2 of 4 at the foul line. He did have 12 rebounds, his second double-figure rebounding game in the past three. In the past two games, he has six turnovers. He got subbed out about a minute into the second half for doing something wrong, but he soon came back in. He was -14 in 28 minutes.

Brian Conklin rolled his ankle in practice on Friday and it was sore enough that he didn't start, though he played 34 minutes, including the entire second half. His 17 points leave him four away from 1,000 for his career, and would have gotten it if he hadn't missed four free throws. He had three turnovers and was a -8 in 34 minutes.

Rob Loe hit two first half 3's, then had nothing. He had two turnovers, and 11 of SLU's 15 turnovers came from its bigs. He was down to a more normal 17 minutes, and was -3.

Jordair Jett would have had a very good game if not for his four missed free throws. He had made 12 of 15 free throws (80 percent) in the past four games, then shot 20 percent against UMass. He was +6 in 22 minutes.

Mike McCall had just two points, but he did have three assists and no turnovers. He was -7 in 21 minutes.

Cody Ellis got his first start of the season in place of Conklin and was -12 in 27 minutes. At 1/1, he was the only SLU player who took one not to miss a free throw.

Cory Remekun played two minutes in the first half, made one of two free throws, turned the ball over, and that was pretty much it. He didn't play in the second half. (He was -4 for the game.) With Remekn not playing and Cassity and Loe not playing much, Majerus pretty much used a six-man rotation in the second half, relying on Mitchell, McCall, Jett, Evans, Conklin and Ellis most of the way.

Well, you can expect some intense practices over the next few days and what figures to be an uncomfortable film session. The trip home was probably not a happy flight.

And a shoutout to Tom McCarthy, the CBS Sports Network announcer, for giving me a shout out on the air. Rare that I was at home to hear it. If I'd made the trip, I'd have never known.