Because he is a basketball coach, there are certain things Rick Majerus sees that the rest of us miss.
We see his St. Louis Billikens arrive back home having survived and thrived on a daunting Philly trip. He shrugs his shoulders and recites lines from "Hoosiers." ( No matter where you go, the rim is still 15 feet from the foul line and 10 feet from the floor.) We squint and talk about how the rapidly improving Billikens grind every game into "unsightly" but productive victories. He smiles and tells you to tilt your head the other way and behold one of basketball's most beautiful but unappreciated abstract art forms.
Defense.
This is what makes basketball so much fun. We can watch a Missouri team that Baylor coach Scott Drew calls the best offensive show in the country take you apart with a hundred different lashes on the offensive end — 3-pointers by the bushel, low-post efficiency at a 70 percent clip, daring no-look creativity in the lane, unselfish sharing of the ball that harkens back to the best of "old-school" hoops — and appreciate it as fine hoop art.
Then we can shift our sight over to Chaifetz Arena and watch Majerus' Billikens show you what defense can do for you.
Great offense makes you get up out of your seat, but great defense is much more of an acquired taste that often is recognized with knowing nods and subtler forms of appreciation.
The Billikens are one of those head-nodding teams that don't do well on the highlight reels but register quite well in the won-loss columns. Coming off a strong 2-0 trip to Philadelphia, SLU (20-5) has reached the 20-win mark quicker than all but four teams in school history and is closing in on the finest season since Majerus arrived on campus five years ago. And the basketball renaissance in midtown is happening exactly the way Majerus wants it to: on the strength of the sort of defense that makes every opponent feel like they're playing basketball in a phone booth.
SLU is ranked eighth in the country and No. 1 in the Atlantic 10 Conference in scoring defense (allowing only 56.8 points a game). On last week's trip, against St. Joseph's and La Salle, the Bills allowed an average of only 55.5 points.
"It was obvious that our guys did a great job of defending and showing resiliency," Majerus said.
Majerus loves defense. He does not have a lineup full of graceful future NBA athletes who can light up the scoreboard every night like so many of the higher profile teams in the Top 10.
They grind it out. They beat you with all the unspectacular things like defensive rebounding, protecting the ball, forcing turnovers and turning every trip down the floor into a battle of wills and toughness.
What they do doesn't take your breath away, but it does win a lot of games.
"We had a writer come up to me after the (La Salle) game," Majerus said. "And he said, 'Geez, that sure was an ugly game.' I never understand that mentality. One of the most beautiful Final Four games I ever saw was (in 2000). ... Wisconsin played Michigan State (a 53-41 Spartans victory). It was a slugfest and it was a rebounding game and a defensive game. If you like Steve Nash or New York Knicks (uptempo) basketball, there is something to be said for that. But ultimately, defensive teams win and I can't say enough about how hard our guys played on the defensive end and put themselves in position to beat two terrific teams."
The La Salle game was a defensive thing of beauty. SLU forced La Salle into 20 turnovers, converted them into 20 points and limited the Explorers to 40 percent shooting from the floor. Like every typical Majerus team, the Billikens clearly are hanging their hats on defense. In addition to leading the A-10 in scoring defense, they lead the A-10 in scoring margin (plus-12.6) by nearly four points and are second in the league in defensive rebounding and turnover margin (plus-4.44).
In their last three games, opponents are averaging only 53.6 points, and in their last eight games (seven victories), only one team (first-place Temple) scored more than 68 points.
Like Majerus said, defensive teams win in the NCAAs, and SLU already has begun its strong postseason push. The Billikens are home for three of their last five games before the start of the A-10 tournament. There's no reason to believe that they can't win all five.
Unfortunately, the way the NCAA Tournament election process works for teams that don't play in the power conferences, winning out — or at the very least losing only one game before selection Sunday — is the only sure way a team such as SLU can be assured of getting a call for March Madness.
In many ways, it's really rather healthy that the SLU players probably know this. Any little slip-up can cause you to become one of those dreaded bubble teams, precariously teetering on the verge of being left out of the NCAA field.
So here's the way they have to think: You better be playing on Selection Sunday.
If the Billikens still are playing on Selection Sunday (March 11, the A-10 tourney final), that probably would mean they would have already won 27 games to get that far.
That would be the sort of cushion that protects them from any surprises.
The good news for St. Louis U. is that the Billikens are getting the attention of the poll voters again. Nothing dramatic, mind you. But this week's polls have the Billikens receiving the most votes in either the Associated Press writers' poll or the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll since Jan. 2.
After falling out of both polls early in the season (they haven't been ranked since Nov. 28, when they were 6-0 and ranked 23rd in the AP poll and 25th in the coaches' poll), they could be one more good week away from cracking the Top 25 again.
Right now, SLU looks exactly like a team on the express lane to March Madness. Great RPI. Strong won-loss record. Head coach with a reputation for postseason success. Lots of impressive nonconference victories. Team on a hot streak (7-1 in last eight with a legit shot to head into the conference tourney on a nine-game winning steak). That's the sort of résumé that delights the selection committee.
There we go again, looking through the wrong prism. Go ahead, ask Majerus about all the possible postseason permutations that are in front of his team.
"Our only focus is going to be on this Richmond team that is playing really good," he said. "I don't really look ahead and I don't discuss those things with the guys. We just live in the moment."
