It took a while for the Saint Louis Billikens' renewed commitment to basketball to take, but in Rick Majerus's fifth season as head coach they've already picked up their first NCAA Tournament win since 1998. Beating Memphis was impressive enough, but now SLU has the chance to do even more 2012 NCAA bracket-busting than we've seen to date: All they have to do is... well, beat the No. 1-seeded Michigan State Spartans. Nobody ever said become this year's March Madness darling would be easy.
SLU-blog We Are Saint Louis has a nice preview detailing exactly what the Billikens will have to do to reach the Sweet 16. To summarize: They'll have to do exactly what they did against the Memphis Tigers, only moreso. If they can slow the pace and keep their hands on the ball like they did in the round of 64 while keeping the Spartans' shooters off-balance they'll be in a position to be the millionth shocking upset since Friday afternoon.
Of course, it'll be a little tougher with the Spartans. More hand-linked SLU coverage from SB Nation St. Louis:
- Saint Louis's win Friday was a triumph of boring basketball over fast-break excitement.
- Not all Mizzou fans took SLU's victory equally well, if Twitter is any occasion.
- And the announcers Sunday are probably going to call Rick Majerus SLUperman at least once.