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Everybody knows we’re down to just two undefeated teams remaining in the sport: Arizona and Miami (OH). But do you realize how close we are to still having three or maybe even four?
Of the six one-loss teams, Duke and Saint Louis are the two whose only loss came by a single point. Duke (19-1) lost to Texas Tech 82-81 in December, while Saint Louis (20-1) lost to Stanford 78-77 in November. And in that one-point loss to Stanford, the Billikens actually led by 15 points before losing on a 3-pointer at the buzzer. So Saint Louis is quite literally just a Benny Gealer miss from being 21-0, and Gealer misses 3-point attempts exactly 56.9% of the time.
Anyway …
I’m telling you this because the Billikens will return to the court Friday night when they host Dayton at Chaifetz Arena. The game is scheduled to tip a little after 8 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network. It’ll be the first contest for Saint Louis since Robbie Avila buried a game-winning 3-pointer in Tuesday’s 79-76 victory over George Washington that stretched the Billikens’ winning streak to 14.
The view from the crowd was awesome.
Saint Louis is No. 20 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona remains No. 1 for the 20th consecutive day. For what it’s worth, KenPom.com currently lists the Billikens as favorites in every remaining regular season contest and is projecting them to win the Atlantic 10 by three games with a 16-2 record.
SLU has not won a conference championship since Jim Crews guided the program to the A-10 title in 2014. In that season, the Billikens finished one game ahead of Shaka Smart’s VCU Rams.
Top 25 And 1 rankings