Spirit of Saint Louis: How a lack of ego is fueling the No. 24 Billikens

PITTSBURGH — Robbie Avila knows it sounds like a cliché, and maybe it is. For Avila and everyone else on No. 24 Saint Louis, though, it also happens to be true.

“We have no egos on this team,” the perpetually goggled, occasionally googled — feel free to search “Larry Nerd,” “Cream Abdul-Jabbar” or “Steph Blurry” — senior center said after the Billikens improved to 18-1 with a harder-than-it-needed-to-be 81-77 win over Duquesne. “We know that if we are going to be successful, it’s going to take everybody.”

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Something the 6-foot-10 big man with a shooting guard’s touch and a point guard’s vision understood when he sat down with Saint Louis coach Josh Schertz after his first season with the Billikens ended with a first-round loss in the NIT.

“Look,” Schertz told Avila, who followed his coach to Saint Louis after they guided Indiana State to the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season crown and the NIT finals in 2024. “This is our NIL (name, image and likeness) budget. This is what percentage I can give you and still have enough left over to put a team around you that’s talented enough to reach the NCAA Tournament.”

Avila, without skipping a beat, told Schertz, “I’m in.”

“It wasn’t a ‘Well I need more,’ or ‘I need to get paid this’ or ‘I could go I leverage this or hold you hostage,’” Schertz said. “It’s just sets a great tone because really nobody else can complain when your best player … is sacrificing minutes and shots.”

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Just not victories. Never victories. And that’s kind of the point of all this, right?

A selfless approach

Sure, Avila has earned the right to “get his,” if that’s what he wanted. He averaged 17.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists — the most by a post player in the country — a year ago. He could have told Schertz, “Give me the ball or I’m out of here.”

Only that’s not the way Avila — whom Schertz said values winning as much as any player…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/spirit-saint-louis-lack-ego-183406906.html

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Publish date : 2026-01-21 18:34:00

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