Lots of new faces to get to know each other as St. Louis U. starts summer workouts

It used to be in college basketball that coaches had to figure out how to integrate a few freshmen and maybe a transfer student into a teams existing framework.

Those days are long gone.

St.

Louis University coach Josh Schertz has five players returning from last season, six transfer players and four freshmen, so there are more players who have never played with anybody on this team than players who have.

And even though Schertz and his staff recruited all of them to come to SLU, how the pieces will all fit together is a mystery until the players actually hit the court.

Youre always concerned, hows it going to fit together, Schertz said Thursday after the third day of summer workouts at Chaifetz Pavilion, with most but not all of his second SLU team on hand.

Its a big difference in recruiting talent and putting a team together.

Just because you have talented guys, it doesnt mean its going to be a good basketball team.

Theres a lot of things that look good on paper, but games arent played on paper.

We know we have really good talent.

We know we have really good depth.

Weve got a high-character group of guys.

Its a really high-quality group of young men.

The other stuff is the questions weve got to answer.

That groundwork is being laid right now, four days a week at Chaifetz.

SLUs season opener Nov.

3 at home against Southeast Missouri State is five months away, and the on-court work starts now.

Not all the players are on the court yet, as some are finishing up high school or dealing with other issues at home, but all will soon be on hand.

Its definitely different because youre not used to the guy next to you for all four years that you came in with, said center Robbie Avila, also starting his second season in the program.

Maybe you come in with two or three guys that you may be able to stick out with.

...

I think its fun, getting to see who guys are, what they look like on the court, what they look like off the court.

Youre just creating relationships.

We spend a lot of time with each other off the court, said Trey Green, a transfer from Xavier who projects as the teams point guard.

We communicate with each other on the court just as much as we do off the court.

As the point guard, Im kind of the leading force of that, encouraging guys no matter what.

Were in a drill, were eating, just little things like that goes a long way with building that connection.

There are two players on the court right now who Schertz wasnt expecting even a short while ago.

Kellen Thames, who missed most of last season with a cramping issue, is back on the court and working with the team, though nothing definite figures to be known there until the start of the season gets closer.

And the team added another freshman, Badara Diakite, a 6-10 forward from Mali via Hartford, Connecticut, who had committed to Iowa but was released from his commitment after a coaching change there.

His arrival at SLU wasnt positive until the middle of last week.

Kellens situation fell in a way that was positive, Schertz said.

Were always going to monitor him, but theres no restrictions.

Theyre trying some different stuff in terms of electrolytes and monitoring it.

They thought maybe some different stuff early, which was scary stuff, and now they feel its more electrolytes and how he sweats and how much sweat he loses.

Right now, its going to be trial and error this summer, and well see how he feels.

Right now, after three practices in four days, hes doing great.

Hes not had any issues with his body.

But we also havent gone up and down for an extended period of time.

Right now, when we do play, its two or three possessions max.

Its not like a game, where youre going up and down for a couple of minutes.

So we havent crossed that bridge yet.

Diakite was ranked No.

72 by ESPN and was a four-star recruit from Rivals and committed to Iowa in November.

But when Fran McCaffery was fired, Diakite was released from his commitment but as his school year ended still hadnt found a new school.

We really thought we were done, Schertz said.

His deal kind of came out of left field.

(Assistant coach) Antone Gray had a connection to one of his AAU people.

Youre sitting there going: Hes a four-star guy, top 125 player in the country, 6-10, but when I talked to his AAU guy, I explained our situation and said, This is where we are with it.

Weve got three seniors who can play the five, and when you look at the four, with Robbie Avila, Paul Otieno, Kalu Anya, and then weve got Amari McCottry and Brady Dunlap and other guys that can also play the four, its going to be a crowded house there.

But they wanted the development.

They wanted to send him somewhere they felt like he could get better, they wanted to have a big-picture perspective.

Budara has all this potential.

Hes raw.

Where do we send him that we think is going to do the best job of developing him? For a while, I didnt really feel like it was going to happen, and then it all happened pretty quickly.

So were excited to have him.

I think hes a guy with tremendous upside.

His mobility at 6-10, he doesnt know what hes doing yet, but he does things where you can see as he figures stuff out, hes got a chance to be a very good player.

Schertz ran his team through the drills that are run at the NBA scouting combine on Wednesday to see where his team stands and was impressed most by the performance of Otieno, who is transferring to SLU from Quinnipiac.

He bench pressed 185 pounds 21 times.

That was 22 times more than Robbie, Schertz said..

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