Can I Interest You In A Billiken?

March Madness means it's time to get invested in random schools from places you've never been, and after the bracket reveals on Sunday, I'd like to offer a potential rooting interest: the Saint Louis Billikens men's team. Based indeed in Missouri and not some off-brand St. Louis (à la Oakland University), you may faintly recall the Billikens for their quirky mascot and their three straight first-round tournament wins in the 2010s. This is their first appearance since a loss as a 13 seed in 2019, however, so please allow me to acquaint you with this squad and give you five reasons to care about them.

Reason No. 1: The Billikens just played two very exciting games.

Look, I'm not going to pretend I was living and dying with Saint Louis basketball this year, but I did tune in for their pair of games in the Atlantic 10 tournament, and I liked what I saw. Saint Louis entered the week as the top seed, but they were sliding in sideways. They started the year 24-1, with the lone loss coming by one point to Stanford, but they went just 3-3 in their last six, with their final regular-season game a brutal 29-point blowout by George Mason.