by Patrick Stevens

Kellen Thames begins his fifth season at Saint Louis viewed as perhaps the best player in the Atlantic 10. He’s on the league’s all-conference first team this preseason, as well as the projected all-defensive team.
 
Amazing when you consider that, less than two years ago, it was uncertain whether he would even be able to continue playing basketball.
 
After a mysterious ailment slowed and eventually sidelined him in 2024-25, Thames underwent a battery of tests in the hopes of figuring out what happened to the stamina of a man who was poised for a breakout season and delivered 14.8 points and 7.5 rebounds a game over the Billikens’ first four games.
 
The initial possibility uncovered was muscular dystrophy. But Thames did something rather remarkable: He blocked out the diagnosis.
 
“What kept me positive was I just ignored it,” Thames said. “I heard it as doctor talk, but my parents and even Coach [Josh] Schertz, everybody around me was really more invested in knowing what was going on. Me, I was just ‘It’s fine, I’m going to figure it out and I’m going to be back,’ or I’m just always going to work around it. But I didn’t know how serious it was until I had a sit-down with my parents. But once we figured out that wasn’t the case, everybody was relieved.”
 
It turned out that when Thames sweats, he loses electrolytes at four times the rate of a typical athlete. Everything he drinks has to contain electrolytes, and it’s something he’ll have to continue even after his playing days are done.
 
But it wasn’t a career-ending condition, and Thames set to work learning his body. The first step was getting to work in practice against the Saint Louis starters, even though he didn’t play in a game after January 25 that season.
 
“There were times I was doing good and some of the assistant coaches were like ‘Man, even just like three minutes, we would love it,’” Thames said. “Even that time being on scout team, learning how long I could be on there, seeing myself still being able to do the things I can do, gave me hope for the future.”
 
For good reason, it turned out. Thames averaged 9.7 points and 4.7 rebounds for Saint Louis last season, earning third team all-A10 honors. He also had a team-high 43 steals while playing 17.1 minutes a game, largely off the bench.
 
And he might be in for an even larger role this season.
 
“I don’t know if there’s a better player in college basketball with the ball in transition than Kellen Thames,” Schertz said. He was able to showcase that last year, but I think he can do it on a grander scale this year.”
 
It helps, too, that Thames is hardly the only player in the Billikens’ backcourt for opponents to contend with. The presence of the likes of Trey Green, Quentin Jones and Amari McCottry works so that each amplifies the rest.
 
It worked well enough to help Saint Louis win 29 games, a number the Billikens will look to surpass with much of last year’s core group back.
 
“In this day and age, you don’t really get to play with your brothers,” Thames said. “It’s great that we’re experiencing another season together. That’s the main thing, and that family’s straying off. Everybody’s in a good place and we’re all excited to play together.”
 
A LOOK AT THE BILLIKENS:
Coach: Josh Schertz, third season at Saint Louis, 48-21 with the Billikens and 451-130 in 18 seasons overall.
 
Last year: The Billikens were the Atlantic 10’s pacesetters all season, winning their first 12 conference games on the way to a 24-1 start. While it split its last six league games and then bowed out in the semifinals of the A10 tournament, Saint Louis shredded Georgia 102-77 as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament before falling to eventual national champ Michigan in the second round to close out a 29-6 season.
 
They’ll miss: Dion Brown is the only player among the Billikens’ top seven scorers from last season who is definitively gone. The wing averaged 11.1 points and 5.6 rebounds last season.
 
Impact returners: Four Billikens landed on the Atlantic 10’s preseason all-conference team. Trey Green joins Thames on the first team; Amari McCottry is a second team pick and also earned an all-defensive nod; and Ishan Sharma collected a third team nod.
 
Then there’s Quentin Jones, who had 9.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in his first season at Saint Louis.
 
“On a team that had four guys get all-league, he’s been as consistent as anybody,” Schertz said of the 6-foot-5 Jones. “A good thing for him is he’s a guy who will use this as fuel even though it’s a preseason deal. They’re not going to get five on all-league and all four of the other guys are deserving as well. But he’s had a great fall. He’s as good a two-way player as there is in the Atlantic 10.”
 
Newcomers of note: Unlike most teams, the Billikens don’t appear to actually need much from their newcomers, at least this season. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some help available in the six-man group of additions.
 
Forward Alon Michaeli (7.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg) got into 31 games last season as a freshman at Colorado. St. Louis native Sheek Pearson returns home to fortify the frontcourt after redshirting last season at Marquette. And the 6-foot-8, 245-pound Elijah Strong averaged 10.0 points last season at South Carolina and came close to doing the same the year before at Boston College.
 
X factor: It developed late, but it’s a doozy. Center Robbie Avila, who won the A10’s player of the year award last season while averaging 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists last season, was granted a temporary restraining order from a Missouri circuit court judge to permit him a fifth year of eligibility.
 
Avila won’t play in the Billikens’ season opener Monday against Lehigh, but if Saint Louis gets him for the bulk of the year, it would certainly elevate the team’s ceiling.
 
Reasons to be optimistic: Whether Avila does or doesn’t play, sophomore Jax Kerr (2.8 ppg, 1.9 rpg) is prepared for an elevated role thanks to his shooting, ability to space the floor and to act as a lob threat.
 
“Jax had a really good jump from year one to year two, which you hope for and expect from guys,” Schertz said. “He’s certainly much more comfortable. The understanding of what we’re doing is there. He certainly has to get stronger, and he has to continue to develop the edge needed to be a great player. But he has certainly impacted our team in a major way.”
 
Circle the date: The Billikens might not be getting Missouri to come to their campus, but the Tigers are coming to town. The teams will meet Nov. 6 at the Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis as the first game in a three-year series between the schools.
 
Bottom line: After advancing in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014, the Billikens are aiming to take yet another step. Not only should they be at or near the top of the Atlantic 10, they have enough talent and continuity to have a serious chance to reach the second weekend of the NCAA tournament if they can stay healthy.
 
Patrick Stevens is a veteran college basketball writer who oversees Mid-Atlantic College Hoops. Previously, he worked for The Washington Post, Syracuse Media Group and The Washington Times. Stevens has written selected pieces for the Atlantic 10 Conference since 2013.