Saint Louis hires Schertz away from Indiana State

ST. LOUIS– Josh Schertz has been worked with as coach at Saint Louis after he led Indiana State to its very first 30-win season in 45 years, the Missouri Valley regular-season title and the NIT national championship, the Billikens revealed Saturday.Schertz changes Travis Ford, who was fired three weeks ago. The Billikens were 13-20 general(5-13 Atlantic 10)and last played in the NCAA competition in 2019. Indiana State, which lost 79-77 to Seton Hall in the NIT championship game Thursday, finished 32-7 and was among the first teams excluded of the NCAA tournament.Editor’s Picks 2 Related The Sycamores were the No. 1 seed in the NIT and drew a nationwide following drawn in by the paunchy goggles-wearing leading scorer Robbie Avila, nicknamed “Cream Abdul-Jabbar.”Schertz, 48, coached Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee to three Department II Final Fours in 13 years before taking over

at Indiana State in 2021. The Sycamores were 11-20 in his very first season and 23-13 in his second.This year, the Sycamores joined the Larry Bird-led 1979 team that reached the NCAA championship game as the only ones in program history to win 30 games. Indiana State was ranked No. 23 the week of Feb. 12, the program’s very first appearance in the Leading 25 considering that 1979. Schertz was Missouri Valley Coach of the Year and winner of the Hugh Durham Award as the nation’s leading mid-major coach.Saint Louis hasn’t won an Atlantic 10 regular-season champion given that winning two straight in 2013 and 2014 under Jim Crews, and it last won the conference competition in 2019 under Ford.