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In the aftermath of St. Louis University’s ignominious loss in the NIT to Arkansas State, coach Josh Schertz ran through a list of needs his team faced: A level of speed, a level of playmaking, a level of skill, positional size, physicality.

So far, as he builds his roster for 2025-26, so good.

SLU has signed four players in the transfer portal through Friday, and is looking to add two more. With five players returning from last season’s team that finished in fifth in the Atlantic 10, but with three of its starters gone, it’s a solid first step.

“It’s being able to really be specific in the portal about what does this team need to take a quantum step forward,� Schertz said, “and I think four guys in, the roster has taken a quantum step forward.�

SLU has added a forward, 6-8 Paul Otieno who was playing at Quinnipiac, and three guards, Dion Brown from Boston College, Trey Green from Xavier and Quentin Jones from Northern Illinois. With Robbie Avila, Kalu Anya, Amari McCottry, Dylan Warlick and Kellen Thames back from last season barring any last-minute changes of mind, plus three incoming freshmen, the team is almost in place for next season. The team is still in the market for two more players.

“The portal has been good so far,� Schertz said. “Recruiting is always fickle, but we had to retool. We’re not done yet. We have work to do in the weeks to come. We’ve done well. You never know. … We feel like with these first four we certainly checked a lot of those boxes for what we felt like we needed to do moving forward. And part of moving forward was we had to retain the right guys and then we had to add the right pieces.�

SLU is far ahead of the game from last season. Everything was on hold until Schertz was done coaching Indiana State in the NIT and he could get to work on his first team. He didn’t get hired until April 6, by which time the transfer portal had been open for three weeks. SLU was still signing players in May. This season it could be over by next week, and the familiarity he has with the team and the league is making the process easier.

“I have a better feel for St. Louis,� he said, “I have a better feel for the Atlantic 10, I have a better feel for what it takes to be successful at this level. The jump from 14th in the league to fifth is a hard one, but the jump from fifth to first is much harder. That’s what we’re having to do.�

Even with five of its top eight scorers back, Schertz has some big holes to fill. (And the playing availability of Thames, who missed most of the second half of the season, remains in doubt.) Point guard Isaiah Swope is gone, as is the school’s all-time leading scorer Gibson Jimerson. Along with Kobe Johnson, those guards were three of SLU’s five starters and combined for 53 percent of SLU’s scoring.

Green is the one point guard among the signees, and Schertz thinks that bringing the ball upcourt can be a shared effort, like it often was last season, when the team tried to take some of the pressure off Swope by having someone else handling the ball. Along with Green, that could be done by Jones, Avila or McCottry.

“Quentin Jones, he was the No. 1 scorer in the MAC,� Schertz said, “but he also had over 100 assists. He’s a terrific playmaker, he can really disperse the ball. Trey Green is a guy who can play make as well and these last two spots we know that we’re going to fill, we would want two guards that we think can really play make and have point-guard level skills but may not have point-guard size. We think the cumulative playmaking will be important. … What we didn’t have last year was enough guys who could do that.�

Brown and Otieno could give SLU a more physical presence inside as it had trouble getting offensive rebounds. Otieno is 6-8, so his ability inside is no surprise, but Brown is only 6-3.

“Dion’s a unique player,� Schertz said. “He played at Maryland Baltimore County for two years and his sophomore year he led the league in scoring and rebounding. He averaged 21.4 points a game and almost 10 rebounds a game. He’s another guy like Otieno who’s fantastic on the offensive glass, he’s a terrific defender, a great cutter without the basketball, and as a guard, rebounds unbelievably well on both ends of the floor, a fantastic individual defender. He shot 35 percent or better from 3 every year of his college career. Not a huge volume 3-point shooter, but he’s a guy who makes them consistently.

“He and Paul give us two guys who go get the ball at an extraordinarily high level. (Otieno was sixth in the nation in offensive rebounds.) Quentin, if you look at his assist numbers, his steal numbers, he’s one of the best in the league in terms of stealing and he was second on team in rebounding, so we tried to address a lot of the areas we discussed, playmaking and size and athleticism and speed and skill, as much as we could touch.�

And a bit of redundancy on the team wouldn’t hurt. Injuries last season became an anchor for SLU. Schertz is hoping for a team that could better deal with those problems this time.

“We still have a couple spots left to continue to build depth and as many ways as you can kind of bulletproof a team against injuries and various things,� He said. “Last year, no matter what, you can’t bulletproof against four guys being out, but you want to bulletproof your team to the level you can in terms of having the level of depth, versatility you need to overcome and deal with the injuries and illnesses that are part of the season.�