Against opponents in the top half of Division I's 364 teams, the Billikens were 2-6. Not a good omen entering Atlantic 10 play, where nearly every team is a top-half squad.

That last pre-Christmas game, a narrow road loss at Grand Canyon, provided a glimmer of hope, but SLU looked like a team that would struggle to keep its head above water in the A-10.

First-year coach Josh Schertz referenced the team's lack of an identity early on. Only the two Indiana State transfers, Isaiah Swope and Robbie Avila, had ever played for Schertz. To the rest, it was all new.

Then to begin league play, the Billikens took a big leap forward and began to find their identity. SLU showed increased mastery of Schertz's offense at the same time the Billikens improved upon a previously porous defense.

At 3-1 after their first four league games with their wins by an average of 15 points, the Billikens, who notched their two best wins of the season since A-10 play began, look like they can beat any team in the league.

Despite a blowout loss Tuesday at VCU, SLU is among a group of four one-loss teams atop the A-10.

Here's a statistical look at three key areas that are driving SLU's recent improvement.

Digging out of the defensive doldrums

In mid-December, after three of four SLU opponents shot 50% or better, the Billikens' defense ranked worse than 77% of Division I teams, according to Ken Pomeroy's metrics.

UMass Lowell put up a 68.8% effective field goal percentage in a late-November SLU win, which is the Billikens' fifth-worst mark permitted in a game since 1997.

Effective field goal percentage is a statistic that adjusts field goal percentage to account for the fact that three-pointers are worth an extra point.

Since that low point, SLU has moved up 74 spots in Pomeroy's defensive rankings into a neighborhood far more in line with where Schertz-coached Indiana State teams have resided in recent years.

In conference games, SLU sports the league's No. 1 effective field goal percentage defense.

"I didn't think leaving Chicago State that we had an identity. Even though we were 6-3, I didn't know what our identity was on offense or defense. Every good team has a way they want to play on offense and defense. They have a true identity," Schertz said after a game last week. "We're starting to forge an identity of who we want to be, how we want to play defensively, how we want to play offensively."

In the past five games, SLU opponents are shooting 46.4% from 2-point range and 26.5% from 3. Both numbers are far better than the DI average.

SLU is also avoiding fouls. The Billikens' opponents' free-throw rate this year ranks in the 98th percentile.

Better shooting from better shots

As SLU players began to master Schertz's offense, the Billikens' 2-point shooting percentage has been on a steady upward trend.

The first conference game, a rout at Fordham, put SLU above 60% on the season for the first time since very early on.

The Billikens rank sixth in the nation in 2-point shooting percentage (60.1%), with a 64.9% mark in conference play. Last season, SLU shot under 50% from 2-point range and was in the bottom half of Division I.

Schertz's Indiana State squad finished last season No. 1 in the nation in 2-point percentage (62.4%), the Trees' second straight season topping Division I in that stat.

By effective field goal percentage, SLU leads the league by a wide margin in conference games.

That better understanding of the offense and more open 2-pointers are also helping the Billikens to shoot better from 3-point range. In the last month-plus, SLU has improved from 34.7% from 3 to 36.2%.

"(The offense) tends to get better as the year goes on," Schertz said after a recent game. "Our offense last year, I thought at Indiana State was at its best in the NIT. We we hung 100 a couple times on high-major teams. ... It should look a lot better now than it did in November, and hopefully it looks a lot better in February than it does today. ... If we do it right, we're at our best when it matters most."

Better passing feeding those improved shots

Beyond the increasing numbers of highlight-reel passes, a more concrete indicator of SLU's growing competence within its offense is the assist rate, or the percentage of baskets that are assisted.

In the past month, SLU has assisted on more than 70% of its baskets in three separate games after not having reached that mark in the season's first month-plus.

The Billikens' 58.7% assist rate is the highest it's been this season, and at 62% in the last five games, that ranks near the top of Division I if it continued over a full season.

A big factor behind this is Robbie Avila, who got off to a slow start after missing time early with injuries. Schertz calls him "the best passing big man in the country" and the statistics bear that out.

CBB Analytics estimates that Avila assists on more than a quarter of made baskets while he's on the floor, which is in the 99th percentile in Division I.