Billiken Guard
By Leslie Gibson McCarthy
The Saint Louis University Billikens are in the heart of their conference schedule, and, because this is the team’s inaugural season in the Atlantic-10, it’s a particularly challenging ride. But there was reason for optimism before the season because of the team’s depth and because coach Brad Soderberg was able to persuade two talented local products, Tommie Liddell from East St. Louis and Kevin Lisch from Althoff Catholic in Belleville, Ill., to stay in the area and play for the Billikens. St. Louis Magazine caught up with one of them, Lisch, just as the season was getting under way.
You were recruited by some top-notch Division I schools. What factored into your decision to stay in the area and attend SLU?
I really got to know the coaches well, and I just felt real comfortable with them and that this was the place for me. Some things are kind of hard to explain, but you just get that feeling sometimes. I liked what the future looked like here.
What has been the biggest adjustment from being a star high-school athlete to being a freshman at a Division I school?
The school part is much more difficult. They don’t have the easy P.E. classes here that everyone wants to take. And basketball is definitely a step up. In every area, life’s gotten harder. It just comes down to you personally managing your own time.
Your dad, Rusty Lisch, played quarterback with Joe Montana at Notre Dame and for the NFL's Cardinals and Bears in the early 1980s. Growing up, did you realize that your dad had such a pedigree in college and pro football?
He really doesn’t talk much about himself playing. He’ll talk about Joe Montana and Walter Payton and about their work ethic and mental toughness and how they went about approaching the game—but he never really talks much about his playing days, and I’ve never seen him play football. I wish I could have.
Does your dad mix it up with you on the driveway basketball court?
Oh yeah. I’m starting to be able to beat him now. He’s always given me good competition because he knows my game so well. I have to be at my best against him because he knows what’s coming.
Do you think Belleville and the eastern side of the metropolitan area get a bad rap? Many St. Louisans think life stops at the Mississippi River.
[Laughs.] I didn’t even know people felt like that until I moved to this side of the river. Belleville’s been good to me.
What makes you angry?
People being lazy—that gets on my nerves. If I’ve been lazy when I look back on the day, that gets me mad at myself. People being untruthful to each other makes me angry, too.
What kind of music is on your iPod?
I don’t have an iPod, but, if I did, it’d be country music, like Tim McGraw. But I like all kinds of music. Being around these guys. you hear a lot of rap [laughs] ... I try and not let that grow on me, but every now and then a song sneaks in. I like some old guys like Dan Fogelberg and James Taylor. That’s not your typical college-student music. I hear some razzing sometime, but I don’t really care. I give it right back to them.
In four years, when you're walking across that stage to receive your SLU diploma, what do you want people to say about Kevin Lisch?
Not necessarily that I was the greatest basketball player in SLU history, even though I’d like to be one of them. I’d like them to say, “That kid, he wasn’t selfish at all. Out on the court, he was looking out for his teammates. On campus, he wasn’t trying to act like a big man. He was down-to-earth, selfless.”
