By ADAM ZAGORIA
Saint Louis University basketball star Robbie Avila is enrolled as a graduate student at the school and wants to play a fifth season in 2026-27, head coach Josh Schertz confirmed to ZAGSBLOG.
Graduate school would start next month.
“We are aware that Robbie has filed his appeal here in St Louis and we support him in his efforts to be granted the same opportunities as others in the class of 2022 have been afforded,” Schertz told ZAGSBLOG.
The news on the 6-foot-10 Avila, affectionately known as “Cream Abdul Jabbar,” “Milk Chamberlain” and “LeBron Frames,” was first reported by Stu Durando, who covers the program.
Avila, 23, played limited minutes for the L.A. Lakers in Summer League but recently filed a lawsuit in MIssouri to rejoin the Billikens for the upcoming season.
He played Summer League with the Lakers after going undrafted this year. Prior to that, Avila playing two seasons for Schertz at Indiana State and two more at Saint Louis. He averaged 12.8 points and 4.5 rebounds last season and 17.3 and 6.9 in 2024-25.
Avila is asking a Missouri judge to grant him an year of eligibility and Saint Louis would also need to expand its roster beyond 15 to make room for him.
“Love Robbie like a son,” Schertz said in a video posted to X by Frank Cusumano. “It’s a relationship I’ll have the rest of my life. [I] support his ability to try to get eligible.
“My hope is from an NCAA standpoint, that Class of 2022, the guys that have played four years, either all should be eligible or none should eligible… it shouldn’t be in the courts’ hands. It should be truly all players or none of the players. He’s filing and we support him 1000 percent. At the end of the day, we want Rob, if they’re gonna be eligible, certainly we hope he is.
“Our roster at the moment is set, based on the rules, we don’t have a spot. If something changed, we could certainly evaluate that….He’s gotta get eligible and then the roster caps would have to be lifted.”
A court in Indiana gave a preliminary injunction to nearly 100 players on Wednesday, making those players immediately eligible to return to college basketball.
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