Steve Tappmeyer (center) has led the UMSL Tritons to a 30-16 record over his two seasons as head coach of the men's basketball team. (Photo by Danny Reise)

For one 49-day stretch earlier this basketball season, the University of Missouri–St. Louis men’s basketball team did something that was inconceivable just a couple years earlier: not lose. During that stretch, the UMSL Tritons reeled off 10-straight wins (second most in program history), six-straight victories against Great Lakes Valley Conference opponents pushing the team’s record to 6-0 in the GLVC (both program bests) and got off to a 11-3 record that was the program’s best season start in more than two decades.

Now at 14-5 (9-2 in the GLVC), the UMSL Tritons are on their way to a second consecutive winning season in as many years under the leadership of Steve Tappmeyer, the program’s sixth head coach. Perhaps the St. Louis Post-Dispatch best summed up the coach and team’s success in a recent story.

“Steve Tappmeyer is doing his best to make men’s basketball relevant again at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and the team is rapidly following suit,” reporter Kathleen Nelson wrote in the Post-Dispatch article “UMSL thrives under Tappmeyer’s leadership.”

The Tritons will begin their final month of the regular season with its final road swing. That will take the team to Kansas City, Mo., Thursday to face Rockhurst University and Liberty, Mo., Saturday to face William Jewell College – both teams UMSL defeated at home earlier this season. Wins against both Rockhurst and William Jewell will give the Tritons a new program record 11 GLVC wins. UMSL set the record last year with 10 GLVC wins.