Game 1 vs. Bradley
Thursday, March 3, 2016 6:00 p.m.
Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Mo.

Loyola finished the MVC regular season in eighth place for Arch Madness at 7-11 in conference and 14-16 overall, largely because of two games: an overtime loss on the final day of the season at Drake, and a January 13 54-53 home loss to Bradley. But for those two losses to lower-seed teams, the Ramblers would be playing on Friday as the sixth seed. It’s too late to learn lessons from those losses for the seniors on Loyola—Devon Turk, Jeff White, Montel James, and Earl Peterson—however all but Peterson (toe injury) will get a chance to continue play in the MVC tournament beginning Thursday against the Bradley Braves.

The Braves start two guards, a center, and two forwards. Ronnie Suggs and Antoine Pittman currently man the backcourt. Six seven sophomore forward Donte Thomas leads the team in points (8.9) and rebounds (5.9) per game. Luuk van Bree, a 6’9” Dutch forward adds 4.6 rebounds and 8.5 points per game; he leads the team in made threes (44) and three point percentage (36.1%).

Callum Barker is the 6’9” center out of Australia who nearly signed with Loyola. He averages 5.2 points and 4.5 rebounds. Barker scored 10 points coming off the bench and dominated the boards with nine rebounds as Bradley out-rebounded the Ramblers 37-24 in January; he was held to two points and six boards in the Peoria rematch.

Six-foot-three Brit guard Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye (9.7 ppg), 6’7” forward Scottie James (3.3 points, 2.7 rpg), and 5’11” Joel Okafor get most of the time off the bench.

Bradley has been playing much better in the latter half of the conference season; they beat Drake and Indiana State at home, and their losing margins have been slimmer. Loyola will be favored in this game, but the opposition and degree of difficulty afterwards climbs steeply. The winner of this game will get 15 hours or so to rest and recover before hitting the court to warm up for a game against Wichita State at noon on Friday. And jus’ sayin’--- the sixth seed doesn’t play their first game until 8:30 p.m. on Friday.

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 302aaa.pdf

Bradley game notes: http://www.bradleybraves.com/pdf9/45717 ... EM_ID=3400

TV/Streaming video: Comcast SportsNet Plus

Vegas odds: Loyola by 10.5

JCT ... hope this is not the last preview ... I just wanted to thank you for doing these previews! I always look forward to reading in advance of the game. Lets hope there are a couple more. Great job all year! Go Ramblers!!

Well, for us FAR AWAY out of towners, we are on espn3 this evening ! I shall be watching with interext to see if we truly are the 10 + point favorites--I say we are as reported earlier--NOW ket us win this bad boy !!!

If we had a beat writer at the Tribune, Sun Times or Daily Herald, today's story might have looked a little like this one for Bradley:

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20160302/b ... um=twitter

Does anyone know what channel number CSN+ is on Comcast?

Sitting in section 117, Row B if any fellow ramblermaniacs are in the area

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say we will need to shoot better than 25% to win this game.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Rajala's coming out party?

Except for one assist Doyle useless--Porter being schooled by ex-Horizon Coach--We are NOT BIG ENOUGH !! Not a good start--We might get better in second half.

I was really hoping that we were going to come out of the gate and blow them out early. We can make a run and have the game put away by midway through the second.