Wednesday, January 2, 2019, 8:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Illinois

Almost exactly a year ago, Loyola played Indiana State at Gentile Arena. With Loyola’s ailing point guard Clayton Custer still on the bench, the Ramblers lost 61-57 and dropped to 1-2 in conference. It was the third loss of the five games Custer spent on the bench, and the only home loss of the year for the Ramblers. Loyola won 21 of their next 22 games as Custer returned in the following game.

This year, the Sycamores are back at Gentile Arena in the first week of the new year with another Rambler injured, this time top defensive player Lucas Williamson. And again, like last year, Indiana State has exceeded expectations in the early going with some nice wins over Colorado, UNLV, and Western Kentucky. Loyola and Indiana State have had one common opponent, Ball State. ISU lost by 27 points in Muncie to begin the season, and Loyola lost to the Cardinals at home by six.

The Sycamores feature an MVC Preseason First Team player (junior guard Jordan Barnes), a sophomore who’s made a huge leap in performance early in 2018 (6’2” guard Tyreke Key), and a Power 5 transfer (6’5” Iowa transfer Christian Williams). Barnes is averaging just over 20 points per game in the early going, and has improved his shot selection and three-point accuracy. Key has doubled his points per game from last year, and averages over 16.9 per game while shooting 54% from the field. Williams has been the top rebounder on the team since he was eligible to play four games ago, and a surprisingly good passer and playmaker.

Six-foot-nine senior center Emondre Rickman and 6’6” guard Clayton Hughes fill out the starting lineup. Rickman has been a very good rim protector, notching 17 blocks on the season, but he’s been a liability going to the free throw line (39%) and is shooting only 42% from the field. Hughes is shooting 50% from behind the arc (10 of 20) and averages 6.5 points per game.

The Sycamore bench goes a lot deeper on big men than guards. Bronson Kessinger and Devin Thomas make significant contributions off the bench in the front court. With guards Clayton Hughes, Christian Williams, and freshman De’Avion Willams somewhat foul-prone, the Sycamores could be thrown off their game if the guards get into any foul trouble.

Although they shoot for high accuracy on threes, Indiana State does not take many three pointers. In fact, their opponents have taken 66% more attempts from behind the arc than the Sycamores. Eight times, ISU opponents have taken 20 or more three-point shots against them and ISU is 6-2 in those games. Yet the most three attempts ISU has made in a game this year was 18 (an ISU win), and the average is 14.

Even more determinative to winning or losing is the shooting percentage from two-point territory. In games where ISU allows opponents to shoot over 42% or better from the field, opponents are 4-1 against the Sycamores. When ISU holds opponents below 42%, they’re 7-0. Conversely, Indiana State is 0-3 when they shoot below 40% on threes.

The Ramblers have had a bad go of it in conference openers since joining the MVC six years ago, with a 1-4 record to open league play. Loyola’s only conference opener win was in the 2014-15 season-- a 64-49 New Year’s Eve win over Bradley.

Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=8266

Indiana State game notes: https://gosycamores.com/documents/2018/ ... eNotes.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/54291f5f ... olachicago

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=234961

Vegas odds: Loyola by 6.5

Brots iffy forecast==--f we stay in OXEN mode ,we lose say 50-44 If we return to what brought us success we win 72 58

The line at -6.5 seems like a big task for tomorrow’s game. I think we can win, but it’ll be a close fight. LUC 72 - ISU 68

There is no way we score 72 if our 3 pointers do not start dropping.

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Let's go Braden!

We could make 36 twos.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

or 72 free throws!

It's going to be very interesting to see how we come out of the gate in conference play.

I'm hoping we look renewed and the shots start falling! A win against this team tonight, and it's goign to feel like we're right back in the thick of things.

Another player to keep an eye on for Indiana State is Butler transfer Cooper Neese. He just became eligible and has been playing about 20mpg the last 4 games.

If we had Lucas I'd feel a lot better about this game. Honestly, right now I think it's a tossup. No students and a late start so we lose a good chunk of the home court advantage, and who knows how each team will react to a probably quiet crowd.

I’d definitely feel better if we had Lucas. Other than that though I’m not so sure that the crowd matters that much. Ideally it sounds like a more packed crowd would be better for us defensively but looking back on last year says otherwise. This year our crowd as been great and we lost plenty of games due to many reasons. We were able to win plenty of conference games without crowd support last year. Overall our team playing up to the standards that they’re capable of is the deciding factor, the crowd is just a nice touch.