Thought it might be a good time to summarize the season, expectations for the off-season and what lies ahead. Look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.
1. Overall and everything considered I thought it was a successful year. The everything considered would be the injuries at an inopportune time and the loss of Moore. It seems that early on people were upset about the non-challenging non-con schedule, then let down at the holiday tournament but satisfied with the nice turn around. In the end I think this was a team that overachieved, provided a lot of hustle and put in some hard work to earn the double bye. Thought Drew Valentine came of age with more composure and better decisions. Certainly getting a lot of national ink.
2. The only thing for certain about the off season is that we will loose 4 seniors Des Watson, Sherman Edwards, DeLoach and Nwaokorie. Looks like currently we have 11 players on scholarship including the 2 incoming freshman. However it appears the NCAA is expanding that to 15 so who knows. Looking at it as it exists will Moore be back and fully recovered to take Des Watsons spot?, will Glaskov be ready to fill in for the sharpshooter role of Edwards?, will Young be ready to take the back up minutes for DeLoach? and will Handaway be ready to be a contributor off the bench?. If Moore is back where does that leave Houinsou ? This assumes that Rubin, Dawson, Quinn and Moore are back and healthy. Who will the 5th starter be? Looks like we will need some beef, shooting and ball handling ..unless the young kids are ready..which frankly I did not see any evidence of. So as I see it , at a minimum if no one leaves we will need two new players. But what is NIL situation? and you hate to say it but what can we afford? Unrealistic also to think no on will be leaving . So here we go again.
3. Future. I will give us credit and say that we have put ourselves firmly in the front tier of the A-10. But it is a conference of good coaches and a lot of teams with strong programs. Can we maintain our level of commitment as a university? We have a solid AD, a coach who has grown and is known nationally, we have built the facilities and developed a student following. Now it comes down to do we have the money to maintain the level of players we have had recently? I really do dislike this new era of how the game is conducted. Was hoping that the NCAA would come up with an equal plan of distribution , say like 2000 a month for each player paid out of the NCAA pot. But the rich like to use their money so dont see that happening, Alabama, the State has proposed tax free status for NIL to attract more players!
Side Comments
1. I really think Drew has grown and matured as a coach and after being on the fence have now firmly planted myself on the DV side. Better maturity on the bench, better tactical decisions. great adjustment to the loss of Moore and the loss to SLU. better in game decisions. Like his narrative, personality and continuing potential.
2. Do not know the ins and outs of scheduling but really would like to see a couple marquee non-con games.
3. Also would like to see more weekend games and none of the 8pm games...Also a couple of road games close to home...USF was kind of cool..love a road trip/
4. Lastly I was a little concerned that there seemed to be a decline in crowd size and overall enthusiasm this year...anyone else feel that way?

Of course, the biggest question is Rubin. He has really improved over the year, but with NIL, who knows?

Good Post, I will add my 2cents. I was always against leaving the valley because the program had ascended to the top of the conference. Given that the MVC and the A-10 have similar outcomes when it comes to tourney selections (add 1 at large for A-10) it seemed a bit misguided in the sense that you are losing probabilities to make the tourney because the A-10 is a better conference and it is more difficult to make the NCAA against this better competition.

I think this years Ramblers would be a pick em with Drake and handle Bradley and the rest of the MVC consistently.

Ultimately, DV is fine. Not great, still has some growing pains. Fan involvement is good, not great and LU is a good A-10 team…not great.

So the real issue becomes more about your conference and your ability to make the post season than anything else going forward, and in that context, LU remains on the outside…not sure there is a fix.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Chuck Love starts at SF as a freshman. I think he’s gonna be the real deal.

The international 4 stars clearly needed more seasoning than we thought. Unsure what to expect from them next year. I think Seif could benefit from moving to forward. I’m not sure Glaskov successfully hit a jump shot in the year 2025.

Retaining Miles is clearly the #1 portal priority, but as mentioned they’ll probably look to add center depth and a shooter.

Coach Valentine is a great coach. He has 80 wins in 4 years against strong competition. He has the best winning percentage (.615) of any Loyola coach in the last 75 years, better than all of the coaches I have seen as a Rambler fan - Moser, Sullivan, Whitesell, Farmer, Bumeister and Rey. It may not seem like much, but there are plenty of programs that fall off the map after a coaching change - I think DePaul still plays basketball. Coach Valentine's "bad" year was when we went up a weight class to the A10 and lost all the super seniors. We need to appreciate how well he is doing.

I think the weak conference schedule, the poor holiday tournament and the injuries really hurt the team this year. We lost Norris and he was the most identifiable player on the team for the last few years. It lowered the team's profile. The fact that we did not have Moore hurt. We could have used another point guard. (Credit to Houinsou who became our Swiss Army knife, rebounding, ball handling, playing defense, etc., He improved and played well).

In the middle of January, I thought we were destined (hoping?) to be 500. I think the team and the coaching staff did great. I hope that we can keep Dawson, Rubin, and Quinn.

I think the A10 has been its own worse enemy the last few years. It has been a strong conference, but the teams are holding each other back. The league is tough. From top to bottom, it is competitive. Most teams will be favored to win at home. The MVC only has three or four teams per year that are competitive. In comparison, I think any of the top six teams in the A10 could have claimed the championship. I think VCU is best team in the league, but St Louis, St. Joes and George Mason are talented teams as well. Back in the MVC, it seemed like we had two or three hard games a year.

As far as the NCAA, the current system with the super conferences has made it difficult for mid majors to get Quad 1 wins. We have a few teams with quality Quad 1 wins, but Dayton played so poorly in other games that its wins were offset by poor play against Quad 2 teams. If Dayton didn't play so poorly against Quad 2 teams, we would have had two teams in the NCAA. Now, we need George Mason to win to get two.

FWIW, Sullivan has a better winning % in his first four years at Loyola than Drew.

I've been all over the place within my head wondering whether or not we overachieved this year, or underachieved.

The fact that we climbed back from the dead in mid January and ended the year on an 11-3 finish was excellent. That was awesome. We played meaningful ball throughout February into mid March. We overachieved considering all things and the December disasters.

Now, the underachievement for me is a handful of things. The putrid non conference scheduling was first. Then our crap games and losses after the injuries. Then we shouldn't have lost two overtimes to Mason and Dayton. Then we failed to get to A10 champ game and/or contend for the regular season title at minimum. I thought we had the very talented, versatile, and deep roster to do it. If not for mid December injuries and a few league game losses that should not have occurred, we are a 25 win team at minimum and potentially playing for a bid this afternoon. We fell short of expectations.

The A10 as a conference does a horrid job of planning out league schedules. At minimum, the top 4 or 5 teams in the league should be playing one another twice annually. (Dayton, SLU, VCU, and Loyola). I think by now we can all agree we are a top 4 team in the league. Dynamic scheduling is needed. That's what Mountain West does, and it works in that league's favor (might fall short this year, but worked last year in getting those 5 bids). We should not be playing the Davidsons and Fordhams twice a year......

Drew is my guy and should be everyone's guy. Who else would you rather want to have in this day and age? It's incredibly hard to recruit 4 and 5 stars, and now it's even harder to win and make tournaments considering the NIL disparities, the rigged system working against mid majors, and all the other behind the scenes nonsense out there. Drew has had us contending or winning some type of reg szn. or tournament title in 2 of his 4 years, and winning overall records in 3 of 4. We've also seen his growth and improvement coaching-wise. Drew is an elite recruiter, and is getting better as a coach. And hopefully by next spring he uses all three remaining timeouts in the semifinal game.....

For next year, Chuck Love is my key. This kid needs to produce immediately. We also need Seifeldin and Glazkov to emerge and contribute..... but if one or neither returns it is what it is - 1 or 2 spots open for the portal.... I'd also give Miles a bank account in order to retain him next year and senior year, and that next year we run at least 50% of our offense directly through him.

Wish list for next year: 1) Get a secondary PG who can score at will. 2) Find a shooter and marksman from deep. 3) Find another low post scorer / Dame Adelekun who can guarantee you 10ppg in minimal time and effort off the bench.

Considering all things. Okay to good year, but not good enough. Fun winter nonetheless. Our time, passion, and money will translate to tournament bids soon and I woke up this morning feeling that way

Well said RR.

On the A-10 thing, yeah 1 bid this year is atrocious for the quality of teams that the conference had this year. The league needs to get creative on improving quad 1 opportunities for teams. Loyola needs to have the team actually ready to compete in November.

Would we better off still in the MVC? Eh. It’s true that right now we’re in no man’s land in terms of making the tourney, but VCU and Dayton should be our north stars on where want the program to be. The conference season, including the games themselves, are a lot more entertaining than the MVC, imo.

The A10 puts us in a better position financially than the MVC, which is massively important in this new NIL driven NCAA.

The A10 has also helped us recruit at a higher level than we were in the MVC. If we were still in the MVC, we wouldn’t have this roster.

I love the MVC, but we’re absolutely better off in the A10

Maybe repeating some things but what the hey. Thanks for posing this question / thread NateTheSkate.

We need to learn to defend the three better. We need to learn to go for the kill when we are up with a comfortable margin, especially at half time (Along with player execution, DV a big part to play as strategies change).

Too many TOs, fouls and too few made free throws continue to kill us.

Drew is an exceptional recruiter and I hope he pulls more rabbits out of the hat in the portal. Who will replace the Sheldon threes? Can we keep Rubin? Would he like to stay, probably. Will he, probably not with the money waving in front of him and oh how painful that will be to next year's team. He really started kicking things up offensively just at the right time.

Glazkov positioned well or Drew probably would not have played him over other freshmen. But his offensive output was dismal. Need some life coming out of him next season.

I applaud Drew for the eventual team play following the loss of Moore. Looking forward to watching Moore play next season.

It will be interesting to see about scheduling next season. I did not like the non con gimmies we scheduled. One minor note, let's make the USF games a yearly thing.

Joe attendance has been going down the last few years and it is crucial that the students step it up next year. We have not been to the dance in a few years and I have to assume that it has played a fairly big role in the lower attendance.