Timely threes and getting to the line. You have to like that. Wish we hadn't put them on the line so much in the first half, but we made a nice run to recover. Showed a lot of toughness.

What can you say about Krut!? He's been circling the triple-dub and finally got it.

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Great game against a team that's better skilled than I thought they were. Nesmith is a likely NBA player with all the tools he has, and Lee has conference first team ability but needs to be better focused. The talent level falls off a lot after the top three, and I don't think their strategy is very good for the pieces they have. But they'll be pretty good next year, I think.

I notice Pete Gillen, former Xavier, Providence, and Virginia coach mentioned that tempo would be an important part of who won the game, that the game was being played at a tempo favorable to Loyola in the first half, and that as the game speeded up in the middle of the second half it was more to the liking of Vandy.

If you were thinking about tempo going into this game, you can see that Loyola had the upper hand on playing the game at a pace they are comfortable with. This is something that Rambler fans should watch going forward against Davidson and through the conference season. When the Ramblers decide how the game will be played, they're very, very good. When they lose focus, or the game is called so they can't play their style of game, that sometimes (usually?) ends up in a loss. This is going to be really important against teams like Bradley (who use physicality to their advantage) and Valparaiso, who has the fastest pace and loosest style in the league right now.

What can you say about Krutwig? He keeps putting up giant numbers--- his first triple double of the season, and the second time he's had double digit assists. It didn't come against IUPUI or Quincy, it came against an SEC team. (And by the way, with this win today Loyola is now 16-16 all time against current members of the SEC).

Kennedy was great, and Pipkins showed you can't sleep on him when he's in the game.

But the player I think is the unsung hero of this current five game winning streak is Tate Hall. Over the past six games he's averaging 17 ppg, and hitting over 50% on threes. Defensively, he's averaged almost 2 steals per game in that span and ranks among the top three in the league in steals. The amazing thing is how quiet he is about it-- you almost don't notice him except for how many times you see him and say under your breath, "nice play!," "we needed that three!" and "great hands!" Now that he's settling in, he's probably our second best player right now.

Watching today, I couldn't help but lament that Krutwig hasn't developed the 10-15 ft shot. If he had that he would be almost unstoppable. He could score 20 a game easily, and it would make our high post game lethal.

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It feels like he’s attempted it more this year than last year though

I think you're right. Sometimes it becomes a runner. I hope he keeps shooting it.

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True, but don't forget Krut is shooting 100% on 3s this season.

Well played!

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Krut is such a given so I won't comment on him. Kennedy, Clemons, Hall and Pipkins are growing every game. All played a key role tonight. For a while Kennedy was the best player on the court.

Sorry I seemed to suggest you were advocating that. I just wanted to point out that doing nothing will result in a slower tempo, so there's more to it than that. I totally agree that good defense is the way to slow the tempo. There are, however, coaches who do use strategies like a "3-pass" rule before a shot which can result in a lot of simple time-wasting. As Nate says, it what you do with the time, not how much time you use. That's why I associate tempo with ball movement. And with good ball movement the shot you want more often appears right away and a good team will recognize that.

And thanks, ahunte, for the KenPom article. I don't want to get hooked on analytics, but you make it tempting.