After a night to think on all this, all the metrics and bracket projections are meaningless. We can’t rely on the committee to get us in, we had our chance yesterday (and the Drake game) and so far we haven’t got it done. That’s the bottom line. As a fellow rambler said when discussing the game last night, If we want to be big dogs and a national brand we need to win Arch Madness and that’s it, otherwise it’s NIT for us. That’s it, no more excuses, just go get it done.

Drew needs to do better preparing the team, am tired of seeing the the guys get down 10+ points to start a game. It’s beyond a bad habit and now a trend with this team. Come out foot in the gas peddle, get a lead, and quit turning the ball over. One of the biggest differences this year versus last is we aren’t paying attention to details. We turn the ball over like it’s burning their hands and have way too many defensive breakdowns. Do the simple things and win; if we turn it over 10 + times, let teams get multiple offensive rebounds, and blow defensive assignments, we will lose.

Go get it done and beat Bradley, UNI, and whoever comes out of the other side. The time to show what the team is made of is now, if they are truly “road dogs” than prove it.

Tough loss — and there is no way a 5 loss MVC team is getting into the tournament without winning Arch Madness, that simple.

As for the game - I agree on the ref comments - just terrible, and I will also say it’s really hard to be a player and watching that crap go down against you. Conversely, I will also point out that we caught 2 huge home breaks w refs in our comebacks vs Bradley and Valpo, so maybe the entire MVC is home court ref stacked…I digress.

Bottom line - Lucas and Norris a combined 12-35; the 4 bench players went 9-10 and overall the other starters went 10-17. We continue to need better shot distribution if the Ramblers will prevail in St Louis.

Lucas and Norris are warriors, but they’ve played too many minutes this year and they must cut down on their total shots taken for LU to prevail in St Louis.

What's disappointing for me is that yesterday was most likely our last chance to win a conference title for awhile. Losing seven guys and moving to a new conference isn't recipe for big success in the immediate future. It's going to take a few years to get a group that's ready to win.

And not only that: we *should* have won the conference. Not that yesterday was a guarantee, but losing two home games -- and barely being competitive in them -- sealed our fate. We did it to ourselves with turnovers in big games, defensive lapses at bad times, not rebounding, fouling too much, spotting teams big leads.. all things that popped up for us regularly. At least one of those happened in the majority of our games. Often overcame it, but we made it hard on ourselves at times.

Here I am being the guy getting too low after a loss, but I'd have to say my confidence is way down heading to St. Louis. We have to find a way to beat Bradley's length defensively and keep them off the offensive glass. I don't really like our chances.

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2-4 against the top three teams in the conference. They earned their seeding

Bradley is a different team away from home. That should be a win and I anxiously await another shot at uni in round. I would rather play them then drake or msu.

Don't sleep on Bradley. They've won 2 of the last 3 Arch Madness tournaments for a reason. That includes beating up in 2019 to deny us a return to the NCAA Tournament after a final 4 spot. They did it as the 5th and 4th seeds in 2019 and 2020.

Not to mention, Bradley very nearly beat us in Chicago earlier this year.

Bradley is entirely dependent on a certain type in f officiating, which helps to explain their home/road splits. They get blown out if they are required to play actual basketball

The easiest thing to do for losses is blame referees. You can say “the refs cost us the game,” then move on. Most fans do it. However, at this point in the season, the 29-game sample size shows exactly what type of team Loyola is, and how much of an officiating discrepancy there was yesterday. The game was purposefully officiated to screw Loyola, and it should be reviewed by the league.

Through 28 games this year (prior to UNI), these are Loyola’s Statistics:

Loyola average fouls per game: 16.3
Opponent’s average fouls per game: 17.3

In 6 prior losses:
Loyola’s average fouls per game: 19.5
Opponents’ average fouls per game: 18.3

Against the top teams in the league this year (UNI [excluding yesterday], MSU, DRAKE, BRADLEY), in 7 games:
Loyola’s average fouls per game: 18.1
Opponents’ average fouls per game: 17.1

In 28 games, Loyola out-fouled their opponent 11 times:
+5 at CSU – Win
+2 at Auburn – Loss
+9 at Vandy – Win
+1 Evansville – Win
+8 Missouri State – Loss
+5 Drake – Loss
+4 Illinois State – Win
+3 Missouri State - Win
+2 Northern Iowa – Win
+2 Valpo – Win
+1 Drake – Loss

Loyola fouled 20 or more times in a game 5 times prior to UNI
CSU: 22 - Win
Vanderbilt: 20 - Win
Missouri State: 21 - loss
Drake: 22 - Loss
Drake: 26 - loss
Note: *Fouls in losses are often inflated where fouling occurs to extend games

Through 40 minutes of the UNI game yesterday, the officials called 27 fouls on Loyola, and only 18 fouls on UNI. Keep in mind, Loyola was not fouling to extend a game at the end of regulation. So, if you don’t want to believe that the officials purposefully called more fouls on Loyola, you’ve got to believe that Loyola poorly fouled 11 times more than their season average of 16 fouls (through 28 games), and/or 9 more times than what they normally did against the league’s top talent (in the prior 7 games), and/or 7 more times than they fouled on average in their 6 losses.

You can’t blame free throw shooting: We went 18-20 for 90% (above our average)
You can’t blame three-point shooting: we went 16-32 for 50% (above our average)
You can’t blame shooting percentage: we shot 50% and average 49% (above our average)
You can’t blame lack of scoring: Our average ppg is 74.7
You can’t blame rebounding: we had 36 and we average 33 (above our average)
You can’t blame assists: we had 19 we average 15 (above our average)
You can’t blame turnovers: we had 16, BUT we average 12 – so we turned it over just 4 more times than usual.

The fact is - Loyola played an OUSTANDING game last night, and only turned the ball over 4 more times than usual...

If you don’t believe the refs completely blew this game -- What you have to believe is that a UNI team that averaged going to the line 18 times per game in the first 17 games of the season, did something so incredible that they got there 24 more times (42 total) than their conference average against the top defensive team in the league….and that Loyola, a 20+ win team, who despite overachieving in EVERY metric and besting their season averages (points, assists, rebounds, field goal percentage, three point percentage, free throws attempted, free throws made, free throw percentage, etc.), fouled UNI 11 more times over what they normally do. You have to believe that THIS PARTICULAR Loyola game was the game we fouled the other team more times than in ANY OTHER GAME since Lucas Williamson and Cameron Krutwig were in high school. Is that what you saw yesterday?????

At the end of regulation, UNI made 27 of 35 free throws. They SCORED 9 more points at the line than they even attempt per game in the regular season, per game. That’s asinine, and it’s the reason we sit in 4th placein a conference. The Valley is done with us, and they’re going to build up the teams they have left.

I’d be amazed if we win St. Louis… I think the fix is in.

Win or lose, we hadn't allowed 42 free throw attempts since March 3, 2009, vs Milwaukee.

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In the OT win vs Bradley at home, we came from behind and outshot them 14-4 in the 2nd half alone from the line with a 7 make differential. The refs were bad at No Iowa, but we have benefited in several games this year as well from being on the favored side of the officiating.

In MVC play, we have 25 more makes than our opponents on 39 more attempts.

Ugh... that stat just makes me more disgusted. I get a loss is a loss, and you have to move on, but in no way do I put this particular loss on the players. In fact, given that they were being handcuffed by officiating, it's actually extremely impressive that they were still able to put together the impressive numbers they did for statistics they actually could control (field goal shooting, free throw shooting, three point shooting, rebounding, and passing). They did everything they needed to do to win the game. It's a shame they had a title taken away from them because of an officiating anomaly.