Monday, Dec. 21, 2015 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago

Coach Billy Wright began his second season as head coach at Western Illinois by knocking off future Hall of Famer Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin team in Madison. The unexpected early season success for the Leathernecks also includes 20-plus point blowouts of Eastern Illinois and UIC, plus thrashings to three non-D1 foes. Their only three losses have come at Creighton, at Iowa, and by seven points on Saturday at Chicago State. Wright played under Jim Molinari at Bradley in the 1990s and understudied as an assistant under Molinari at Western for 5 years, yet he has his team playing a more up-tempo, higher-scoring style than his mentor was known for.

The Leathernecks start three guards who play heavy minutes and do the bulk of the scoring. Six-foot-five junior Garrett Covington averages 16.9 points and 6’4” senior J.C. Fuller averages 16.2 points per game. They are a two-headed monster that shoots well inside and outside the arc, lead the team in made threes with more than 20 apiece, shoot over 45% on their three-bombs, and get to the free throw line often-- where both connect at over 80%. Fuller happens to also be the team leader in rebounds at 5.3 per game, and Covington adds 3.8 boards per game. Jabari Sandifer, a 6’1” junior point guard leads the team in assists with 5.6 per game, leads in steals at 1.7 per game, drops in 9.2 points per game, and averages an astounding-for-his-height 4.9 rebounds per contest. All three members of the WIU backcourt average over 30 minutes per game, and all three have assist to turnover ratios better than 1.4 (translation: they pass really well and take excellent care of the ball).

Starting in the frontcourt are 6’9” senior forward Tate Stensgaard and 6’11” freshman center Brandon Gilbeck. Stensgaard is sure-handed, pulling down 5.1 rebounds per game and adding an average of 6.6 points on 67% shooting from the floor. He doesn’t shoot too often (only 36 field goal attempts), but when he shoots from the field or the free throw line, he usually makes good. Gilbeck—did I mention he’s 6’11”?-- is learning to play at the college level, chipping in 2.9 points and collecting 4.1 rebounds in an average of almost 16 minutes per game.

Coach Wright’s bench goes 5 deep past the starters. Six-seven senior forward Jalen Chapman, 6’8” freshman forward Jalen Morgan, 6’4” guard Jamie Batish, 6’6” sophomore guard/forward Dalan Ancrum, and 6’6” junior forward Mike Miklusak all play double-digit minutes on average and chip in between 5.2 and 3.3 points per game.

Western has had a great start to the season, and their RPI is 107 as of Sunday. Chicago State just beat the Leathernecks by on Saturday by hitting 50% of their threes and getting to the free throw line 20 times more than WIU. Iowa demolished the 'Necks by 34 points by out-rebounding, forcing 16 turnovers, limiting the Leathernecks to 27% on threes, and allowing only seven free throws. Creighton beat them by 30 points by taking care of the ball (only four turnovers), getting to the line 21 more times, and getting 19 offensive rebounds leading to 21 second chance points. Eastern Illinois lost by 20 the first time they played at Eastern, but only lost by seven points in Macomb by controlling tempo and outscoring them in the paint.

The Leathernecks play better at a faster tempo, so Loyola should control the tempo and make Western’s high scoring, heavy-minute players work on offense and defense. (All three of their starting guards played 38 minutes or more in Saturday’s loss at Chicago State). Shot selection is also extremely important against Western; they’re 7-0 when holding their opponents below 40% shooting from the field, and 0-3 when opponents shoot over 40%. Another key is keeping the Leathernecks off the free throw line. They shoot 72% as a team from the line, and they’re 7-0 in games when they attempt 12 or more free throws, but 0-3 in games where they attempt fewer than 12. (They average 23.4 free throw attempts in their wins, but only 7.3 in their losses). And finally, limiting turnovers are a big key, as WIU’s opponents committed between two and five fewer turnovers in each of the three wins against them.


Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 220aaa.pdf

Western Illinois game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 (http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id ... olachicago)

Vegas odds: Loyola by 5.5

It seems every team we have played this year has a significant height advantage on us. Is this an academic issue????? How stringent are our entrance requirements for athletes? Extremely proud of our athletic program has done academically however I think there should be a 6"8 rule....like the rides at Great America.....stand next to the ruler and if you are over 6'8 your in. Sounds like Western will be a challenge/

Some of us have been strong in our applause for Porter--I among them, with the occasional rap when he looks as if he has been out coached---Rare as it is-- Proves he is human after all.
---Last year his team excelled with little height. Amazed a lot of the competition.

The only REAL criticism is that he cannot seem to be able to recruit really talented BIGS as does our competition. Does he really go after them as other teams in our League do and have ?? This year we are not prospering with the BIGS we have. Will what we have develop ?? They must and must ripen NOW !

Go RAMBLERS !

I'll be there +2 or +3 tonight... am just hoping we don't have the entire section to ourselves this evening!!! I've got a feeling attendance is gonna be really really sparse.

Weeknight attendance is a big problem. Last Wednesday vs. Cleveland State was about the worst I've ever seen against a D1 team, including a rescheduled game during a 1999 blizzard over winter break. Saturday was much better, but it was against a local rival. I suspect traffic and work conflicts are a big reason, but the ticket office needs to do a really comprehensive survey to figure out why people don't attend. Use Survey Monkey, and make some phone calls to go through surveys and get deeper qualitative info. My guess is 7:30 start times might help, but I could be wrong. I think Thursdays might be better than Wednesdays for weeknight games, but I don't know if that would work out for the league.

Last season, Loyola averaged 1720 per game in five weeknight conference games, but 2899 in four weekend conference games. That's a significant difference. The weeknight games included games against SIU and Bradley-- which have large alumni bases in Chicago-- and against UNI, who was ranked #11 at the time. The weekend games were against WSU, IlSU, InSU, and Mo. State.

Pretty empty gym, again. We used to get more people during the mediocre Horizon League days...

Our offense is really clicking right now and we're hustling on defense. James makes a huge difference in there!

This has become a shootout!!! Fun game...if this continues, I think the Ramblers have the advantage

Congrats to Devon Turk for officially breaking the 1000 point mark!!!

Good point. Was going to mention that in the preview, but forgot!