A sad asterisk to this game which won't be updated for a while (until next season if at all): this loss brings Porter Moser's conference record at Loyola to 25-63 and a conference winning percentage of .284

Why don't WE have a 7 foot Polish dude ?

Thanks Super-duper !! Well, then Adgei and Rajala had better develop quick-like as we look to be SMALL again. Cripes ! Does this man not understand that BIG beats small almost every time. Even so- so Bigs such as Drake's. Evansville is winning some because they have a decent mix. Coach Moser appears to have a mind set against recruiting BIGS. We are GUARD heavy and our competition plays to that. SHEESH.!!!

One of our posters said that LUC guards were soft--AGREED !

Losing to a last place team is totally unacceptable--and a bad one at that.

Xavier can do it, why can't we ???

Did not get a chance to watch the game ....
1. What was wrong with Tyson Smith,,anyone know?
2. Will Earl Peterson be back ? would be nice to get injury updates
3. yesterday stats say poor shooting and rebounding was our downfall. Turnovers by Drake say our effort was good. Perfect trap game...Short turn around time ...Wednesday is Sr. Night with parents in town......bus to Drake Friday afternoon....early game....injuries and overtime meant extra minutes...so good chance we had tired legs.
4. Seems like size was a factor again.
5. We often do not know what is happening in recruiting but it appears that we are after no one from the CPS. I was hoping after Milton and Donte maybe we would have made some inroads in Chicago recruiting. I wonder if academic requirements are a factor. Seems like PM is turning over every rock.....The two remaining spots should know they will get playing time.....so if we dont get two impact players with the remaining spots what does that say?
6. It seems to me if you are a true fan and think your coach works hard and the kids play hard ..then you are all in ...win or lose. I truly think we are part of the equation.....so might be a good time to evaluate yourself as a fan....Do you support the program etc. I agree though tough to do in a year like this...I just always remember the players are probably a lot more disappointed and good or bad PM looks like he puts everything he has into the game
7. Looking forward to St. Louis and another chance at the Shockers

Interesting comments Nate!
If I wasn't all in why would I be taking Advil all day today, talking to strangers about the game and the season. That Drake game was ours to win.
Look how the landscape changes, from playing Drake again, then possibly Evansville, then an ISU, thus possibly three or four more wins, and a possible post season,
to now facing Bradley WSU Friday NOON! On to next year. OUCH!
I assume LU knew that and yet couldn't seal it against Drake.
If I wasn't all in, why would I be posting this today. That game is hard to let go.
It begged reflection to other losses this year when I suspect we all thought EZ wins!
Yeah I am all in, and wish we had more info on the thought process of this program.
I, as others would be curious how that 7' freshman ends up at Drake? Anybody know the answer?
I am with PM going forward, but would like to know the plan, how it is going. Wish we knew the intricacies and difficulties he has in recruiting? Nice to have a newsletter or occasional casual discussions with Season ticket folks, so we can understand the task at hand and stay supportive, rather than get frustrated in our ignorance.
An earlier post suggested uneven effort with this years team, and it is hard to deny.
If we can top Creighton, beat UNI twice, and take Evansville to the wall, how could some of these losses be possible?
I have no answers, but know many "fans" are somewhat understandably hostile.
I, wanting only success for LU, am painfully watching countless other college games this weekend and seeing
vocal packed arenas. What do we need to do?
Tough to stay the course, but I am still in. I assume an interested and attentive, expressive group of supporters is
the backbone to going forward, so I am bent but not broken. Gotta take two more Advil.
Go Ramblers

Well Nate I am probably one of the longest in point of years that LUC has. This fan is disgusted--totally ! Does that make me a less of a Fan--Nope ! Just a disgusted one.
We should be playing at the level of Xavier, N Car, Gtn Ky Kansas et al BUT WE ARE NOT after THIRTY YEARS !!!

It is obvious to me that Moser has brought us as far up as he is able. BUT he cannot or will not recruit completely thereby failing---Even I know that a good team consists of GOOD players at every position , not unbalanced numbers of position players forcing Coach to play men outside t6eir normal spots. THAT to me is failure . These comments do NOT make me less of a FAN. I have been there seen that--Great success and from what has transpired since 1986/7 utter failure and an Admin which must have thought it correct to downgrade !!!

It is embarrassing to sit with Notre Dame, and Virginia friends and hear their exploits, while the used to be Monster of Illinois Hoops be beaten by a bad last place Drake team.
IF LOYOLA IS serious about getting the RAMBLERS back to the ELITE, they will relieve Porter Moser , and then INVEST in a Coach that will get the job done.
Its great to have nice brilliant and well intentioned players--BUT I maintain that we can have these attributes in BETTER BIGGER and smarter players--SEE Duke NOTRE DAME GONZAGA et al

OK, I'll pile on a little more. I just scanned all the responses and some partially mentioned things I'm concerned about. I don't know how to prioritize them, because they often work together-- one problem making another worse, which worsens the first problem and a couple others, etc.

1. The past two seasons, there didn't seem to be a hard correlation between attendance and winning, but I think there was one this year. Both anecdotally and statistically we played much better at home when we had 1700+. That shouldn't be impossible to do, even when the students aren't on campus. Some schools would get 1700 per game during winter break if the building was on fire. There's no excuse for the crowds under 1500 under any circumstances, and we had several of them-- even for conference games.

2. We can't be Gonzaga or Butler in a year or two. Those programs took a generation to become national powers, even through coaching changes. When Wichita State had down years, it didn't last 20-plus years like our decline, and when they had a good run of winning and NCAA appearances, it lasted longer. That may be from being in a stronger league than Horizon or West Coast, but it's also a testament to their administration to not let things go to hell during lean years. So we have to be building all parts of the puzzle all the time, even if we have down recruiting years.

3. Recruiting and attendance/game day atmosphere ARE connected. If I'm a recruit coming to campus and see the Cleveland State or Missouri State games, I'm looking elsewhere. That was just sad... 1100 people or less, spaced out and sitting far apart in small groups, looking more like budget night at the movie theater than a Division I basketball game. I don't know what was the deciding factor for Sean O'Mara, but I can imagine a few that even make up for having to live in Cincinnati.

4. The worst thing specifically about yesterday was how it highlighted that we haven't eliminated the half-assed effort problem from repeatedly cropping up. Call it "a trap game" or whatever you want, you can look back at this season and see a lot of squandered games that shouldn't have been-- the Bradley home game basically ruined the season in a 23-second stretch of the game. The Drake game was ANOTHER game against a last place team where we had a lead with under 30 and a defended three pointer was able to ruin it because we didn't really keep our foot on the gas. There was no excuse losing to Missouri State or Cleveland State. After the first win in Alaska, we basically turned it into a leisure vacation. We climbed all the way back from 19 points down to take a lead in the final minute over Evansville, but that was apparently enough for us-- we proved we could THEORETICALLY win. We climbed back to have a chance to win in the final seconds at Illinois State, but a tying layup was blocked. If ONLY HALF of those games go the other way, we're a 5 seed. If ALL of them go the other way, we're a 3 or 4 seed. How you sweep Northern Iowa, win on the road at SIU, win on the road to Missouri State, but lose a home game to Bradley and a seed-deciding year end game to Drake is enough proof that MOTIVATION (or lack of it) was a huge part of this year's FAIL. I don't know how much this creeps in to programs we should look to as a model--- how often does Gonzaga or Butler or Wichita State phone it in?-- because I'm not that keenly aware of their subtleties, but I imagine it's VERY rare.

5. I hope the big man argument doesn't distract from these other issues, because we've proved we can win without a big man. If we let lack of a big man be the excuse for not winning, then we don't put forth effort. If we don't put forth effort, we don't win. If we don't win and don't put forth effort, people don't show up in the stands. If people don't show up in the stands, the team doesn't put forth as full effort. If we don't get people in the stands and we don't win, we don't get to land a big man recruit. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

HMMMM
I guess my point regarding the fan base was two fold. 1. Now are the times that try mens soul. If you saw the movie Bridge of Spies there was a nickmane for a charter and in Russian it translated as STANDING MAN....this man kept getting beat down but kept standing up. As fans we have certainly been beaten down this year....just saying that we all have a choice to overcome our disappointment. 2. It is that we as fans can be the kind that just casually expect to be pumped up by the team winning with out contributing to the program in some way,,,,join one of the clubs....buy season tickets.....write notes to people involved.I wrote to both band and drum leaders to say Good Job the last game...etc.

2. Totally agree that one thing effects the other......you have to win to get crowds to get recruits interested to win to get crowds to get recruits to etc. Seems to be succeeding at either one of these points pushes the others. The real unknown for me is to say why we have been unsuccessful at all 3 (exception last year). So we speculate about what is wrong and if we will become a consistent mid-major

3. What I do know is that the Coach is responsible the product on the court. Last year appeared to overachieve, this year appeared to underachieve. IMO last year we tried beyond belief because we had seniors that would not except any less...this year for whatever reason there were issues picked up on by Coach who switched the lineup around and benched some guys. However you want to put it you have to have an effective game down low and this year we lost some games because we did not have any advantage . I will give two examples...In the first couple minutes against WS we got to the basket 3 times and had them swatted away. Against Drake we got out rebounded as well as MOntell shot 2/11 and the kid from Drake had 6 blocks. Think about how dominating Montel could have been if he had a solid 6'9 guy to take up some space around the hoop. anyway that point to recruiting which I see as a shared responsibility of Athletic Department and Coach. The Coach has to relate well to players and AAU coaches, high school coaches, parents etc, have a solid reputation for knowing his game etc. The AD has to give a decent recruiting budget, provide good support for incoming athletes academically and physically. The school itself has to have an atmosphere that makes kids say yeah I feel appreciated here..like the atmosphere etc
.
4. The AD and school are responsible for providing money for recruiting, the best assistant coaches, training, strength , publicity game day atmosphere. Communication with ALumni and fan base. You cannot expect the coach to do everything.

5. Bottom line there are a lot of components involved and to break in to that cycle that creates winning consistently everyone has to be on board and after neglecting this for 3 decades it is going to take more than usual.

6.. I wish we all had more info to better understand what has to change. As a fan I can look at this cycle and see where I can fit in and either do my part or not. It is all I can control. So i will head down to St. Louis and hopefully get to stay at least until Friday afternoon.

No, it's not the end of the world. The Ramblers will eventually triumph, when is the question. Keep the faith.