Saturday, February 24, 2018 1:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Was there a five-year plan? Because if there was a plan for what Rambler fans will experience at Gentile Arena on Saturday, that was one helluva plan-- a plan that came off better than almost anyone imagined.

Five years ago today, Loyola was winding up another sub-par season in the Horizon League, a conference that had recently lost its best program. Amid the chaos of conference re-organization, Loyola jumped at the chance to say goodbye to the Horizon, a league Loyola co-founded but had changed drastically and sometimes with hostility, around them. The MVC was a great match for a Loyola program committed at the highest level to applying the resources and effort to improvement to its athletic program. There was fierce skepticism from a lot of quarters in the MVC. But five years later, the Ramblers have achieved benchmarks of success in college basketball that they haven’t seen since the mid-1980s.

The culmination of Loyola’s rise from the lower quadrant of the Horizon to the top of America’s best mid-major conference happens Saturday afternoon. It will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2, showing a championship team playing in front of a sold-out crowd, against an in-state rival, led by a player of the year candidate, and Loyola looking for their 25th regular season win.

It’s also Senior Day at Loyola, with Ben Richardson, Donte Ingram, Aundre Jackson, Nick DiNardi and Carson Shanks being recognized for their accomplishments and contributions to men's basketball at Loyola. In the case of Richardson and Ingram, the two four-year players have seen a CBI Championship in their freshman year, 81 wins against 49 losses thus far, two MTE titles, an MVC Regular Season Conference Championship, and whatever comes as a result of a 2017-18 postseason that is now guaranteed. The 81 wins are the highest number of wins for four-year players at Loyola since Alfredrick Hughes, Andre Battle and Greg Williams racked up 83 wins from 1981-1985.

Loyola faces off against last season’s #1 seed from Arch Madness, the Illinois State Redbirds. After losing prodigious talents from their 2016-17 squad, the Redbirds have been very competitive with four new starters and not a single senior on the team—something that’s not very easy to do. Injuries have taken a toll on the ‘birds, with only one player playing in every one of their games.

Coach Dan Mueller will likely start guards 6’ junior Keyshawn Evans, 6’6” junior William Tinsley, and 6’3” sophomore Matt Hein, along with 6’6” forward Malik Yarbrough and 7’ center Daouda Ndiaye. Forwards Phil Fayne (ankle sprain) and Tyler Bruninga (concussion) have been coming off the bench to start games since their recovery, and defensive ace Madison Williams, a 6’3” sophomore guard, was recently replaced as a starter by the more offense-minded Hein. Six-four freshman guard Elijah Clarance and 6’5” guard Issac Gassman also see considerable time off the bench.

Malik Yarbrough is a point forward who causes matchup problems for teams that aren’t prepared or athletic enough to limit his wide array of abilities. Yarbrough, who transferred to his father’s alma mater from St. Louis University, shows up near the top of the league’s points, rebounds, assists, and free throw leaders. He’s a great player, and worthy of POTY consideration, but he has weaknesses—a propensity to take unwise threes (he shoots only 29% behind the arc), getting into foul trouble (9 games with 4 or more fouls), and making a lot of turnovers (His 107 turnovers leads the league by 19 over next highest). When he’s taken out of the scoring mix, the Redbirds struggle—ISU is 13-3 when Yarbrough scores 15 points or more, and they’re 2-10 when he scores 14 or less.

One other factor that Illinois State really relies upon to win is defending against the three. In games where the opposition shoots 30% or better on three pointers, the Redbirds are 3-11. In games where opponents shoot threes at less than 30%, they’re 13-2.

In their last matchup on Jan. 10 at Redbird Arena, Loyola got their first win in Normal since joining the MVC, 68-61. Loyola’s bench was the star of the game, with Aundre Jackson leading all scorers with 15 off the bench, Bruno Skokna adding 11, and Lucas Williamson scoring six. The Ramblers forced 18 turnovers, including 9 from Yarbrough, who was limited to just 13 points by a stifling defense. Loyola had some problems with ISU’s zone defense, which helped ISU climb back to take a 1-point lead with less than eight minutes to play, but the Ramblers responded with a 12-2 run and built their lead to 11 while coasting to the buzzer.

As this year’s #1 conference tournament seed meets last year’s #1 on national television, it’s important to note what happened to Illinois State last year. Undoubtedly, there will likely be a lot of talk on the broadcast about the fate of the 2016-17 Redbirds, and what Loyola (or maybe the NCAA Tournament Committee) can do to keep Loyola from experiencing the same fate as the Redbirds if they have an off day in St. Louis.

Hopefully the tournament committee members watching will take notice when ESPN 2 shows the graphic that Loyola was 2-3 in games played without the likely MVC Player of the Year, and 22-2 when Custer played. Maybe there will also be graphics that show the Ramblers have the 2nd highest team field goal percentage in college basketball; that NC State bowed out from playing the Ramblers in Chicago, in what would have been a boost to schedule strength and a chance at another Tier 1 win; that Loyola still has an RPI at 32 despite their two worst losses coming during Clayton Custer’s injury; and that the Ramblers currently have a .500 record against both Tier 1 and Tier 2 opponents.

Loyola game notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/documents ... df?id=5877

Illinois State game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: ESPN2 / http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3239401/ ... basketball

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=189605

Vegas odds: Loyola by 12

This is a big game for multiple reasons. Another win over a Top 100 RPI team helps the RPI, gets another win for the overall record, but perhaps the biggest reason may be that it is on national tv (ESPN 2).

The fact that the have already clinched the regular season should mean voters and tournament selection committee may be watching. A similar blow out performance to the one placed on SIU may impress the committee enough that a loss in the Tournament championship game won't be a death blow. If Loyola wins the next three and loses in the final game, you'd be looking at an RPI in the mid to high 20's - and that will be hard to ignore if they had put a beat down on ISU.

Does anyone know if you can see SOLD tickets on Stubhub? The prices have been going up and some seats have changed... I'm curious if people have actually sold tickets to the game or if they've just taken them down.

Will there be scalpers at the game???

This is so foreign to me!

A few other points regarding ESPN: the broadcasters will ( hopefully) bring up what losses the Ramblers have - and why - which means the missing a few starters to injury gets to those voters watching.

The other ESPN point is that in todays' Bracketology update Loyola is not listed in the Others section. That section includes the smaller conferences - schools like Rhode island, St. Mary's Middle Tennnesse state. Loyola is not listed in the groups that either is a lock or has work to do. They're not listed at all - which means the writer ( and the group that puts the list together) doesn't believe Loyola gets in unless they win the Tournament championship.

If you go to post a ticket, it usually gives you a price suggestion based on previous sales, but I don't see anything when I do that for this game. I highly doubt anyone's paid over $100 for a ticket, though I'd like to meet that person.

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The Athletic had the following write-up in its Bubble Watch today:

Loyola Chicago (24-5, 14-3 – RPI: 33, SOS: 139) Don't look now, but one of the nation's most efficient shooting teams has won 12 of its past 13, is climbing up the RPI ladder and is making us think its at-large odds go deeper than “don't lose again until the Arch Madness title game.” This might be the highlight of our week. You know what we always say? When life hands you an Oklahoma lock, make Ramblers Fever™ and then catch it.

Another great preview! Thanks JCT!

On the ISU board, many posters think the ISU contingent will be 1/3 or more of the attendance on Saturday. Their impressions of LU attendance are based in large part on last year's game (on a Sunday, New Year's Day), when there were no students on campus and many LU fans were coming off a Saturday night New Year's Eve in Chicago.

I hope people are taking plenty of video of this weekends atmosphere. This is going to be the loudest Gentile has ever been. Students are about to see what it’s like to be at a “basketball school,” and hopefully it translates into them coming back all next year. It’s gonna be a rowdy atmosphere.

The Redbirds are coached by Dan MULLER and the likely starting lineup for them today will be Evans, Yarbrough, Fayne, Williams and Ndiaye. Williams was only replaced by Hein last game because Williams was down with the flu.