A handful of reporters came out with preseason rankings recently, most not mentioning the Ramblers. Pat Forde had a response from coach.

https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/sports/loyola-coach-porter-moser-lack-respect-final-four-finish-really-dont-give-sh-004210057.html?__twitter_impression=true



That’s awesome. Gotta say, I’d love the team potentially going into the season with a chip of disrespect on their shoulder.

This also caught my attention:



Any guesses?

Sister Jean's going to jump center?

_________________
Let's go Braden!

Mekowulu? Khwan Fore?

Who do we think the “mystery piece” is?

Also a great article and Pat Forde definitely gained a new reader through this article in me.

Connor Cashaw.

What got my attention was he recently followed Coach Valentine on Twitter. Wondering why, I started to come up with explanations. We recruited Cashaw out of Stevenson High, where he was a teammate of Jalen Brunson. Stevenson's coach is a childhood buddy of Porter.
Cashaw signed with Rice. Last season he had a breakout junior year averaging 15 ppg and 7rpg as a 6'5" shooting guard. He went to the Final Four to follow Brunsen and likely got reacquainted with Porter and the boys.
Rice had a dismal season and a bunch of players decided to transfer this spring, meaning next year should be another losing one. I figured Cashaw might want to play on a winning team his last year, and am speculating that, as a high academic kid, he might have accumulsted enough credits through high school AP classes and summer classes at Rice that he will graduate early and become immediately eligible next year as a grad transfer.
This is all speculation. I have no inside sources and there is nothing on the internet that supports it. Mostly a gut feeling and wishful thinking.

He wrote a couple nice pieces about Loyola in March, too.

My eyebrows have been raised.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

That is a really exciting tease.... I just hope it's true that there is one last big sign

A little intel on Mr. Cashaw from the Rice site
Enters the 2018-19 season ranking 11th in school history in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.38), 18th in three-pointers attempted (375) and games started (82), 20th in rebounds (539), three-pointers made (133) and three-point field goal percentage (.355), 23rd in assists (196) and 24th in steals (97).

2017-18 (Jr.)
Started 30 games … named to Conference USA’s All-Academic Team … led the team with 15.5 points and 7.1 rebounds, which ranked ninth and 12th, respectively in Conference USA … was 13th in C-USA in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5) and 15th in both assists (3.2) and steals (1.3) …

I remember watching him when I went to see Brunson play in a SuperSectional game and thinking " who is the star here?" I think they were playing St. Viator and there was a kid we were recruiting that ended up at Drake ????

I would assume that since the article is about us not getting respect THIS season, that the "mystery piece" would be eligible to play this season. I like the prospect of another awesome player coming in. But i hate not knowing who it might be.

I think that was Ore Aragundade you must have seen.

As a sophomore, Rice had a pretty good team, winning 23 games and getting to the CBI. But Egor Koulechov grad-transferred to Florida (he scored 7 points against us last year and was Florida's 2nd leading scorer with 13.8 ppg), and Rice got a new coach in 2017-18 when Mike Rhodes went to VCU.