Tuesday, November 27, 2018 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

The Ramblers and Wolf Pack meet again, just eight months after their first-ever meeting in the NCAA’s Sweet 16. Tuesday’s matchup is part of the Mountain West/Missouri Valley Challenge, which ends after this season. Loyola is 1-2 in the challenge, winning their home game and dropping the two road games.

With nearly everyone coming back from their high-powered, nationally-ranked Sweet 16 team last season, the Pack is starting off true to expectations. At 6-0, Nevada is defeating their opponents by an average of 22.3 points per game. KenPom ranks their offensive efficiency at #1 in the nation, and their defense is no slouch either, ranked at 47th. As a team, Nevada is shooting 57.3% on two-point shots, and 38% from three. They’re also getting to the free throw line an average of 32.8 times per game, where they shoot 73.1%.

Just as they did at times early last season, Loyola is struggling with consistency and offensive efficiency this year. The Ramblers are ranked 120th in offensive efficiency and 38th in defense through six games of 2018-19, with their last outing on Wednesday against Boston College accounting for their most points allowed (78) since a drubbing at Boise State last year. The Ramblers shot 50.7% from the field on the year last season, but this year’s 50.5% is skewed by fantastic inside shooting compensating for a terrible 31.7% three-point percentage (ranking 250th). Free throw shooting is also egregious, at only 60.4% (320th in Division I).

Nevada is absolutely loaded this year—with experience, size, mismatches, athleticism, length, and skill. Three NBA-quality senior starters return in the person of 6’7” twins Caleb and Cody Martin, and 6’7” senior guard Jordan Caroline. All three have high-level ball handling skills and the ability to shoot from anywhere on the floor. Caleb Martin leads the team in points per game (21.0), snags 4.7 rebounds on average, and adds 2.3 assists per game. Cody Martin is averaging 6.0 assists to go with 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds. Jordan Caroline, the transfer from Southern Illinois, averages a double-double with 18.5 points and 10.5 rebounds. By themselves they are a matchup nightmare.

The starting lineup is filled out with two more seniors, Old Dominion transfer and 6’10” forward Trey Porter (6.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.0 blocks per game) and Nebraska-Omaha transfer and 6’7” forward Tre’Shawn Thurman (10.2 points, 6.0 rebounds). The starting five is composed of five senior transfers standing 6’7” or taller, almost certainly leading the nation in experience and ranking very high nationally on size.

The first guy off the bench is 6’0” junior guard Jazz Johnson (13.8 points, 1.7 assists per game), a transfer from Portland who shoots a blistering 58.1% from the field and 56.3% from three point territory. Also coming off the bench and playing 16 minutes a game is freshman Jordan Brown, a 6’11” forward who was ranked as the 20th best recruit from the class of 2018. Two other transfers, 6’3” senior guard Corey Henson from Wagner and 6’2” junior guard Nisre Zouzoua from Bryant, also get some playing time.

Although Nevada beat BYU handily at home to start the season, BYU may not be as good as predicted. But that hardly matters as the Wolf Pack has chewed up their competition thus far. The Ramblers may be the first real challenge of the year for Nevada, and they’re the first of three consecutive games against likely NIT or NCAA teams.

For the Ramblers, Wednesday’s loss at a neutral site against Boston College puts a little more pressure on the Loyola to take advantage of home court and sneak a win against Nevada. Sunday’s Villanova win over Florida State made Furman’s win at Nova (and Furman’s win over the Ramblers, by extension) a bit more legit. If Loyola could put together 40 minutes of the stretches of their best work in the early season against Nevada before a packed home court crowd, that would go a long way to return Loyola to the at large bid conversation.

Hopefully, the weather cooperates to allow Nevada into town; Sunday night forecasts predict 10-12 inches of snow on the North Side of Chicago.

Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=7230

Nevada game notes: https://nevadawolfpack.com/documents/20 ... hicago.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN News / http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3433485/ ... olachicago

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=234957

Vegas odds: Nevada by 5.5

Excellent write-up, JCT!

This should be an exciting game. If the Ramblers bring their A-game, I believe we can compete...and perhaps even sneak a win on a very, very good Nevada team.

Great stuff John, I love the optimism. I think it is going to take a perfect game to get a win Tuesday and even then a perfect game might not be good enough. Anyways, I am looking forward to coming down and seeing a packed gym, let's hope the place is crazy and they give the fans a great reason to keep coming back.

These guys scored 86, 83, 87,90, 96, and 110. Their closest game was a 96-86, 10 point win over Tulsa. In their last game, UMass put up 87 points, and still lost by 23 to them. If there is a lid on the basket for our three point shooting there is no way we'll be able to win this game. We aren't going to hold these guys to 70 points. To win, we need to get into the 80's and hope our defense holds.

If there is ever a game to break out of the 3 point shooting slump (which we are certainly capable of), this is the game.

Go Blers!

That's a quality run-down. You are correct that this is their first real test of the season, to say nothing of it being their first real test away from home (we had more fans in Vegas than the other three teams combined, so I'm not really counting those).

I never got around to properly congratulating Loyola for the Final Four run. I don't handle losses like that one as well as I should. We're both going to need some help in propping up each other's schedules, so here's to a long tear of success for both of us after Tuesday night.

Thanks JCT for another quality preview. The other impressive thing about your previews is the consistency and timing. I always like to read them before the game as it makes it much more interesting to watch the game since the players and their capabilities are so well detailed.
Thanks again.
Glad you are back in Chi town and look forward to seeing you at the next Bo Rambler event.

Townes and Krut play huge--Ramblers win a tough battle at home 83-79 !!

Go Ramblers !!

Our front line can hold their own against Nevada. I am worried about the defense of our back-ups, particularly the freshmen, against this high-octane offense. As another poster said, we need to be on fire from 3 tonight.

The three point woes continue....

They are hitting some really tough shots. If they can keep that up it's going to be a long night.