Wednesday, December 18, 2019 5:30 p.m.
Talking Stick Resort Arena, Phoenix, Ariz.

Loyola matches up with a Power 5 team for only the third time since the 2018 NCAA Tournament on Wednesday, when they face Vanderbilt in the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase in Phoenix. The Ramblers haven't faced Vandy since Loyola won 25-22 in 1935. After two wins against SEC teams in 2017-18, Loyola heads into the contest with a 15-16 all time record against current members of the SEC.

Vanderbilt was slated to come in last in the 14-member SEC in the league's preseason poll. They lost their only contest away from home this season, a 93-92 overtime slug-out with Richmond. After starting the season averaging 86.8 points on offense in their first five games, they've been held to 70.5 per game in their last four contests. Their best win was two games ago, when they beat a very good Buffalo team at home; their worst loss was their last time out, when Liberty beat them in Nashville while holding them to only 56 points.

The 2019-20 Commodores are young, and play for first-year Head Coach Jerry Stackhouse, who took over from Bryce Drew at the end of last season. Leading scorer Aaron Nesmith is a 6'6" forward who currently averages 4.3 made threes per game-- ranking second in the nation. Nesmith averages 22.3 points per game and adds 4.9 rebounds. Freshman Scotty Pippen, Jr. (6'1", 170 pounds) starts at the point guard spot and averages 10.7 points and 4.7 assists. Senior Clevon Brown is a solid 6'8" forward who likes to muscle inside-- he puts up an average of 9 points and leads the team in blocks at 2.0 per game. Six-two junior guard Maxwell Evans and 6'9' freshman forward Dylan Disu round out the starting squad.

One of Drew's recruits who stuck around was 6'2" junior guard Saben Lee, a Phoenix-area native and Vanderbilt's second-leading scorer this season at 17.2 per game coming off the bench. Lee is dynamic, averaging 5.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 51.4% from the field and 74% from the free throw line. At times, Lee and Pippen, Jr. are on the court together, making for a quick and high-scoring duo in the backcourt. Six-five freshman Jordan Wright and 6'8" junior Matthew Moyer play good minutes off the bench.

The Ramblers are coming off a game against Norfolk State that featured a gruesome-shooting first half and a much more lively second half that added up to a 19-point win. Loyola has won their last four (counting non-D1 Quincy), and they've more fully introduced players like Keith Clemons, Jaylon Pipkins and Frank Agunanne into the mix. Agunanne missed the Norfolk State game due to sickness, but Jaylon Pipkins had a career-high game with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting. Clemons is averaging 9.3 ppg and 2.0 assists in three games since returning from injury. Tate Hall had a miserable first half against Norfolk State, but was nearly perfect in the second half while scoring a game-high 21.

The trend of using NBA offenses in college basketball has gained a lot of traction in the past couple of years. Loyola has seen the new, NBA-style mentality several times-- against Nevada under Eric Musselman and this year against St. Joe's under coach Billy Lange. Michigan under Juwan Howard has very successfully trended that way, and in the MVC, Evansville leans that way under second-year head coach Walter McCarty. It's a fun style to watch. But when teams slow them down, make them work on defense, limit their fast breaks, and lock down to defend the three, they tend to get out of rhythm and suffer on both ends of the court.
Vandy's home losses to Tulsa and Liberty were played at a KenPom.com adjusted tempo in the mid-60s, specifically 66 in Vandy's 67-58 loss to Tulsa and 65 in their 61-56 loss to Liberty. Those two rather bad home losses were sandwiched around an impressive 90-76 win over a very good Buffalo team-- another team that likes to play fast. The adjusted tempo in the Buffalo game was a super-peppy 84, just a notch quicker than Vandy's one-point OT road loss to Richmond, another good team.

The Ramblers tend to thrive playing at a tempo in the mid to upper 60s. The Furman and Coppin State losses were played at 70 and 76, respectively. Loyola is 2-2 in games played at a tempo of 70 or above, and 5-2 in games played in the 60s. Tempo control seems even more important in a game played at a neutral court.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _18_19.pdf

Vanderbilt game notes: https://vucommodores.com/wp-content/upl ... hicago.pdf

TV/Streaming video: CBS Sports Net https://www.cbssports.com/cbs-sports-network/

Live audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=13&type=Live

Live stats: N/A

Vegas odds: Loyola by 2

What's the formula for tempo? Is it a measure of a game or each team within a game?

Here's how Pomeroy himself describes it:

"I do a tempo calculation based on each team’s statistics in a game, average those two numbers and apply it to both teams for the game, since each team’s total possessions should be nearly equal. The pace for each game is shown on each team’s schedule (either actual pace, or for future games, predicted tempo)."

He also has a measure called Adjusted Tempo, "An estimate of the tempo (possessions per 40 minutes) a team would have against the team that wants to play at an average D-I tempo."

Adjusted tempo is the average number of possessions that team would have in a 40 minute game (ie, a measure of how fast that team plays).
Good preview....

Weappear to win by playing good Defense--We must truly guard their 3 shooters-- If we do this my 79=73 prediction will be about right. No oxen ball please !!

Wirh our present make up , I really like our chances King Krut goes wild !!!

Obviously, I don't know anything about this metric, but I do know about measuring group/team performance across all kinds of intellectual (mostly) and physical tasks. Without getting into details or appearing overly skeptical, I want to point out that to get useful information out of any measurement of what one group does on a task where performance depends on interaction with another group is inherently complex. Going from that to inferences about what one group should "try" to do to improve its outcome involves another leap that requires untangling correlation and causation.

As a basketball fan, I think that slowing the pace of a game by needlessly throwing the ball back and forth several times or just dribbling around before starting to play basketball (known locally as Oxen-Ball) is only of benefit if it somehow negatively affects the other team more than it increases turnovers, shot clock violations, and desperation shots, or destroys your team's rhythm.

Brot adds a good point. If you slow the tempo by playing good defense, there's no downside.

I'm sorry if my preview suggested that time-wasting was my strategy for victory.

On Sunday, I was at the game where Loyola was playing Norfolk State. After Norfolk State cut the lead to 3 points midway through the 2nd half, Loyola went on an 8-0 run to build the lead back to double digits. Most of it was done with defense, as Loyola forced TWENTY FOUR turnovers on the day. One of the loudest crowd moments in the game was when Loyola forced Norfolk State into a shot clock violation on a third consecutive empty possession in a row.

That's what I'm talking about. When you make the other team make desperation shots to beat the clock because they don't think they're going to get anything better, THAT'S part of controlling the tempo. Tempo control comes mostly on defense, really.

WILL WOMDERS NEVER CEASE ???????? !! The TRIB actually ;isted our game in ONE line statements today --TWICE !!!! NO story of course=== WE are NOT DEPEWL --Thank Heavens !!!

The big question: Will the CBS Sports Network Curse (TM) strike again?

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