We were up by 10 with about 4:30 left in the first half. We went ice cold and scored a total of two points (on free throws, ironically) over the next nine and a half minutes. Not going to win many games doing that, especially on the road.

SIU with a season high 3 wtf shots.

-McGill doubles in the corner fading away
-2 Benson threes

OOF

Yeah, the Benson three was a dagger. But it was embarrassing how McGill repeatedly beat us off the dribble.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Aside from our own issues, I find it that frequently one player on our opposition has the game of the year, as McGill did tonite. He had almost double his average.
I checked and the UNI guy, Kimmons, that killed us on Sunday had 2 points tonight.
Like Robbins when we played Drake, he was 2-2 from Three and has made one three pointer since, along with his seven blocks on us and never more than three since.
It's a grind, but I like our depth over the long haul. just gotta shoot better consistently.
This one slipped away, more so that we beat ourselves by letting it stay close. Shoulda put them away early.
Get some sleep and come out ready for a good game on Saturday.

Go Ramblers

Absolutely.

SIU is a really good defensive team. And they now own wins over the top 2 teams in the Valley at home. Bradley still has to go there. Looking at SIU's upcoming schedule, they have a real chance to hang around UNI/Loyola/Bradley. Good for Coach Mullins.

But that game was tough. Tired legs definitely played a factor for us. Being up 10 points with some good momentum and then giving up an 18-2 run was a gut punch. Can't happen.

Kennedy showed that absolute spark. Williamson was cold from 3 after having his best offensive showing on Sunday. Krut was slowed down in the 2nd half.

Hate to say it....but Saturday is a must-win. Need to hope Drake can knock off SIU as well so we can get a game up on the jumbled mess in the middle. We need to stay one game back of UNI until they come to Gentile....they have an easy stretch coming up.

Absolutely. It's still early, but looking at conference tiebreakers, ties are broken by head-to-head and then NET. UNI is #49 in the NET; Loyola is #91. The Ramblers need to finish a game in front of UNI because I think the gap is too big to catch the Panthers in NET.

Tate did not show up tonight. He looked frustrated.

I’m officially concerned about Lucas’ offensive production. I really thought he was going to be our number 2 scorer this year...

The schedule did not help us coming off the UNI game and then having to go to SIU mid-week.

Pipkins playing 3 minutes is stupid... what’s the point? Either play him or don’t.

I liked using Welch. I’d like to see him play more.

I’m not panicked yet but if we lose this weekend, I’ll start getting nervous

This is our cusp year. We are on the cusp of being very good but as a result we will be frustratingly inconsistent. Takes time to gel.
We can make excuses about the scheduling and being tired but every team in the Valley has the same (relatively) scenario to deal with.
I think the Valley scheduling and geography will always be problems.
We charter flight five Valley games a year. Most Valley cities are not easy to get to. That is why the A10 would be a better league for us. Philly, Pittsburgh, Providence. Bus trips are exhausting.
Playing on Sunday we had to leave no later than Saturday, then get home late Sunday night, only to leave no later than Tuesday. When we were in the Horizon league, we would do Thursday/Saturday games (I realize tv is a factor for the Valley) and that would mean we would be on the road longer but we would travel from lets say Detroit to Dayton (Wright State), or Cleveland to Youngstown. UIC was an in town game and Milwaukee only 90 miles and Green Bay 180.
But really good teams overcome that. Brian has done a great job in Carbondale but this is his "mulligan" year. We should have beat these guys. We let the game get away. Our lead melted in the first half when we could not hit the three from the right side. Gave them momentum and hope going into the second half.
Then we missed 10 of 11 shots and again came back but could not get over the hump.
I wish Pipkins had played more especially since Tate was a non factor on offense and defense. He kept getting beat on the dribble.
Oh well, still half a season to go but two games with Bradley, Mo State on the road and NIU at home. Tough schedule down the road. And watch out for Evansville if they get healthy.
Very disappointing loss indeed.

That one hurts. SIU didn't win that game as much as we didn't show up offensively for the last 30 minutes of the game. We were shooting over 70% in the first half and dropped down to 54.5% at halftime. We shot 37.5% in the second half. You can't credit defense when we miss layups and wide open shots. To make matters worse, the announcers were awful.