Saturday, December 5, 2020 2:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, IL

The Loyola Ramblers kick off the 2020-21 season with a Saturday afternoon tilt against the Lewis Flyers. The game represents a hard slog back to normalcy after a parade of stumbling blocks and general adversity that began midway through the second half of last season's first and only game at Arch Madness.

On November 16, Loyola Athletics announced team functions would be ceased because of positive Covid-19 tests. A few days later, the extent of the outbreak became clear: 16 of 17 players and four of six coaches had tested positive; several key non-conference games-- especially valuable in a season where the Ramblers had a realistic expectation for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament-- would be cancelled; and the whole non-con schedule was up in the air. The MVC announces their amended reduced travel schedule on Fri., Dec. 4. Health caution, timing, financial considerations and other conflicts made patching together a non-con schedule even more difficult than it would be normally for a mid-major team expected to be as good as Loyola might be.

But Division II Lewis University in Romeoville had two conference games postponed at the last minute on Dec. 3 and Dec. 5, and with the Ramblers scrambling to find a non-con opponent, the Flyers will make the 25-mile drive to Rogers Park on Saturday.

Lewis is 1-1 on the season with an 86-65 home opener loss to Truman State and a 77-70 win over Qunicy last Sunday. The Flyers are likely to start 6'7" senior center Brandon McCombs, 6'5" junior forward Atakan Sahinkaya, 6'2" point guard Artese Stapleton, 6'7 senior guard/forward Trevian Bell, and 6'1" freshman guard Beau Frericks. Bell is a Joliet West product who transfered from UW-Green Bay and leads the team in scoring (14.5 ppg) and rebounds (7.0 rpg). Bruno Williams, a 6'4" junior swingman, comes off the bench to play significant minutes-- he likes getting to the free throw line where he hasn't missed on 10 opportunities in only 36 minutes of playing time this season. The Flyers go about eight players deep, with the core guys being the starting five and Williams.

As for the Ramblers, no one has seen how they'll react with so much depth. If there's been any storyline emerging from the chaos of Covid's effect on college basketball, it's been that teams heavy on seniors have done well in the early going. Loyola ranks high on experience, with the ability to start five seniors: 6'9" center Cameron Krutwig, 6'7" forward Aher Uguak, 6'6" guard Tate Hall, 6'4" guard Lucas Williamson, and 6'1" guard Keith Clemons.

But the Ramblers also have impressive and experienced players in 6'9" junior center Franklin Agunanne, 6'4" sophomore guard Cooper Kaifes, 6'1" guard Marquise Kennedy, 6'4" guard Paxson Wojcik, and 6'8" forward Tom Welch. And when you add newcomers like 6'0" sophomore point guard Braden Norris (a transfer from Oakland, where he was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year), 6'10" fresh man center Jacob Hutson, and 6'2" sharpshooting freshman guard Baylor Hebb, the bench is stocked. (At the time of posting, it's assumed that 6'7" Indiana transfer Damezi Anderson is sitting out the year per transfer rules).

The Ramblers have played Lewis recently as an exhibition game (a 79-63 win on Oct. 28,2017), but this game will serve as a regular season game. So unlike last season's 65-60 exhibition loss to Indianapolis University, this one will count on the won-loss record. But since it's a non-Division I team, the stats will not count toward calculations by performance-based ranking services (such as KenPom.com and BartTorvik.com). The Ramblers are currently ranked #44 at BartTorvik.com, #54 at KenPom.com, and received one vote in the last AP Poll.

Edit: Reminder, no fans will be admitted due to Covid precautions.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 2_5_20.pdf

Lewis game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=0f ... e388ef1f2c

Internet audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=40&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=323360

Vegas odds: N/A

Thanks for the excellent preview JCT!

We’ve all waited way too long for a JCT game preview. I’m so glad Rambler basketball is back.

It is nice and good to see a game preview on this here website.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Damezi Anderson won't play Saturday, but there's a good chance he'll be eligible later this year.

I appreciate the JCT preview.

I wonder if Porter is pushing for an Anderson waiver. With our 5 starters leaving after this season, I'd rather have a senior player like him for the 2 years after.

Given that this should be a pretty easy game, hopefully this will be a chance for the bench to get some minutes in. I'm very excited to see how our team has developed.

Supposedly the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to winter sport athletes, so I’m not sure it’s guaranteed that this year’s seniors will be gone next year. Porter has a history of liking kids to sit a year...but Andersen was a pretty highly rated recruit out of high school, and if he’s ready to go I’m not sure how you don’t at least think about playing a kid with that height who can almost play like a guard. Especially in our usual offense.

This transfer thing is interesting. It looks like you wouldn’t have even had to apply for a waiver this year, but rather, anyone that transferred would be immediately eligible.

If Anderson is immediately eligible — YIKES. We essentially would have two competent, capable MVC starting lineups.

Clemons
Hall
Williamson
Uguak
Krutwig

Norris
Kennedy
Kaifes
Anderson
Frank/Welch

I would take that second lineup, as our core guys for the game, against any team in the league but UNI and Bradley.

Judging by how his teammates and coaches have referenced him in interviews so far, I wouldn’t forget about Hebb either.

I’m just trying to picture how fun the practices must be.

You’re absolutely right. A lot of coaches and players have talked about Hebb in interviews.

Things I’m looking forward to seeing tomorrow:

1) Norris - I’m completely happy with Clemons, but if this kid shoots lights out like they are saying, it’ll be fun to watch. Custer seemed pretty high on him in his podcast interview.

2) Cooper - I can’t wait to see if he’s back to form.

3) Hebb - people have talked about how good he looks in practice. I’m interested to know if he’s going to end up being a contributor now, like Kennedy last year, or if he’s the future.

4) free throws. We’re going to get to the line. I’m praying that we’ve corrected the issues.