I don’t have any issue with how he “works the refs”. I’d have an issue If he didn’t. Every coach does it, and they do it because every once in a while it actually works.

Tank, do you live near Missouri State?

I wasn't able to catch this one. The result is obviously disappointing and continues a streak of laying eggs on the road. This team is good (and last year's team was good), but this is two years' worth of troubling inconsistency. My hypothesis is that Loyola's offense relies heavily on ball movement and less on any one individual's ability to create a shot for themselves. I think it can be more difficult for the team to run this offense at a high level with the athletes we have on the road in the dog days of conference play. It's a real silver lining for me that Kennedy had a strong performance. While I don't think we should be making any large adjustments to the offensive philosophy, I think it's good that we had a wing-scorer who can make his own shot when the larger motion offense is out-of-sync on the road. I don't think the program has had someone with his go-it-alone scoring ability since Doyle. Krutwig is different to me because he doesn't have the range to score even from the free throw line. I think it's easier for teams to collapse on him when we aren't shooting well from behind the arc. My hope is that as Kennedy matures we can lean on him more to jumpstart the offense with his iso scoring when nothing else is working.

If Krutwig developed a mid-range shot he would be unstoppable.

I think the problems with offense stagnating are pretty similar to the last two years in that we don’t have shooters. We’re at our best when we have multiple players that can kill you with from range; that’s what makes the ball movement so lethal… you start the dominoes falling with players rushing to recover an open man, eventually leaving someone completely wide open. Unfortunately too often this season we’ve only been able to field 2/3 reliable shooters max on the floor at once; and teams will dare certain players to shoot it.

This year (similar to last year) we only have 4 players shooting above 35% and one of them (Wojcik) hasn’t really taken that many shots to begin with and another (Kennedy) is riding a hot streak that just recently pushed him over the threshold. This year we expected to have 3 pure shooters (Lucas, Cooper, and Tate) + some solid options (Keith, Wojcik, maaaaybe Kennedy). Unfortunately Lucas (33%) has been stuck in a season long slump (reminds me of Donte’s sophomore year when he only hit like 28%), and Coopers out with injury. Tate’s been stellar but he’s only one guy, and teams can key on him since they know he’s the biggest outside threat. Keith’s (42%) been a nice surprise with his ability to hit off the dribble and Paxson has been accurate… but has also been a bit too passive when open in my opinion (only 17 shots from range).

In years past we would have up to 7 players who could reliably hit from deep; this year we lost one shooter to a slump, and another to injury. I think Lucas returns to the mean some next year, and the additions of Cooper and Braden really help prevent our offense from stagnating. Also, as you mentioned, this would help Krutwig get some space AND open up room for Kennedy to drive. Furthermore, if Kennedy can consistently hit his 3 point shot as he is now…. Watch out. I’ve been impressed with how much better it looks since the start of the season.

yeah I hear guys talk about becoming "three level scorers" (post/mid/3). Krutwig is an exceptionally good 1 level scorer. Opening up that second level a bit would be a nice wrinkle to his game.

I guess that's my point. Our 3-point shooting does not seem to travel well, even with very talented and experienced players (see Clayton's 1/12 game at ISUr last year). My hope is that Kennedy's dribble penetration and ability to push on the fastbreak give the offense other looks to work off of when even the good shooters on the team can't hit in opponent's gyms.

Tate's home/road splits are pretty stark, too. By my calculations, he's shooting 64% from the field at home and 36% on the road (conference games). Averaging 14.3 at home and 10.5 on the road.

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OOF. Hadn't realized that; I knew Kennedy's road splits have been rough (though he's been a lot better as of late.)

He had notably good road games at SIU and at Missouri State, but yeah I believe he is averaging 7 ppg on the road and 12 ppg at home and he's shooting 57% at home and 48% on the roard (conference games). Several 2-3 point games in there.

He's also 11-22 from three overall in conference (swella, that's 50%).

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