Tuesday, February 25, 2020 7 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.


Loyola wraps up its home men's basketball schedule on Tuesday night when the Drake Bulldogs come to town. The Ramblers enter the game at 11-5, trailing league leaders Northern Iowa by one game, and sitting just ahead of both SIU and Bradley tied for third at 10-6. UNI hosts winless Evansville, Bradley travels to Normal, and SIU hosts Indiana State Wednesday night.

Drake got their best win of the season when they beat Loyola 65-62 Jan. 7 in Des Moines behind 20 points from 7'0" sophomore center Liam Robbins. In that game, the Ramblers replicated their familiar road woes-- shooting under 30% from behind the arc (and also shooting under 50% from the free throw line). Loyola is 4-8 when shooting under 30% on threes (15-2 when shooting 30% or better from distance).

Drake hasn't been nearly as good lately in guarding the three-point line-- the Bulldogs have given up 10 or more three-pointers in six of their last seven games. Drake is 3-5 in their last eight games, and winless on the road. At 8-8 on the season-- with their two remaining games at Loyola and hosting UNI-- the Bulldogs will probably have to score an upset against one of the league's two top teams to avoid playing Thursday night in St. Louis.

Second-year head coach Darian DeVries starts Robbins, 5'11" sophomore point guard Roman Penn, 6'5" senior guard Anthony Murphy, 6'2" sophomore guard D.J. Wilkins, and 6'3" junior guard Jonah Jackson. Robbins averages 14.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game to lead the team in those categories. The Bulldogs' four talented starting guards are led by transfer Roman Penn, a sophomore newcomer from Sienna who averages 11.7 points and 5.7 assists per game. The other three starting guards score primarily from behind the arc, with the trio of Anthony Murphy (9.5 ppg), D.J. Wilkins (9.4 ppg) and Jonah Jackson (6.1 ppg). Jackson leads the squad in made threes and shoots 39.7% on his attempts-- all but four of his 150 field goal attempts on the season have come from behind the arc.

The top bench players are 6'3" sophomore guard Garrett Sturtz (7.0 points per game), 6'2" junior guard Noah Thomas, and 6'7" senior forward Antonio Pilipovic. And that's pretty much where the bench ends, after the eighth player.

Drake's offense is solid, and the Bulldogs have the best assist to turnover ratio in the league and third best field goal percentage. When the 'Dogs dig in, their defense can be formidable. In conference play, Drake has the second best field goal percentage defense in the league behind Bradley (and surprisingly-- better than SIU, UNI or Loyola). But heavy minutes in a limited rotation may have led to some tired legs lately, as evidence by the high volume and percentage of three point shots opponents have been firing over the past several games.

A win over Drake on Tuesday might cement a 2 seed at Arch Madness, but the best way to fend off Bradley from capturing that seed via an NCAA NET Rankings tiebreaker is to win against Bradley on Saturday as well. Just a refresher-- the 1 and 2 seeds play a team that won their play-in game the night before. The 3 seed plays a 6 seed that enters the tournament fresh, and that 3-6 seed pairing has been the source of many upsets (including 6 seed Loyola upsetting 3 seed Indiana State in 2015, and 6 seed UNI beating 3 seed SIU last year).

Tuesday night is senior night, and Loyola will bid farewell to Bruno Skokna, who has thus far scored 375 career points, sunk 51 career threes, and averaged 75.8% from the free throw line over his career. More importantly, Loyola is a combined 89-44 (.669) overall, and 46-24 (.657) in conference with Bruno on the team, including an NCAA Final Four, two MVC regular season titles, an NIT appearance, and no losing seasons.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _25_20.pdf

Drake game notes: https://godrakebulldogs.com/documents/2 ... Loyola.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch?id=c7bb2e41- ... yola-US-EN

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=31&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=280013

Vegas odds: Loyola by 7.5

The game will also be on NBC Sportsnet+ Chicago.

Thanks as always for the great preview.

Thank you for the extra information.

I just want to add another note... Jake Baughman is another senior who's going to be honored on Senior Night. He's been on the team for four years as a walk-on. A very, very, very hard worker from Bloomington's Central Catholic High School (I have a distant cousin buried in the cemetery across Airport Road from their campus), Jake has been an essential part of the practice squad, and had played in 32 games during his career. I suspect he'll get some time in the game against Drake, and everyone needs to cheer for him when he gets into the game.....

Does anybody know which game that NBC Sportsnet will be telecasting during the first half of the Rambler's game?

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Let's go Braden!

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Hope that Bruno and Jake are both able to get some good minutes tonight. Both really deserve it.

Heavy snow coming in late afternoon--hope that doesn't affect the turnout. I know Porter has been pushing for a good crowd at this one. I much prefer when senior day is a weekend game (last year's regular season finale vs Bradley was an electric crowd).

This is a huge games in terms of seeding--a win all but locks up the 2 seed for the Ramblers. I would much rather face the winner of the 8/9 game (which is looking like Drake vs Illinois State) than the 6 seed (which is looking like Missouri State or Indiana State).

It would be a nice gesture for Porter to start Bruno and Jake and let them play a token minute or so, but I doubt it will happen in a game with so much at stake.
I seem to remember Porter starting a bench guy on Senior Night (maybe London Dokubo), but I might be wrong.

Thanks for including Jake! I sit by his family at almost every game. Great people who we've gotten to know a little bit over the years.

My money is on Bruno starting, and hopefully we have a big lead so Jake can get a few minutes.

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