Saturday, February 13, 2021 11:00 am
Knapp Center, Des Moines, Iowa
In what has been the most anticipated MVC matchup since late December, the #22 Loyola Ramblers head to Des Moines to meet the 19-1 Drake Bulldogs for two games that are likely to decide a great deal for both teams. Top seeding in the conference tournament almost definitely goes to a sweep winner. A split opens the possibility that the MVC gets more than one team into the NCAA Tournament. A sweep loser might have to win the conference tournament to get into The Dance, depending on the margins of the losses.
Loyola has received much more attention in the past week after cracking the AP Top 25 on Monday for the first time since 1985. After the four lowest-ranked teams in the Top 25 lost last week (including Drake losing their first game of the year to Valpo), Loyola entered the AP rankings at 22 and the coaches poll at 23. The Ramblers knocked off a pesky, well-coached Evansville team in two games at Gentile Arena last weekend to stand at 17-3 overall and 12-1 in the Valley. The Ramblers are 7-2 on the road this season, with six wins in a row away from home; Drake is 11-0 at home this season.
It's all pretty stunning, because just several years ago, many coaches, players, journalists, and fans would have put both Loyola and Drake on the "Places where it's almost impossible to win" list. The Ramblers went through four coaches and the first nine years of Porter Moser's rehabilitation project between their AP rankings.
From 1987 to 2006, Drake had a streak of losing seasons-- not too far off from Loyola's streak of under .500 seasons from 1988 to 2002. Drake's most recent AP ranking before last week was in 2007-08, when Coach Keno Davis took the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament with a 28-5 season in his first as head coach. And after their loss as a 5 seed in the 2008 Tournament, Davis immediately bailed out to cash in with a Big East coaching gig at Providence. Drake has also had four coaches since their last ranking in 2008, including another coach-- Nico Medved-- who bailed out after one season with a winning conference record.
Coach Darian DeVries was hired after Medved, and has worked wonders with Drake in his 2+ seasons. He earned a tie (with the Ramblers) for the regular season championship in 2018-19, and notched a 20-win season in their injury-plagued 2019-20 campaign. Each year, DeVries and the Bulldogs have had a new set of challenges-- injuries, transfers, a late start on his first recruiting class, a pandemic-- but each time they've met the test. With their 19-1 start to 2020-21,DeVries is 63-25 (.716) at Drake.
The Bulldogs start two guards, two forwards and a center, and go nine players deep. Three of their starters are transfers, and their sixth man was a former walk-on. Eight of the players on their roster come from Chicago's South or Southwest suburbs and nearby Northern Indiana-- blue-collar places in the shadow of more glamorous basketball environs-- where a lot of people work hard and are often overlooked. They play very hard as a unit, they communicate, and share their minutes well. Some key guys have a gym-rat sensibility and a competitive chip on their shoulders-- really focused leadership and teamwork.
Roman Penn, a 6'0" senior transfer from Siena, is the league's best point guard. A native of Calumet City, he averages 12.4 points and 5.6 assists per game. Penn was terrific last year and named to all conference 2nd team in the preseason poll, but he has improved his shot selection. Penn shoots 49.2% from the field and 33.3% from distance. Six-two junior shooting guard DJ Wilkins has nailed 45 of his 101 three-point attempts on the season (44.6%), and averages 10.1 points per game.
In the frontcourt is 6'6" senior forward ShanQuan Hemphill, a product of Michigan City High School and a native of Gary, Indiana. The long and lanky transfer from Green Bay has been one of the most impactful additions to the roster, leading the team with 14.1 points and second on the squad with 6.3 rebounds. He might be one of the two or three most under-rated players in the league, but he had to leave Drake's Wednesday game because of a twisted ankle and might have limited availability. Joining Hemphill at the forward position is 6'6" redshirt senior Tremell Murphy of Griffith, Ind., who missed all but five games last season. Murphy averages 9.4 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, and shoots well from distance (39.1%).
Another big (literally) acquisition is Seton Hall transfer Darnell Brodie. At 6'10" and 275, the big center has capably filled the hole left by 7-footer Liam Robbins, who ditched Drake for Minnesota at the end of last season. Brodie averages 7.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, and finishes well near the basket. Brodie shoots 60% from the field, but doesn't play very aggressively on the offensive end-- he's only had 10 trips to the line.
The top two players off the bench are dynamic 6'3"guard Garret Sturtz, and 6'0 sophomore guard Joseph Yesufu, who both infuse a ton of energy and scoring when they enter the game. The Bolingbrook, Illinois native Yesufu averages 8.8 points despite playing 18 minutes per game on average. Sturtz, a junior who arrived at Drake as a preferred walk-on, is one of the peskiest players in the league, averaging 8.0 points and an astounding 5.0 rebounds while playing only 21 minutes per game. Six-foot-three senior guard Jonah Jackson from Merrillville, Ind. and 6'8" freshman forward Nate Ferguson out of Lemont, Ill., and 6'8" freshman forward Issa Samake are the other key bench players.
While the Ramblers are considered the deepest team in the MVC, Drake isn't far behind. Few teams share court minutes as well as Drake-- their top seven key players each average between 18 and 27 minutes per game. Seven players have taken between 103 and 208 field goal attempts, and five different players have taken at least 53 shots behind the arc. The top seven Bulldogs have all scored between 144 and 282 points-- they really spread the scoring.
The Bulldogs are an offensive-minded team that likes to play a slightly faster tempo than the Ramblers. But Drake's defense is no pushover, either. The Bulldogs are ranked 76th nationally in defensive efficiency by KenPom, and they've limited their conference opponents to 41.6% field goal shooting.
Last time out, Drake held Northern Iowa to 59 points on 41.1% shooting from the field, and 25% from three. It was one of eight games where Drake held its opponents under 60 points, and the first time since their Covid-19 break after the games of Jan. 4. They're 6-1 since returning from the break (all conference games), but four of those six wins were by seven points or less, and the loss was by 17. Only two of Drake's post-break games were won by more than seven points-- a 35-point blowout of Illinois State, and Wednesday's 80-59 win over UNI.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 13_21_.pdf Drake game notes: https://godrakebulldogs.com/documents/2 ... Loyola.pdfTV/Streaming video: ESPN2
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=8c ... 4651362ce6Internet audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=69&type=LiveLive stats: https://godrakebulldogs.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summaryVegas odds: Loyola by 3
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