Wednesday, February 17, 2021 7:00 pm
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
Number 22 Loyola hosts travel partner Valparaiso Wednesday night for the second half of the road and home series. In the first game on Jan. 20, the Ramblers beat Valpo 75-39, holding the Crusaders to 30.6% field goal shooting and their lowest point total since a first-round NCAA Tournament defeat to eventual National Champion Michigan State in 2000. The 36-point drubbing on their home court was Valpo's worst loss since joining the Missouri Valley Conference.
The (former) Crusaders have had a season full of crazy ups and downs. Just 11 days ago, the Brown and Gold put a scare into the #25 Drake Bulldogs in their Saturday game, fading at the very end to allow the Bulldogs to escape with an 80-77 win. But the next day, Valpo played a nearly flawless game against then-undefeated Drake, knocking them off 74-57 and knocking them out of the Top 25. Valpo has also split with Northern Iowa and Bradley. They swept Illinois State on the road, and were swept by Evansville and Missouri State.
In addition to the retiring of the Crusaders mascot, there have been some other personnel changes with the team in the four weeks since the last game between these two teams. Senior forward and Chicago native Nick Robinson officially opted out for the remainder of the season and has announced that he's entering the transfer portal. Redshirt senior guard Zion Morgan saw his first action of the year on Jan. 24. Freshman sharpshooter Connor Barrett went down with a tweaked ankle and sore Achilles in Valpo's first game against Drake, and has not seen game action since. Freshman guard Sheldon Edwards has emerged as a consistent force over the past five games, averaging 11.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists while earning a spot in the staring lineup.
The Valpo starters are now 5'9" junior point guard Daniel Sackey , 6'3" senior guard Eron Gordon, 6'4" freshman guard Sheldon Edwards, 6'9" sophomore forward Ben Krikke, and 6'8" forward Mileek McMillan. Krikke has become the focal point of both the offense and defense as a consistent scorer and competent defender down low. The problem for Valpo is all the other players have been very inconsistent.
Preseason MVC 2nd Teamer Donovan Clay has been relegated to the bench for the past two games as his turnovers have mounted and his shooting percentage has dipped below 40%, but he is still the 2nd leading scorer at 10.8 per game. Six-eight freshman forward Jacob Ognacevic has been seeing double digit minutes since the Connor Barrett injury. Ognacevic has responded by averaging 8.4 ppg in his last five contests-- much of it coming from behind the arc, where he shoots 47.6%. Chicago native Zion Morgan, the 6'5" redshirt senior guard who transferred from UNLV, has been getting 10-12 minutes from the bench.
The Ramblers are coming off a frustrating 51-50 overtime loss at Drake, and could use a home game (followed by a 10-day layoff) to re-calibrate for the drive to the end of the regular season, Arch Madness, and probably more. The Sunday overtime loss to Drake came after a decisive, dominating 81-54 win the day before, and apparently most AP Top 25 voters did not punish Loyola in the voting-- the Ramblers retained their #22 AP ranking and their #23 Coaches Poll ranking.
Bracketologists have been slotting the Ramblers as an 8 or 9 in their NCAA Tournament predictions, but that's assuming Loyola goes on to secure the auto bid by winning the conference tournament in St. Louis. As we've seen the past two years, that's not always in the cards. These last three home games with a 10-day layoff in between would be a good time to heal some nagging season-long bumps and bruises and share minutes further down the bench. Only eight players got to the court in the loss to Drake, and four players saw more than 35 hard-fought, stressful minutes on the back end of consecutive games. The last 30 seconds of regulation and the end of overtime in the Drake loss were executed badly. The team made really great strides on shooting free throws since the beginning of the conference season, but they past two games have shown signs of regression. Three point shooting has also declined from its mid-season form-- the team has only shot above 31% on threes in three of the last nine games, and attempts have fallen as well. Hopefully, these things can be worked out before Arch Madness.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _17_21.pdf Valparaiso game notes: https://cdn.streamlinehosting.net/valpo ... 21_LUC.pdf TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago+, ESPN+
https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=b5 ... 7d01e7318fInternet audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=58&type=LiveLive stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=325930Vegas odds: Loyola by 22
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