Monday, February 21, 2022 7:00 p.m.
Redbird Arena, Normal, Illinois


Loyola continues its five-games-in-eleven days endurance tour with a Monday night makeup game in Normal. The Ramblers are coming off their worst loss of the season, an 83-76 loss to Drake(at home) in which the Ramblers were thoroughly outplayed and outprepped. Monday's game at Illinois State is the makeup game from Jan. 5 when there was a Covid outbreak with the ISU basketball program.

Saturday's loss to Drake was the first time the Ramblers have been swept by an opposing team since Missouri State swept the Ramblers in 2018-19, Dana Ford's first season. Drake turned the game into a physical contest, and muscled up 31 shots inside the paint, making good on 67.7% of them. The rest of the game was a free throw shooting contest, with Drake taking 31 shots at the line and the Ramblers 26.

With Northern Iowa's emphatic 95-75 win over Missouri State on Sunday, the Panthers have moved a half game ahead of the Ramblers in the standings. Between the loss to Drake and the UNI drubbing of the Bears, there's even more pressure on Loyola to focus on taking care of a road game at ISU, where some mid-season changes have changed the landscape. Illinois State Head Coach Dan Muller was fired on Feb. 13, and before ISU's game with UNI, Muller announced that he would not (as previously reported) continue coaching through the end of the year.

ISU was picked as a distant last place finisher in the 2021-22 MVC men's basketball preseason poll. Coming off their worst season in the league since 2011, and their worst season overall since 2003, Coach Muller was squarely on the hot seat-- until the unheralded Redbirds started the season 10-9 overall and 3-3 in conference (with impressive wins over Missouri State and Bradley). But after the nice start, ISU lost six of their next seven conference games, and Muller was through.

Interim Head Coach Brian Jones will likely start forwards Liam McChesney and Kendall Lewis and three very good guards: Josiah Strong, Howard Fleming Jr., and Antonio Reeves. Reeves, a 6'6" junior guard out of Simeon, rivals Missouri State's Isiaih Mosely for the conference scoring title. He pours in an average of 20.2 points, averages about 39% from three, hits 79% from the free throw line, and adds 3.4 rebounds per game to the mix. Six-four senior guard Josiah Strong is an even better shooter from distance, averaging 11.8 points per game and firing threes with 42.7% accuracy. Fleming, a 6'5" sophomore, averages 5.4 points and does a lot of the defensive work; he leads the team in steals, pulls in 4.1 boards, and has seven blocked shots.

Six-ten sophomore McChesney and 6'8" junior Lewis man the frontcourt; Utah State transfer McChesney is a strong inside presence, as evidenced by his 29 blocks on the season while playing an average of just under 18 minutes per game. Lewis leads the team with 30 blocks, chips in 9.8 points per game, and hauls in 5.4 rebounds.

Coming off the bench are 5'11" junior and Tennessee State transfer Mark Freeman, 6'11" junior forward Ryan Schmidt, 6'5" sophomore guard Emon Washington, 6'9" forward Abdou Ndiaye, and 6'7" sophomore forward Harouna Sissoko. Freeman is a quick guard who scores 8.8 ppg and leads the team in assists. Schmidt is adequate defensively but not much of a factor on offense (3.3 ppg). Ndiaye is a project with good shot-blocking and offensive rebounding ability. Washington's minutes, scoring, and shooting percentages are way down from last season when he was a part-time starter and a promising freshman.

The Redbirds play the second-fastest tempo in the league behind Indiana State, and are not particularly known for their defense. ISU gives up the most points per game in the league (76.7) and sits in the middle of the pack (5th) in shooting percentage. Loyola needs to dictate the tempo of this game, and show they can stop penetration to the basket.

Hopefully, the officiating will be better than the Drake game, where the two teams combined for 57 free throws, 51 personal fouls, 34 turnovers, and one technical. It's hard enough to be playing five games in 11 days (due to other teams calling Covid postponements) while taking everyone's "here's our chance to rescue our pride for the season and give Loyola a parting shot" down the stretch to the conference title. Add the lingering doubt that you're not getting a completely fair shot because the zebras hired by the league know you're leaving the conference.... and... well.... it's tough. The Ramblers have to be tougher, they have to be resolved, and they have to make their case to the officials when they're getting physical play that needs to be called.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _21_22.pdf

Illinois State game notes: https://goredbirds.com/documents/2022/2 ... Loyola.pdf

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago, ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=29 ... tate-US-EN

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=115&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=402783

Vegas odds: Loyola by 9

I think we can have our way feeding Knight/Welch/Hutty down low early to open things up. Not sure they really have good post defense. They are definitely a team that can get hot from outside to keep the game close. Our perimeter defense needs to be better than it has been.

McChesney certainly has the length to bother shots inside, but is prone to fouling and needs to bulk up. Getting him in foul trouble last game was huge for us

Well, this is Division 1 basketball. No one feels sorry for you and no one said it would be easy. We have been the hunted in MVC for a few years now. This “pressure” is not new. Stop focusing on the officials. Play the game however it is officiated. It is put up or shut up time. We still control our destiny. Win out, handle our business at the Arch Madness go dancing.

Connor Onion!

New game, same unforced turnovers and inability to rebound

The Bahama Blers would kill this team, right?

So Aher and Schweiger peaked offensively in the beginning of the year and then fell off. Hutty peaked against ASU. Norris and Knight did in the middle of the season and have been falling off. Tate is coming alive a little.

But outside of Lucas, just feels like everybody has been trending downwards offensively. Would love to have Marquise back

Schwieger thus far has missed two fast break layups, had a charge on a drive and is 0-3 from deep.

Schweiger is struggling but who else are we going to put out there? With Marquise out our bench is getting thin, all we pretty much have left is Ty. For better or worse, we will have to roll with him.