Thursday, November 17, 2022 8:30 pm
HTC Center, Conway, S.C.

Loyola is paired up with Tulsa for the first round of the Myrtle Beach Invitational, beginning on Thursday and culminating with the final on Sunday. Tulsa, Boise State, Charlotte, Colorado UMass, Murray State, and Texas A&M are the other teams in the field. The multi team event, sponsored by ESPN, is being held on the campus of Coastal Carolina University.

Under a new coach-- Eric Konkol, hired away from Louisiana Tech last March-- Tulsa was voted to come in 10th in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll, and The Almanac also picked the Golden Hurricane for 10th out of 11 teams. After dropping the season opener at Oregon State 73-70, Tulsa got into the win column in their home opener on Saturday with an 85-79 victory over Jackson State.

Tulsa starts 6'3" junior guard Sam Griffin (a 2nd Team conference preseason pick), 6'2" sophomore point guard Anthony Pritchard, 6'8" juco sophomore Bryant Selebangue, 6'4" sophomore Sterling Gaston-Chapman, and 6'7" junior Tim Dalger. Griffin, a transfer from UT Arlington, is a prolific shooter; he scored 29 in the season opener at Oregon State, and has taken more than a third of the three-point shots for the entire team. Selebangue has scored 15 points in each of the first two games, and added 10 rebounds and two blocks in the Jackson State game. Pritchard is a local Tulsa kid who’s known for toughness.

The top two players off the bench are 6'1" junior Brandon Betson and 6'3" senior Keyshawn Embery-SImpson. Both are high-quality three-point shooters, combining to go 9 of 17 on threes. Betson is a transfer from Chicago State (he scored 21 against Loyola last year in Gentile Arena), and Embery-Simpson last played at Arkansas. BB Knight, a 6'6" freshman guard also gets some minutes. Another player with height, 6’10” junior Nikita Konstantynovskyi, only played a few minutes in the Oregon State game.

The Ramblers are coming off Friday night's 70-63 win over UIC on the road, their 10th straight win over the Flames dating back to 2013. UIC was very successful playing the passing lanes, and the Ramblers were shaky with ball handling and passing. The Ramblers were also called for a high number of offensive fouls and two technicals, adding up to a confounding 25 turnovers. (I went back through 13 years of stats and 24 against Wright State in Feb. 2013 was the most I found). Loyola trailed UIC 52-48 in the second half before an 22-9 run to close out the game by pounding the ball inside. Between Loyola's two opening games, the Ramblers have committed 43 turnovers and shot 20% from behind the arc. That’s sixth worst in all of college basketball in protecting the ball, and 354th of 363 teams in three-point shooting.

Nevertheless, Loyola is aiming for a 3-0 start against Tulsa, a team that’s struggled a bit with an almost all new cast under a new coach. The Ramblers have been winning by playing well in spurts, locking down on defense when it’s crunch time, and making a few big plays when they’re really on the spot. It’s going to take better than a casual approach most of the time to get to the title game in the Myrtle Beach Invitational.


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

Tulsa game notes: https://tulsahurricane.com/news/2022/11 ... vitational

TV/Streaming video: ESPNU https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eve ... /401486323

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=121&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=435060

Vegas odds: Loyola by 7.5

Sounds like a similar line up to the ones we have struggled with so far. Any word on if Marquis Kennedy will be back?

UMass took care of Colorado in a close one and Murray State up by 7 against A&M at the half. This is looking like a great tournament so far. With 3 games in 4 days I like our chances if we can get a win tonight, just because of our depth.

On pace for 48 turnovers and 16 points.

6 turnovers before the first media timeout…..

Different team with Kennedy out there

Very rough start but glad we’ve got it turned around and have been going on a run. It’s fun watching this team and welcoming the new era of Ramblers basketball.

When things click, we look real good! Things definitely changed when Kennedy came into the game. Great to have him back!

lot of potential if we can clean things up....nice to have Q back. Edwards needs to get going...

WOW, this is painful to watch. We are undisciplined, we commit silly fouls, our defense is bad. No rhyme or reason to our rotations. We swing the ball around the perimeter but never have anyone cutting through the paint or on the baseline. Like I said tough to watch. BTW, someone put out an APB for one Sheldon Edwards. He’s been MIA.