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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2022 9:09 pm 
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Location: Chicago, Illinois
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.


I hadn’t thought much about UWGB since Brian Wardle was hired away to be coach at Bradley in 2015. Wardle was replaced by Linc Darner, who took them to the NCAA Tournament his first year, racked up two 20-win seasons, was 12 games above .500 in a five year stint at UWGB, and had four of his five seasons above .500. Darner was the third lowest-paid coach in the HL, and UWGB dumped him in May 2020 in the middle of a pandemic. Also, UWGB was required to pay him a $720,000 separation fee.

But UWGB had something big in mind. Their next hire was Will Ryan, son of legendary Wisconsin coaching icon, Bo Ryan! What could go wrong? Two and a quarter seasons later, UWGB is 14-49 under Ryan and the team was one of the last five winless schools to start 2022.

Monday afternoon in Green Bay (that’s right, 30 hours before the start of the Loyola-Green Bay game in Chicago), the Phoenix got their first win of the year with a 68-61 conference win over IUPUI. But despite the win over one of Division I’s worst teams at home, things are looking bleak. UWGB is at 358 in KenPom out of 363 teams. (If I sound a little more sardonic about this than seems necessary, it’s because of the shameful treatment UWGB gave to former coaches Mike Heideman and Tod Kowalczyk while also being one of the most penny-pinching programs in college hoops).

Coach Ryan is likely to start 6’1” sophomore guard Zae Blake, 6’4” junior Randy Tucker, 6’8” sophomore Cade Meyer, 6’5” sophomore Clarence Cummings, and 6’2” junior Nate Jenkins. Blake leads the team in scoring with 11.3 per game, and he’s shooting 58.8% from behind the arc. In Monday’s win over IUPUI, Blake had 20 points, four assists and three steals to lead the Phoenix. Cummings is the second leading scorer at 9.9 ppg. Garren Davis and Davin Zeigler were the only two bench players on the court for more than ten minutes in Monday’s win.

Apart from their win Monday, UWGB’s best game was probably when they went to Madison and lost by 11 to the flagship. In the 56-45 loss the Phoenix held Wisconsin to under 30% shooting and forced 14 turnovers.

Loyola needs to turn the page and cleanse the palate after an ugly end to the DePaul game. The best chance for a Rambler win over a Top 100 KenPom team is coming up this Saturday in Atlanta, so Loyola needs to make more progress avoiding turnovers, denying threes, and keeping opponents off the free throw line.

Green Bay has a 26-15 all time series lead.

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

Green Bay game notes: https://greenbayphoenix.com/news/2022/1 ... icago.aspx

TV/Streaming video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eve ... /401487660

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=127&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=426261

Vegas odds: Loyola by 18.5


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2022 10:51 pm 
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I honestly think we’re going to see a great game out of these guys against Green Bay. Admittedly, it’s been a rough start to the season, but to be fair, the expectations, given the unknowns, were way too high to start.

The goal is to keep getting better, week-by-week, and fix early problems. The start of the season was a mess - bad rotations, bad 3 point shooting, egregious turnovers, etc…. Sure DePaul was a loss, but I think we’ve got our starting lineup now, the 3s are starting to fall, Kennedy’s looking like he’s back to form, Schwieger has emerged, and we know Alston can be a presence. Every week I’m trying to evaluate whether we are getting better from the week before. I think this past week everyone looked much better than Myrtle Beach. Forget the wins and losses - In 3 weeks, this team could look up-to-speed if everyone continues to progress individually, and as a team.

Need more from Golden.
Need more from Edwards.
Need more from DREW.

We get those things and we will officially be back. I’m still a firm believer this team puts it all together by January.

5-0 in the A10 going to the St. Louis game at home is attainable if we keep making progress at a steady rate. Have faith in these guys. The talent is there.

Go Blers!


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 10:30 am 
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Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:29 am
Posts: 414
Well, we are all just beating a dead horse. The problems are clear to see and everyone on this Board have certainly pointed them out. We are not a program of moral victories. We moved beyond that. We need to start stacking some wins and cleaning up the obvious (TO's).

Last 2 points, I am glad the rotations are a bit tighter, but either Quinn or Dawson still need to see some minutes. We are going to run Braden, and eventually Quise, into the ground if we can't buy some minutes of rest for both of them. Also, Hutson needs a few minutes. We will eventually run into bigger post players and we are going to need some minutes from him.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 10:40 am 
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Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:29 am
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JCT wrote:
Coach Ryan is likely to start 6’1” sophomore guard Zae Blake, 6’4” junior Randy Tucker, 6’8” sophomore Cade Meyer, 6’5” sophomore Clarence Cummings, and 6’2” junior Nate Jenkins. Blake leads the team in scoring with 11.3 per game, and he’s shooting 58.8% from behind the arc. In Monday’s win over IUPUI, Blake had 20 points, four assists and three steals to lead the Phoenix. Cummings is the second leading scorer at 9.9 ppg. Garren Davis and Davin Zeigler were the only two bench players on the court for more than ten minutes in Monday’s win.


Interesting. Could Zae Blake be a potential LU transfer portal kid? He's shooting at a 58% clip from three for now. He might be worth keeping an eye on if he continues shooting the 3 well. He was a JC transfer before that. We did get Braden from the HL....


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 3:37 pm 
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Mudville21 wrote:
Last 2 points, I am glad the rotations are a bit tighter, but either Quinn or Dawson still need to see some minutes. We are going to run Braden, and eventually Quise, into the ground if we can't buy some minutes of rest for both of them.


Very much this. We are asking for trouble down the stretch with how much Braden plays.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 3:48 pm 
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goramblers2011 wrote:
Mudville21 wrote:
Last 2 points, I am glad the rotations are a bit tighter, but either Quinn or Dawson still need to see some minutes. We are going to run Braden, and eventually Quise, into the ground if we can't buy some minutes of rest for both of them.


Very much this. We are asking for trouble down the stretch with how much Braden plays.


Think we already have that trouble.

25 turnovers, 23 assists. 36/28/70 splits.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 7:08 pm 
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Is anyone else having trouble pulling up the game on ESPN+ tonight???


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 7:14 pm 
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ToledoRambler wrote:
Is anyone else having trouble pulling up the game on ESPN+ tonight???

Yes. I hate their streaming platform. It's so jenky.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 7:23 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:39 am
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WestCoastFan wrote:
ToledoRambler wrote:
Is anyone else having trouble pulling up the game on ESPN+ tonight???

Yes. I hate their streaming platform. It's so jenky.


It is super janky. But the game is on NBC Sports Chicago for those cable viewers.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 7:24 pm 
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Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 1:02 pm
Posts: 1433
I can’t even get it pulled up…..


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