Tuesday, January 9, 2024 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

The Richmond Spiders come to Chicago to play the first time ever in Gentile Arena on Tuesday night. U of R holds a 2-1 advantage in the three games the two teams have played, twice at neutral sites and last year in Richmond, where the Spiders won 74-71.

These are two teams that have changed quite a bit from their matchup last year, in both cases for the better. Richmond and Loyola both finished well into the bottom half of the league last season, and both had many departures and new players from the transfer portal and recruiting. Of the 10 players that started last year’s game between these two squads, only four are likely to start on Tuesday.

Richmond lost their top scorer and rebounder Tyler Burton, who went to Villanova for a grad transfer. Seniors Matt Grace and Andre Gustafson ended their college careers. One freshman bench player transferred to VCU, and a sophomore bench player transferred to Saint Peter’s. This year’s Spiders return only 35.8% of their minutes and 37.9% of their scoring from last year. Loyola added Des Watson from the portal, got a healthy Jayden Dawson, recruited a top candidate for A-10 Freshman of the Year in Miles Rubin, and got two proven Ivy League players.

Coach Chris Mooney is in his 19th season at Richmond, doing fine, back from his late-season heart surgery last year. He’s loaded up his team with some fantastic finds from the portal and recruiting, and developed some players from last season. The returning starters are 7’0” senior forward Neal Quinn, and 6’5” senior guard Dji Bailey. Quinn averages 13.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and a team-leading 3.8 assists. Much of the offense goes through Quinn at the top of the key, and the 280-pound 7-footer is an immovable object in the paint and not surprisingly leads the team in blocks. Bailey has taken a huge step up from last year, improving his scoring average from 3.0 to 9.2 per game; he leads the team in steals and shoots an astounding 69% from two-point range, but curiously shoots under 50% on freebies.

New to the Spider starting lineup are 6’0” grad transfer Jordan King, 6’7” Isaiah Bigelow, and 5’10” freshman guard Mikkel Tyne. King is an East Tennessee State transfer, and the leading scorer at 17.8 per game. He also leads the team in minutes played, made three-pointers, free throw attempts, and free throw percentage. The guy knows how to score. Bigelow was a top bench player for the Spiders last season, but the Wofford transfer took a huge step up this year and averages 12.0 points and 6.3 rebounds to lead the team. Tyne is a freshman ball-handler from Canada who worked his way into a starting role and averages 6.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 steals.

The top bench guys are 6’5” junior forward Jason Roche (4.1 ppg), 6’11” sophomore center Michael Walz (3.0 ppg), 6’7” senior guard Tyler Harris (2.5 ppg), and 6’7” sophomore forward Aiden Noyes (3.2 ppg).

The Spiders have won four in a row. Their five losses are all against teams at 137 or better in KenPom, and all have come away from home: against Florida in Ft. Lauderdale, at Northern Iowa, at Wichita State, against Colorado in Daytona Beach, and at Boston College. Last time out, they beat St. Bonaventure impressively, 65-54, by clamping down on defense to end the first half and pulling away on offense in the last ten minutes to close it.

Richmond is number one in the country in taking care of the ball (12.0 turnover percentage), and sixth best in the country in steal percentage. Another superlative for U of R is three-point percentage defense—they’re 26th best in college hoops by holding their opponents to 28.6% three-point shooting.

The Ramblers (especially under Coach Moser) and U of R share a lot of similarities in style—almost disregarding offensive rebounds to get back on defense (Richmond is 359th in offensive rebounding, Loyola is 336th), concentration on field goal efficiency, using the center in the high post to distribute the ball (Cam Krutwig, Chris Knight, and Richmond native Bryce Golden last year for the Ramblers; Grant Golden, and former Ramblers portal recruiting target Neal Quinn for the Spiders), high assist rates, and a more deliberative pace of play. This year the Ramblers play at a moderately higher tempo, and shot blocking/post up play is how the frontcourt excels.

With all the similarities in style, pace, and experience, home court is likely to be a factor. The Spiders are 9-5 overall with a KenPom of 94, but they’re 8-0 at home, 1-2 at neutral sites, and 0-3 in true road games. The Ramblers are 10-5 overall with a KenPom of 122, with a record of 8-1 at home, 1-2 on neutral courts, and 1-2 on the road. Can a Tuesday night, snowstorm possibility, winter break crowd make enough noise to carry the Ramblers to victory? It promises to be a close one.

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

Richmond game notes: https://richmondspiders.com/documents/2 ... hicago.pdf

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=166&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=482154

Vegas odds: Loyola by 2.5

Richmond Preview w/ Spiders PXP Broadcaster Bob Black
https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/richmo ... al_sharing

_________________
Scott Sudikoff (X/IG @Sudikoff)
Voice of the Ramblers
Men's Hoops Radio PXP (X/IG @Rambler_SN)
ESPN+/NBC Sports Chicago PXP
https://loyolaramblers.com/watch
http://www.soundcloud.com/ramblersn

Pretty big game. Richmond is projected to be a top half team. Our next game (@St. Joes on Saturday) is likely our second or third hardest A10 game (behind UD and maybe @GMU). Important to hold serve at home against middle-of-the-pack teams.

Brutal shooting splits for both teams. Thank god they’ve shot as poorly as we have.

Miracle we're not down 15! Lets see if we can catch some rhythm in the 2nd half!?!?

Geez. Coming down stretch down 4 with 2 minutes and we are playing hero ball. Pathetic offense.

Winnable game, some bone headed plays by guys like Braden down the stretch. Have to think this was a low percentage outcome given how poorly we played. Feel good about the team in a rematch.

Why with two TOs does Drew not call time and get us organized.

Poor FT shooting.
Stagnant offense.
Going under screens and giving up wide-open 3's.
Poor execution, poor refereeing and poor time out management down the stretch.

Vibes felt off in this game from the start. This is a loss that we will really kick ourselves looking back on if we end up in the bottom 6 pillow fight. You NEED to hold serve at home against similarly ranked teams in this league.

Disappointing. And now we go on the road to one of the top teams in conference.

Ridiculous performance tonight. Thoughts:

1. We played way too much hero ball. Too much one on one. I like Dame, but against true height in post he is not a consistent scorer. He was 3-8 in the post.

2. FT shooting horrible tonight. 8-14. We left a lot of points on the board.

3. 15 TOs tonight. Many were unforced.

4. We had a 4 point lead and we were gassed. TV crew mentioned it. Drew has 3 TOs and he lets us play on. We were slow on two possessions and their best scorer gets two open looks and buries 3s. We never recovered. This was with 5 minutes to play.

5. Down the stretch, Drew still has 3 TOs and when were are close doesn’t use any to get us organized. 2 minutes to go and he had 3 at the time. We don’t score. With 7 or 8 seconds to go Richmond misses front end, he has 2 TOs and could have called a TO to get organized. What are we saving them for? It’s not like he can go to the flea market and sell them.


6. Inside the numbers: We again couldn’t shoot it in our own building. 38.5 % (20-52) from the floor. 3’s were 36.4% (8-22). 57.1 % from the FT line (8-14). Several were front ends. Richmond was 38.6% (22-57) from the floor. 45.5% (10-22) from 3! They also had a four point on a 3 when Alston fouled the shooter when we up 6 at the time, letting Richmond jump back in game. 4-8 (50%) from the line. Their poor foul shooting kept us in the game. The number that is that 45.5% from 3. This is bad defense.

7. Last real play of game if you are Quinn, you cannot step out of bounds! We had a chance to tie or win, and we don’t even get a shot up. This was our 15th TO of the game.

8. This was an ugly game from a player and coaching standpoint. I hope these kids and staff didn’t think they were gonna just show up and roll Richmond.

Frustrating.