Saturday, January 20, 2024 12:00 p.m.
Rose Hill Gym, New York, NY

The Loyola Ramblers will travel to The Bronx for an early Saturday afternoon game with Fordham at Noon Central. These two big city Jesuit rivals will face each other for only the fourth time ever, with Fordham holding a 1-2 advantage in the series. Last year, the Rams bested Loyola by a 71-69 score at Gentile Arena.

Less than 64 hours after Loyola’s amazing 79-78 win over UMass, the Ramblers will tip off again—800 miles away. It’s a very short turnaround, especially considering winter weather, the travel logistics, and time zones. Fordham is 8-9 overall, 2-2 in the A-10, and 198 in the KenPom ratings; the Ramblers are 12-6, 4-1, and 121 respectively.

Fordham was picked to finish 7th in the A-10 after their 25-8 record last year under first-year Coach Keith Urgo. Fordham earned a #3 seed in the A-10 Tournament last year, and their 25-8 record was their best season since 1991. But the Rams had one of the easiest schedules in the conference and finished the season at 137 in KenPom-- and they lost their top two scorers and their senior starting big man to graduation.

The Rams will likely start 6’0” Japhet Medor, 6’3” sophomore guard Will Richardson, 6’4” senior Kyle Rose, 6’5” senior guard Antrell Charlton, and 6’9” senior forward Abdou Tsimbila. Top scorer Medor is a grad transfer from UTSA and averages 12.7 points; he’s the team’s most prolific three-point shooter and hits them at 38.1%. Richardson averages 10.4 ppg and has scored a season-high 16 points four times this year, all in Fordham losses. Rose is a top defender who averages 8.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.2 steals. Chapman is a 6’5” point guard with impressive defensive skills—he averages 6.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, a team-leading 3.2 assists, and 1.7 steals per game.

In the frontcourt is Tsimbila, who is the defensive counterpart to 6’8” Elijah Gray—a more offensive-oriented power forward. Tsimbila is one of the three top shot-blockers in the conference, and excels in offensive rebounding. Tsimbilla averages 9.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game while playing only 23 minutes per contest. Gray puts in 9.9 ppg and pulls in 4.7 boards in an average of 25 minutes per game.

Coming off the bench are 6’6” freshman guard Jahmare Tripp (4.6 ppg), 6’7” sophomore forward Joshua Rivera (10.2 ppg, 4.5 rpg), and 6’7” sophomore forward Joshua Rivera—the Rams’ best three-point shooter by percentage at 43.3%.

Fordham is a good defensive team, ranking 138th in defensive efficiency on KenPom. Their offense is ranked 252nd, which is not good, but only 35 places below Loyola. Curiously, Fordham has been less successful at home than on the road this year. Last year the Rams were 18-2 at Rose Hill Gym. This year they’re 4-6 at home, with losses to lowly-regarded NJIT, Central Connecticut State, and La Salle. Meanwhile, they’re 2-0 on the road in conference games, with a 3-0T win over George Washington and a shocking 80-74 win at St. Bonaventure (that’s a borderline Quad 1 win, folks).

The Rams' big strength is in the communication and cohesion of their defensive unit. There’s a lot of chaos that they cause, and they’re ranked in the top 50 in the country this year in offensive rebounds, steals, and blocks. They’re also 8th best in the country at keeping teams from making three-point attempts. In doing so they earn a lot of fouls and they make a lot of fouls. If the game is close (don’t they all seem to be this season?) Loyola will have to do better than their season average of 67.4% on freebies-- 297th among 360+ teams, and only 62.6% since the Harvard game.


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

Fordham game notes: https://fordhamsports.com/news/2024/1/1 ... urday.aspx

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/ ... d1e211f887

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=169&type=Live

Live stats: https://fordhamsports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Vegas odds: Loyola by 2.5

In weird way, I am glad we are on road. After the heart stopping win Wednesday, I kinda feel there would be too many distractions. Getting on the road, away from the students, might actually help us focus better.

Curious if after a tough, physical game and a short turn around if Coach will be planning on more bench
today...Dawson should have plenty of gas in the tank as he barely played Wednesday due to the foul trouble.

How bout that officiating again……..

The Fordham Floppers

Road win!!

Great win for LUC! That was a physical game and Fordham lived up to their defensive stats. A couple of thoughts-
Dame is a unique talent and they could not defend him.
I like Dolan at the point, he brings calmness and in a physical game like this Brandon struggles to score and be the primary ballhandler, he only got off one shot.
Loyola should run more backdoors as Fordham was face-guarding our guards at times.
Hats off to Drew, he seemed to have the right guys on the court at the right time.

3-0 on the road in conference play. And a questionable call away from being 6-0 overall. Can't overstate the turnaround after last year's disaster.

This was another tough, gritty game. Fordham is young, but they play a very physical style of defense. Caused some issues for us early, but we found our groove. Their flooping was also frustrating to see, hate when flopping "works". Quiet offensive games from Braden and Phil, but Des, Dame and Jayden stepped up...that's the sign of a good squad. Different guys can get you points on different nights.

Dame going 4-4 in the final minute at the FT line was great to see. May not be a great FT shooter, but he is a clutch one!

Another short turnaround with a tough game @VCU Tuesday night. Will the road dogs be barking again?

Having watched the game live a few notes:

1. It's really crazy how small Braden Norris is. Everyone on Fordham was twice his size it felt. Not surprised he was quite. But even though it doesn't show up on the score sheet the work he does setting ip the offense and keeping making sure everyone is in the correct positions both offensively and defensively makes this team work.

2. I always knew how good Miles Rubin was defensively, but seeing it live you can tell he's a game changer. When he's on the floor everybody's defensive energy picks up. It was crazy to see the difference in energy when he and Dame were on the floor defensively. You could also see how afraid Fordham was to attack the basket when Rubin was out there. Just his presence alone in the 2nd half forced Fordham out of the paint, which killed their offensive momentum.

3. Jayden Dawson has the potential to be the offense all by himself. His speed is very real and he can just blow by guys. His shooting needs to.be more consistent, but it's not crazy to think next year he could be a 15+ PPG scorer.

4. Des Watson's effort on both ends in always 100%. Guy is probably the most complete player on the team. Obviously you want more constantly from him offensively, but when he decides to attack I don't know if there's anyone in the A-10 who can guard him for a full game. Just need him to be as aggressive as he was today. Can't come out an be timid deferring to everyone else like has has a tendency to do once he misses a shot here and there to start a game.

Another road win in the A-10. We’re 5-1 in the league now and this is big.

The thing that was going through my mind was that this Fordham team is not that good. Yet we were down 12 points at one time. Last season we would have collapsed, and probably to an 18 pt deficit for certain.

If I am not mistaken, the last 6 minutes or so we had the lead. Last year, I did not feel confident we would maintain any lead nearing game’s end. This year things feel a bit better.

We have more weapons this year. Last year, it was basically Phil going to the basket and Norris left trying to hit threes when not even open. 19 for Watson, 13 for Dawson, and 17 for Dame who pulled through big at the end, especially with the FT. Hey, we were at 75% today in FT. Let’s continue that percentage.

Although 14 TOs, and 21 fouls on the road usually results in a loss, well, not today.

Is JQ injured? Only 2 minutes of play today.

Miles no blocks today which for him is not the usual.

Sheldon played today for a couple of minutes and that made 11 guys who played.

Let's next beat VCU!