I know it's an exhibition game, but I am fired up! It will be interesting to see what improvement the team has made since the open practice. Things I am looking for tonight:

1. Conditioning. At the open practice the team had been together for a couple of weeks and even mentioned they we not in game shape yet.

2. Defensive Continuity: Well documented that we do it a little differently and seems like it takes us a while longer to get everyone on the same defensive page. We will live and die on being able to get stops, so progress here is important.

3. Will Drew show the 3 different ways he stated they may play and what will that look like?

4. Are the returning players ready to take on leadership roles and more responsibility this year? I will also be curious to see Miles' development and Quinn's continued development tonight.

5. How comfortable will the new guys look. Have the transfers settled in:

6. Are the Freshmen getting acclimated and settled into the game speed.

7. Who's gonna shoot the 3? We know Des, Sheldon, Jayden can shoot it, but will Quinn or any of the new players step up and show they can make 3's as well?

I would like to see these questions partially answered. I will also be watching to see if we are confident and aggressive. It's one thing to be talented and athletic, but until you buy in and truly believe, you can't be a great team.

I'm going, anything to take my mind off election insanity for a bit. Excited to see the new guys, and will be interesting to see who starts at PG and PF.

Starting Five:

Des
Jayden
Justin
Sheldon
Miles

Small ball!

Here’s what I saw:

-Moore is a smooth operator out there. Offense looked night and day better when he was on the floor, in fact I think we went on two long dry spells with him on the bench. 3 pt shot looked good too.

-Moore is definitely going to help cut down on turnovers, but we still had more than you’d like. Like last year, guys got caught in high pressure and were either stripped or threw easily-intercepted perimeter passes

-we missed a lot of easy layups, otherwise we’d have won by a lot more

-on the other hand, perfect from the line! Hopefully that continues.

-Nwaokorie probably looked the best out of the PFs, looked good on the boards and hit a nice corner 3. That being said, I thought the small ball lineup that started was our best group. Deloach and Housinou are very solid depth though, will be needed when miles gets in foul trouble

-Speaking of miles, this kind of competition just has no chance against him. Dominant.

-I thought Young was the most promising freshman. Huge reach, explosive and coordinated

-might have been hair-assisted, but seif looked at least as tall as miles. I think he ends up at SF

My thoughts on the game, what I saw, and things I was Looking for:

1. Conditioning. At the open practice the team had been together for a couple of weeks and even mentioned they we not in game shape yet.

Answer: Conditioning was a little better, but still needs to improve. This showed up a little in the second half when we failed to finish around the rim a few times. This will come as they continue to practice and get into game shape.

2. Defensive Continuity: Well documented that we do it a little differently and seems like it takes us a while longer to get everyone on the same defensive page. We will live and die on being able to get stops, so progress here is important.

Answer: We were not on the same page yet defensively. The coordination is not there yet. Some of the transfers and certainly the Freshman looked like the movements and flow were not there. You could see that its not second nature yet and they were "thinking" too much.

3. Will Drew show the 3 different ways he stated they may play and what will that look like?

Answer: Drew did play some bigger lineups and did seem to go small a little in the second half. We do have some good flexibility to do some things and at one point we had 5 guys on the floor that can handle the ball. We should be difficult to press this year.

4. Are the returning players ready to take on leadership roles and more responsibility this year? I will also be curious to see Miles' development and Quinn's continued development tonight.

Answer: The returning players were fine. I was watching Quinn as he did not start, but he did play good minutes and he and Moore were on the floor together a couple of times. Quinn had a solid game, missed a two or three layups or he might have finished with 17 or 18 points. Dawson looked good, made a few threes and was solid on defense. Miles filled the stat sheet and was 4-4 from the line. I was hoping to see some plays on the box for Miles to see if he is expanding his offensive game, especially with the height differential, but they did not run much if anything for him. Sheldon was jacking up shots and active. He mad a couple of threes.

5. How comfortable will the new guys look. Have the transfers settled in:

Answer: The transfers looked more comfortable than the Freshman. This is to be expected as they are experienced D1 players. The transfer, with the exception of Moore are almost interchangeable. The transfer did get on the glass a little and they made a few good cuts to the hole for easy baskets. The Freshman are still figuring it out. Daniil in particular looked like he was pressing. He was the first Freshman off the bench. He looked like he was thinking way too much. He shot 3 3 pointers. The first was a brick, the next two looked good but did not go in. Seif was pretty solid and was the primary ball hander bringing the ball up on several possessions and made a 3 point shot. He looks to be one of our taller player. Moore, was good. He started a little slow but got into rhythm as the game went on. He buried 2 or 3 3 point shots and was facilitating the offense. He also looked like against smaller guards he will be an upgrade with on the ball defense as he has good footwork, is quick and taller than Norris was. He looked much better than the open scrimmage. Brayden only played a few minutes, had a pair of dunks. Jack also got in, but did not play a lot of minutes. I have to believe with all the guards we have, minutes would be tough to find for him. I can see him getting a red shirt year. He is a little thin and does not have a D1 body yet. He needs a little weight work. Last thought regarding the Freshman, its always difficult to transition to college, D1 basketball as you have get acclimated to the speed of the game, a new offensive and defensive scheme, and the fact that you may not be handling to ball as much or may not be the 1st or event 2nd or 3rd option. They are talented, they will figure it out, they will have impact at some point in their careers at LU.

6. Are the Freshmen getting acclimated and settled into the game speed.

Answer: See above.

7. Who's gonna shoot the 3? We know Des, Sheldon, Jayden can shoot it, but will Quinn or any of the new players step up and show they can make 3's as well?

Answer: Sheldon, Dawson, Des, Moore shot 3's and made some. Quinn took one and missed it. Our three point percentage would have been better but we had some three taken by guys you not expect to be primary 3 point shooters. I would like to see someone emerge as an additional threat.

CONCLUSION:

We won by 30 over a team that height challenged. We missed some second half lay ups or we would have won by 40. Despite this, we still had way too many turnovers. The TO's are excusable this early, but need to be cleaned up. We can't let the TO issue rear its head. We did not shoot a ton of FTs, but we made them all. Good sign. I liked what I saw. With that being said we have a lot of work to do. I am looking for a better crisper performance next Monday against Chicago State.

Crowd was interesting. Student Section was packed. Season Ticket area and other parts were not good. The Kids made it loud considering how were in attendance.

Here are a few of my thoughts from Tuesday's 87-57 exhibition win over Calumet St. Joseph's.

The starting lineup was four guards and Miles. Returning players Des Watson, Sheldon Edwards, and Jayden Dawson got starts, and newcomer Justin Moore ran the point. This might be appropriate for the specific competition-- an NAIA team where there are only three players on the roster taller than 6'5"-- but might change depending on the opposition. Watson, Edwards, and Dawson are a pretty tight group in real life (seen hanging out tother socially very often), and have enough versatility to guard and switch off on forwards and small forwards. Watson and Edwards have the ability to mix it up under the basket for rebounds.

I watched some Big 5 games on TV last year, and noticed Justin Moore's play on Drexel. When we got him in the transfer portal I was happy and excited. Moore led the team well when he was on the court and led all scorers with 16 points in 20 minutes, including 2-for-2 on three point attempts (he gets rid of it quick, but it has a high, slow arc) and notching 4 steals. He made a couple of passes in traffic that were unwise and one resulted in a turnover. He finished with two assists. But the big play that showed off his skills was when he tipped a loose ball from going out of bounds at the half-court line and beat a defender running straight to the basket while running diagonally from half court, finishing with a dunk. Extremely impressive-- it was probably 3-4 strides longer run than the defender had, and he finished clean. He's listed at 6'3" but plays with the quickness and hands of an elite 5'10" player.

Miles has added a lot of mobility on offense, including a baby hook shot, a spin move, and some fakes. He was 4-for-4 on free throws. It feels like he's going to average 9-11 points per game, and his 5 blocks in 18 minutes on Tuesday night (plus 9 rebounds) showed that he might be in line for some triple-doubles this season. But again, this was against a team with a 6'8" forward and everyone else 6'5 or below.

Des Watson was the leader in minutes with 27, and his major contribution was 6 assists to go with 10 points. Frankly, when he wasn't on the floor the Ramblers looked a lot less focused, which makes sense.

Jalen Quinn had a very good game with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Two-for-two on free throws, two assists and only one turnover. He is really our best player streaking to the basket and finishing.

DeLoach played only 15 minutes and tied for the game lead in rebounds with 9. He is automatic on defensive rebounds, a great quality to have on tap. He committed one foul while defending an acrobatic shot, but after fouling he followed through to make sure the shot couldn't somehow get up there, which I liked. DeLoach is very solid. Did not remember seeing him shoot from beyond 5 feet from the basket, but if we play a team with super height in the frontcourt or need an inside basket late in a game, I would like to see the two playing together a bit.

Freshman Brayden Young looks mobile and athletic and long with a 6'9" frame. Young scored four points in four minutes, finished strong on a dunk, and has good speed/quickness for a big man.

The PF players on display Tuesday were Washington State transfer Kymany Houinsou (#28) and UC San Diego transfer Francis Nwaokorie (#35), getting double digit minutes and scoring 6 and 7 points respectively. Nwaokorie is much more of a free shooter (he put up 8 shots in 19 minutes and he was a prolific shot taker at UCSD) than Houinsou (2 of 4 from the field, 2 of 2 on freebies), and IMO Houinsou is the slightly better defender. Both are great rebounders-- Nawaokorie had 6 and Houinsou had 5 in 13 minutes.

We saw a little of 6'8" freshman Seifeldin Hendawy (he hit a three) and 6'6" freshman Daniil Glazkov (one assist). They both have great poise and great height and length, but they definitely show freshman tentativeness. I would feel pretty comfortable with the two of them out there in the later minutes of a blowout, but they need to get a few of those games before they're set for meaningful minutes.

The most immediately notable thing about this team is the height and length and athleticism. They will be able to do a lot of things that previous LUC teams weren't able to do. There is certainly more depth in the frontcourt than I can ever remember on any Loyola team. I think Des and Quinn and Dawson are top on-ball defenders. Moore has great quickness and picks his moments on defense more selectively, resulting in a team-leading 1.1 steals per game last year at Drexel, and a game high 4 steals on Tuesday.

Thanks for the reports. Loved reading them. Cannot believe we are just a few days away from tipoff. Can't wait to be in Gentile on Monday. A little nervous that we will have the same issue as last year--not really 'syncing' together until conference play--resulting in us dropping a few non-con games and eliminating us from at-large contention. But I would love to be proven wrong (wouldn't be the first time!).

Thanks for the reports and summaries. Good stuff.

Will be living vicariously thru JCT and Mudville and many others the next two weeks as I won't be able to attend first game till 11/19. Letting section 104 down, I know....

From the sounds of it, Drew could run two different units for starting 5 depending on matchups, but might not be settled on it entirely. We might not see it come to form until late in Nov or early Dec.....

Small Ball Lineup:

Des
Jayden
Moore
Sheldon
Miles


Other.... Maybe

Des
Jayden
Moore
DeLoach and/or Nwaokorie
Miles

^^^^ I like this one.

It didn't seem like we were fully clicked-in yet, but I'm confident they are further along than last year. I don't think this group loses that UIC game, for example. The core 7-8 man rotation seems pretty obvious already. Princeton game will be telling, but really every game on the non-con seems winnable.

Possibly I am over-hyped on Moore based on an exhibition game against inferior opponents, but I think he will be the guy we lean on to create offense when we need a bucket, and we really haven't had a guy like that since Krut. Combine that with Miles and our depth at the wings, and I like our chances.

Agree with this -- especially about Moore. He looked good, and obviously Drew thinks enough to start him over Quinn, which says... something.

Hard to judge a lot against a smaller team, but I thought two other, notable things were not playing Miles and DeLoach together, and that we were crashing the offensive glass.

We'll see what happens when we dial it up for real.

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