Loyola Ramblers Preview – https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/3/ ... inale.aspx

Davidson Stats and Intel - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2025.html

Record: 16-13 (6-10, 11th in A-10 MBB)
Coach: Matt McKillop
PS/G: 73.0 (210th of 364)
PA/G: 70.3 (136th of 364)
SRS: 2.29 (123rd of 364)
SOS: 1.04 (122nd of 364)
ORtg: 109.9 (127th of 364)
DRtg: 106.0 (226th of 364)
Preseason Odds: Championship +50000


Davidson Wildcats (16-13, 6-10) at Loyola Chicago Ramblers (19-10, 10-6) – 8:00pm CST Gentile Arena, Chicago, IL

Tonight is Senior Day, where not only we get the last home victory of the season, but also honor two all-time Ramblers in Sheldon Edwards Jr. and Des Watson, and Francis Nwaokorie and Jalen DeLoach.

Coming off a very perplexing loss and unlucky game at SLU on Saturday afternoon, Loyola looks to quickly rebound and start up a new winning streak to get going before A10 Tournament play begins next week. Two wins this week, coupled with a VCU win over Dayton Friday night, should give them the third-place finish.

Matched up on the road versus Saint Louis on Saturday, the Ramblers were demolished 55-35 in the first half. Loyola fell even further behind from there on a 45-34 second half on the way to a 98-67 blowout defeat with Robbie Avila and Gibson Jimerson nearly outscoring Loyola themselves (61). SLU shot 58% from the field and 52% from three. Miles Rubin led the Ramblers with 16 points (7-8 FG), three rebounds, and one assist in 20 minutes. Jayden Dawson chipped in 14 points with two rebounds and two assists, while Des Watson also reached double-figures on 11 points with three rebounds, two assists, and one steal in 35 minutes of work.

The Wildcats are on a two-game losing streak as they are coming off an 80-56 road loss against the VCU Rams on Friday. They are now at 16-13 overall and 6-10 in A10 play.

Since our first meeting at Davidson on February 18 where Loyola won by the score of 77-69, Davidson has gone 1-2 with a lone victory over Fordham (80-69) and losses over SLU (57-56) and VCU (80-56).

In case you missed the first Davidson scouting report from 2/18, Davidson is excellent at taking care of the ball, leading the league with the fewest turnovers per game (9.4). This stat is #12 in the nation. Davidson’s trademark is playing fundamentally sound ball with heavy reliance on the three-point shot. We watched this for years under Bob McKillop and this tradition has been passed down to Matt McKillop. They are physically gritty on defense which wears their opponents down, and clean on offense. This is a high IQ team. Another way they beat opponents is with their 3-point shooting. They hit more than 8 per game on 24 attempts. They are also efficient from the FT line at nearly 75%. Davidson’s three leading scorers - Kochera, Bailey, and Durkin - are 78% or better from the FT’s.

Reed Bailey continues to lead the league in scoring. He comes into this one averaging 19.1 points per game. In that first meeting Bailey wasn’t much noticeable on the floor in that game, and in their last game VCU held him to only 6 points. Connor Kochera has averaged 13.4 points over the past 10 games. Loyola’s defense in the first game broke Bobby Durkin’s shot, where he went 0-9. Since then, he’s gone 5 for 25 from three.

Tonight, we should expect great games again from Miles Rubin and Jalen DeLoach. Expect both to handle Bailey.

Sheldon Edwards Jr. is also in line to break the single season 3-point record too.

The Ramblers were heating up as of late, winning 5 in a row and playing their best ball of the year before Saturday’s junk game got in the way, while Davidson comes to Rogers Park ice cold and faltering, losing 4 of their last 5 games. Loyola needs a quality, dominating bounce-back effort tonight in order to maintain double bye status and secure their 20th win of the season.

Davidson Probable Starters – 6-11 F Reed Bailey, 6-7 F Bobby Durkin, 6-5 G Connor Kochera, 6-4 G Mike Loughnane, 6-4 G Zach Laput.

Loyola Probable Starters – Watson, Dawson, Edwards Jr., Houinsou, Rubin


LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS

Ramblers: 7-3, averaging 70.6 points, 32.0 rebounds, 15.8 assists, 6.0 steals and 5.4 blocks per game while shooting 45.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.0 points per game.

Wildcats: 4-6, averaging 67.1 points, 29.5 rebounds, 13.4 assists, 5.8 steals and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 42.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.4 points.


Watch / Listen – Wednesday night’s game is nationally televised on CBS Sports Network with John Sadak and Tre Demps on the call, and can be listened to Rambler Sports Network with our friends Sudikoff and CT.

Postgame Show - Tune in to Sudikoff on RSN, followed by TalkinBlers Spaces on the X: https://x.com/blerstalking?s=21


Odds: Loyola -5.5

RR thanks again for taking over the preview responsibilities.
Boy the chatter this year has been pretty slim...just curious if it was the disaster in Hawaii and the slow start that got us in a funk as a fan base...all the new kids and with Brandon Norris leaving the really last relic of the run...but here we are and after a bad loss we sit in decent shape to finish in the top 4 and get the coveted double bye although St.Joes has a fairly easy remaining schedule. I think we will need to win both. If we tie with Dayton who has the tie breaker? If we tie with St.Joes who has the tie breaker.?

Echo your thanks to RR for running the game threads. I think a lot of chatter has moved to Twitter and other social media platforms. Message boards for other schools are quieter as well. They are, unfortunately, becoming a relic.

In terms of tiebreakers, here's what I see:

-If we, Dayton & Joe's win out, we'd all be 12-6. It'd go to a round robin. Dayton is 2-1 vs us and Joe's. We are 2-2 against Dayton and Joe's. and Joe's is 1-2 vs us and Dayton. So Dayton would be #3, we'd be #4 and Joe's would be #5.

-If we win out and Joe's wins out, but Dayton loses @VCU (most likely scenario, imo), we and Joe's would be 12-6, Dayton and SLU would be 11-7. We'd be #3 based on our win % vs the #5 teams Dayton/SLU (2-2). Joe's is 1-2 vs Dayton/SLU.

-If we and Dayton win out, but Joe's loses, Dayton would be #3 and we'd be #4 because Dayton would be 1-2 vs the #1 teams (Mason/VCU) and we'd be 0-2.

Resilient win, fighting through foul trouble to pull away in the second half.

I really want to see a replay of that Miles Rubin alley-oop, because watching it live (on TV), it was one of the more impressive in game dunks I’ve seen.

Awesome way to send off the seniors! What a night for Sheldon. That was so cool.

Did anybody notice the handshake line? Drew and whoever was behind him both seemed to give McKillop a blow by. Both times, McKillop kind of stopped and turned like "wtf" but our guys were gone.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

Seems like Drew ends up in a lot of situations like these.

Great sendoff for the seniors. Sheldon was unconscious. Des hit some big mid range shots.

Miles is a monster. If he can stay out of foul trouble and get his minutes up, the sky is the limit for him (and the team). Unfortunately, both he and Deloach can't seem to stop fouling.

Let's clinch a double bye on Saturday.

Sheldon - https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/rsn-mv ... al_sharing

Drew - https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/drew-v ... al_sharing

Halftime with Phil Alston - https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/interv ... al_sharing

Kymany being aggressive is the biggest story for me. SLU was playing off him and whoever the big was and that’s why our offense couldn’t get going over the weekend. I like us punishing that.

Crazy how big of a difference having Miles on the court makes, now on both sides of the court. Agree he needs to stop picking up fouls when other bigs just shoulder him

Yeah agreed on both counts. We need to hope for a loose whistle in general in the A10 tourney, and like you said keeping Miles on the floor is essential.

The SLU game was such a cluster with the fouls and their hot shooting, but Schertz was smart in how he worked our switches to get Avila posting up Dawson or some other guard, and then avoiding the double-team. And anytime we didn't switch on the screen for Jimerson he obviously made us pay. Hoping we get another chance at them.

Some Thoughts:

*Congratulations to Sheldon Edwards on setting a new standard for single season 3's made. Sheldon has been a class act and he still has at least two games to go this year to increase the number.

*Good win, but at times we just can't stand our own success. We get big leads and then we go to sleep.

*Is it me or in the last two games has the officiating changed towards us? I watch a decent amount of A10 basketball and it is a pretty physical league. Our games have been for the most part physical games, especially in the winning streak leading up to the St. Louis game last Saturday. Seems like the last two games the officials are suddenly calling a ton of fouls on us, especially our bigs.

*Must win on Saturday. If VCU beats Dayton and we beat UMass, we can be the 3 seed. This is huge because then VCU, Dayton, Joe's would be all be in the other bracket. We would get Mason and St. Louis. Despite loss last weekend, I do not think St. Louis is 30 points better than us and we should have beat Mason.

*Keys for A10 Tournament: Turnovers, 3's, Fouls. We must be at or below 10 TO's per game. We need to make 3's, at least 10 per game. We must keep Rubin and Deloach on the floor. No dumb fouls. We are a dangerous team when Rubin is on the floor and with the motion and screening we have been doing lately and his closing down the lane we have as good a chance as anyone to come out of DC with a title

*This has been a strange year indeed. We see flashes of how good this team could be, then they backslide. I feel like Charlie Brown. I get excited to get to kick the football and then Lucy pulls it away and go flying!