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San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Round
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Author:  RamblerRagas [ Sat Mar 22, 2025 12:07 pm ]
Post subject:  San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Round
Loyola Ramblers Preview – https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/3/21/mens-basketball-loyola-san-francisco-meet-in-nit-second-round.aspx

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

Record: 25-9 (13-5, 3rd in WCC MBB)
Coach: Chris Gerlufsen
PS/G: 76.0 (116th of 364)
PA/G: 68.9 (84th of 364)
SRS: 10.94 (65th of 364)
SOS: 4.12 (95th of 364)
ORtg: 109.6 (125th of 364)
DRtg: 99.4 (54th of 364)
Preseason Odds: Championship +100000


NIT Second Round - Loyola Chicago Ramblers (23-11, 12-6) at University of San Francisco Dons (25-9, 13-5) – 6:00pm CST War Memorial Gym at the Sobrato Center - San Francisco, CA

The West Coast NIT road trip continues where Loyola Chicago meets San Francisco for a second time this season.

How we got here – Despite being up-15 on San Jose State, the Ramblers outlasted them and a late-game rally on Wednesday night’s first round contest, winning 73-70. Loyola Chicago was led by Desmond Watson’s 24 points, and Miles Rubin’s 14. The good play we saw for 20 to 30 minutes was overshadowed by the bad, in which the Ramblers committed 15 turnovers – several of them in the second half. This helped ignite SJ-State’s late second half comeback.

"Credit to San Jose and how they came and competed. They had an electric environment tonight," said head coach Drew Valentine. "We started the game really flat and then played some pretty good basketball for 25-30 minutes before the mental errors came into play. At the end of the day, Des stepped up and made the plays the team needed to advance. We need leaders to step up and will your team to a win, and he did that for us tonight."

You know the NIT committee was looking ahead to the potential matchup of the second round, placing Loyola and San Francisco together in the bracket. Sunday night's game will be their second meeting of the season. When they met on Sunday, December 14th at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, USF defeated Loyola Chicago 76-66. Malik Thomas memorably went off in the second half on a career-high 35 points. The game was forgettable, and became a second-half ref show, as the Ramblers allowed 52 second half points, went 15 for 32 from the free throw line, were greatly plagued by foul trouble, and two Ramblers suffered major injury – losing Justin Moore for the season, and Kymany Houinsou for the next month. Adding insult to injury, one of our court-side seated fans was also removed by security for mouthing off at officials.

San Francisco looked like NCAA contenders at times this season but simply fell short of those aspirations in each of their marquee mid major and WCC matchups – losing close games to Memphis, Clemson, and Bradley in the non-conference, and then losing badly to WCC rivals Saint Mary’s (1x) and Gonzaga (3x). Pain.

So, the Dons enter the second round of the NIT at 25-9 overall. With a 13-5 conference record, USF took third in the West Coast Conference and fell in the WCC tournament semifinals to Gonzaga, 85-76.

USF is led by Malik Thomas who ranks 26th in the nation in total points (640) and 30th in points per game (19.4). He's scored at least 10 points in all but three games this year and has 16 games with at least 20. He dropped a season-best 35 points against the Ramblers earlier this season. Thomas was a West Coast Conference (WCC) First Team selection. team-wise, the Dons have the second-best three-point field goal percentage defense in the country, holding opponents to just 28.1 percent from the arc.

Of concern for this game – again – USF’s potent lineup of guards. The Ramblers got wrecked by them (and mainly by 1 guy) on December 14th. And then Loyola’s turnover issues – no other team in the nation turns it over like we do.

Notably, senior Guard Marcus Williams (15.1ppg, 4.3apg) was declared ineligible on March 1st due to undisclosed NCAA rules violations. He has been out of their lineup ever since.

This game should be fun for TV, and perhaps the Ramblers seek revenge and pull off the victory that sends them to the NIT Quarterfinals next week.


San Francisco Probable Starters – 5-10 G Ryan Beasley, 6-11 F Carlton Linguard Jr., 6-6 G Tyrone Riley IV, 6-4 G Malik Thomas, 6-9 F Junjie Wang.

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


LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS

Dons: 7-3, averaging 75.9 points, 32.2 rebounds, 12.6 assists, 5.8 steals and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting 44.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 73.4 points per game.

Ramblers: 8-2, averaging 73.1 points, 33.8 rebounds, 16.1 assists, 6.3 steals and 5.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 68.4 points.


Watch / Listen – Sunday night’s game is nationally televised on ESPN2 with Chris Sylvester and Jerod Haase on the call, and can be listened to Rambler Sports Network via. remote broadcast 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: SanFran -6.5
Author:  Rambler303 [ Sun Mar 23, 2025 7:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
What a game! Dawson, monster!
Author:  goodknight [ Sun Mar 23, 2025 7:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
Only 4 TOs!!
91.7% FT!!

Low TOs. high FT %, where did this Loyola team come from?

Without Houinsou, JQ with 8 pts helped
Dawson on his game like we've never seen
Rubin 3 blocks

Drew and the boys looked very good the entire night.
Actually, take the last 6 minutes from last game and they have done us proud so far in the NIT.

Side note.. Liked the time out Drew called when SF put up 4 points on us in the paint in the first half.

Let's Ramble On gentlemen!
Author:  kato669 [ Sun Mar 23, 2025 8:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
Wow what a game Great win. They cleaned up the TOs and kept fighting in a close game.

Proud of these guys, keep it up! Go 'Blers!
Author:  Dansen [ Sun Mar 23, 2025 9:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
Great game. Dawson is a monster, probably the best pure scorer from the guard position since we had Milton Doyle.

Boys fought hard through some ugly fouls and weird reffing. Time to get them home and beat Kent State!
Author:  Cruyff [ Sun Mar 23, 2025 9:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
amazing game. 14 lead changes, 8 ties. It came down to less than one second on the clock.
Author:  goramblers2011 [ Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
What a win! They look like they are having fun out there. Playing their asses off but having fun doing it. Like to see they enjoyed themselves during their few days between the SJSU and USF games. Went to a Warriors game, met Steve Kerr & Draymond. I'm sure it was a great bonding experience for the team.

Dawson had the game of his Loyola career. Really hope we can keep him, but I think it's going to be tough.

Let's sell out Gentile on Wednesday. Give them one big final thank you. I'll be there!
Author:  AMDG [ Mon Mar 24, 2025 7:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: San Francisco Preview and Game Thread -- NIT Second Roun
maybe the best game of the year against a team that is probably better than us and on the road

It's nice to get a home game as a reward. I hope the place sells out.
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