Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015 1:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago

At the beginning of the season, Loyola’s long-awaited matchup with Creighton looked like it would be a tossup. The Ramblers were coming off an excellent season (24 wins, CBI championship) with four returning starters and several young players coming off encouraging debut seasons in Division 1. Meanwhile, Creighton was coming off a 14-19 season (its worst in 20 years) and was picked 9th out of 10 teams in the Big East preseason poll. Moreover, Creighton came into the season struggling in road games (3-10 in road games since the beginning of last season) while Loyola has won eight in a row at home. Loyola has been waiting for this Bracket Busters return game since 2011, and the fact that Loyola happily took the spot in the MVC vacated by Creighton in 2013 adds extra drama to the backstory.

Yet even before Loyola’s trip to the Great Alaska Shootout, Loyola was showing signs they didn’t quite have the chemistry of last season. Loyola was manhandled in their first major test, a 75-51 drubbing at New Mexico. The Ramblers looked similarly shaky when they returned home and fell behind Toledo by 18 points in the first half before rallying for a win. And then the Alaska trip featured a lackluster win against a not-so-good San Diego squad before crack-up losses to Toledo and UNC-Asheville. Loyola enters the Creighton game at 3-3, with a badly sputtering offense, newcomers who have yet to make an impact, and a chemistry that has yet to click for more than a few minutes per game. Creighton, meanwhile, looks to have regained some swagger they lost last season.

The 5-2 Bluejays have lost only two games on the season—at #14 Indiana, and a two point Wednesday night loss to Arizona State in Omaha. Creighton and Loyola have had one common opponent thus far, UTSA, with the Ramblers winning at home by 12 and Creighton cruising in Omaha by 25.

Coach Greg McDermott’s squad starts a bunch of hot and prolific shooters. All five starters-- 6’8” junior forward Cole Huff, 5’10” junior guard Maurice Watson Jr., 6’2” junior guard Isaiah Zierden, 7’0” senior center Geoffrey Groselle, and 6’3” freshman Khyri Thomas—each shoot 43% or better from the field, and each averages between 12.6 and 9.4 points per game. The 7-footer Grosselle snags 7.7 rebounds per game to lead the team, and a third of his caroms come on the offensive glass. Meanwhile, the trio of Cole, Zierden and Thomas (along with 6’10” forward Toby Hegner off the bench) each connect at 40% or better on threes. Hegner, a sophomore, and 6’2” senior guard James Milliken average 7.6 and 9.0 points per game off the bench.

When the Bluejays are going right, they use ball movement and sure shooting to rack up points. Through their first 7 games, they notch 40% more assists and commit 32.5% fewer turnovers than the opposition. As a team, Creighton is shooting 50.5% from the field, and 38.8% from three, and they shoot a whole lot of those three-bombs-- averaging more than 25 attempts per game. When things aren’t going right for Creighton, they’re missing their threes (only 3 of 18 against Indiana, only 3 of 13 in a bad first half when trailing Rutgers), they struggle on the boards (outrebounded decisively in both their losses), and point guard Mo Watson is held well below his average of 6.1 assists per game. Creighton likes to get out and push the score; they average 95 points per game in their wins, but only 71 points in their losses. Keeping the Bluejays off the free throw line is also a really good idea, as they’re 4-0 when making 10 or more free throws but 1-2 when they make fewer.

The key to beating Creighton is messing with their tempo. Keep them from getting into a rhythm, cause turnovers, defend the three, keep them off the free throw line, and make them create their own shots late in the shot clock. Indiana beat them by 21 points even as the Bluejays shot 45% from the field, and Arizona State beat them when they shot just over 50%. If you limit their threes, keep them off the line, get a few key turnovers, and make them work hard on every possession, you’ve got a pretty decent chance as the home team. The Ramblers have yet to do that as effectively for a full game this season (like they were doing routinely late last year), but they’re certainly capable of it. Each of the Rambler starters must have an above average game, and somebody will probably need to add some key plays from the bench for Loyola to get a win. There couldn’t be a more opportune time to put together 40 full minutes playing up to potential than facing Creighton at home.


Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 203aaa.pdf

Creighton game notes: http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/c ... df?id=8184

TV/Streaming video: Comcast Sports Net

Vegas line: Creighton by 2.5

Thought I'd check in to see all the excitement building for the Creighton game, and ... nothing! Where is everybody? The Creighton-replaced-by-Loyola story line makes this a big game for the program. Big crowd coming with good weather and the students are still in town and may show up. I'm pumped. Great preview as usual JCT. Go Ramblers!

I sure am excited, nervous and hopeful for a good showing today...
Go Ramblers! The climb starts today.....

Well, I for one , will take a back seat to no one in backing our teams IF they try. I cannot see it as of now in this bunch. This is mostly the same team as last year with more bigs. Have yet to beat anybody except mighty Toledo ONCE. But worse , we truly should have waltzed through the Shoot-out and did not. Completely disappointing. I have been on PM's side BUT Alaska is on him==He should NEVER have lost the last game for sure.

We may get skunked by Jays--Hope not, but !!

I'm really excited about todays game. I think its gonna be a great atmosphere. I was shocked when I called the ticket office to get an extra ticket next to my season tickets and found out that there weren't any available in the entire section... and that was 2 weeks ago. I also have been surprised by the lack of activity on this board...but can understand it as well. The losses in Alaska was very deflating for me as a fan! I think this is a huge game for the rest of the season when it comes to future attendance. If we get blown out today I think it'll be a killer.

Go Ramblers!

Brot, I don't think it's fair to criticize the effort. None of us could even watch the last game we played. If there's one hallmark of Porter's teams it's that they worked their tails off with very, very few exceptions. Even the first year when we won six games or whatever.

Tough game today. Hope we play well. If we don't, it won't be for lack of effort! Go Ramblers!

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As strange as it sounds for a team with so many returning players, it's felt like this team has just been going through growing pains. They've shown flashes of what they can do, but haven't been consistent yet.

I'm very excited for today's game. I think it might be a rough game but we need to get over whatever chemistry issues we are having. I don't know why but as everyone has said he have looked disjointed way too often. I'm think Milt has a big game and I will be expecting another very good game defensively by Ingram.

No Montel James today because of a back injury. So freshman Adgei is starting. Against a team with a 7 footer. Could get VERY ugly.

These guys take some bad shots