Lewis shot 60% from the field and 64% from behind the arc to defeat Loyola 82-70 in an exhibition at Gentile Arena on Saturday. The Ramblers outrebounded the Flyers 30-25 and shot 47% from the field, but missed 11 of 30 free throws and turned the ball over 14 times.

Only 8 Ramblers played more than 2 minutes, led by Joe Crisman's 16 points in 35 minutes. Christian Thomas had 14 points, and Nick Osbourne and Jeff White had 12 points apiece. Newcomer Cody Johnson played only two minutes, and Milton Doyle did not play.

The Flyers hit on 9 of 14 three point attempts and 17 of their 20 free throw attempts. They were led by forward Julian Lewis with 24 points on 10 for 14 shooting from the field, and Ryan Jackson with 22 points-- including 12 free throws.

Not pretty.

Shades of last year with faster, stronger guards scorching us at home.

I didn't have a good feeling going in, as evidenced by my Lewis post.

Crisman played great. On the majority of possessions it didn't seem like anyone wanted to make a play. Had trouble getting the ball inside. Can count the number of drives to the basket on one hand.

Also, Milton Doyle is injured.

All in all, pretty crappy day.

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I completely forgot that the game was today...so when I remembered, I rushed to the computer to see how much we destroyed Lewis by...only to find out that we lost to the D-3 team.

This does not bode well. Now, I think that the MVC poll selecting us for 9th place might be more accurate than the MVCfans poll for 6th or 7th.

Tsk, tsk.

D2 team. Not a promising start though.

Best part about today though is that we are still 0-0.

Sorry Guys--You do not lose to a Di2 team exhibition or otherwise--NEVER !!! This also signals More of the injury thin g that appears to dog us.

This is squarely on PM---We have had six weeks to prepare--and for this ???

We are playing with the big boys now--AND it appears that we are not ready. I shall now wait and see. No excuses. NONE what so ever.

Milwaukee next up and we had best be ready--We were not today. WHY ???

I'm sure the two people who enjoyed this victory the most were John Planek and Adam Demong. Sean O'Mara is probably heaving a sigh of relief too that he decided to sign with Xavier.

Maybe Loyola can rehire Planek and Demong after getting rid of Grace Calhoun and Porter Moser...

I am thinking of marketing tee shirts to help speed the process:

Restore the Roar
Replace M. Grace

"Moser"
Rhymes with "Loser"

Keep the Culture
Change the Crew

Im-porter [noun. im-pawrt-er] a person who brings in (merchandise, commodities, workers, etc.) from a foreign country for use, sale, processing, reexport, or services.

ex-Porter [noun. ex-pawrt-er] the first step to improving Loyola basketball

While the results of yesterday were not pretty and signs of encouragement sparse, I actually think the loss is getting overblown. Lewis is D2 but they are a good D2 team. They had the best player on the floor by far in Julian Lewis and he worked the Loyola defense the entire game. Watching Lewis consistently roast the Ramblers on back-door cut after back-door cut and the series of poor entry passes into the post were disheartening. But focusing only on the score and the division of the opponent is dishonest. This game wasn't even an upset. Once again, Loyola was outclassed, but it was a familiar story. The Ramblers lacked enough players who were better at basketball than the opponent.

So I would preach patience--for Doyle to return from injury, for young players to develop, and for Porter to keep gaining more talent. Perhaps it's a realistic check on unbridled optimism, but the reality check reflects how out of touch the optimism was, not the shortcomings of the Ramblers. Everyone take a deep breath and get ready to watch a young, mediocre team for four months

Welcome to Ramblermania, Socrates!

You seem to be a voice of reason and patience, which should be a nice counterbalance to my rants and raves.

One question...Besides taking a deep breath, what else does one do to get ready to watch a young mediocre team for 4 months? Any pharmaceuticals you can recommend?

A wise take from Socrates.

Swella, feel free to indulge in the $6 beers at Gentile.

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I was befuddled by the rotations, which seemed really random. It was fairly obvious that Moser was trying to use the game to do some teaching and learning. That's fine, but five minutes into the second half when Loyola had a two or three point lead, maybe some of the teaching should have been stopping the Flyers from making more than half of their threes.

Other observations:

Cody Johnson was not ready to play. He had two fouls and a big turnover in two minutes or less. He didn't make another appearance.

Turk made five turnovers-- he only had 40 turnovers all of last year in over 600 minutes played. Any word on when Doyle will be ready to play?

Free throws are likely to be a big issue as teams are adapting to new officiating emphasis. There were a combined 50 free throws by the two teams, and Loyola missed 11 of their 30 opportunities. We can't shoot only 63 percent on free thows when they're likely to be so important, at least early in the season.

Allowing the other team to hit 9 of 14 three point attempts is just about the success rate you'd expect if they were shooting unguarded from a ball rack. Lewis shot better on threes than Loyola did on free throws.

The few somewhat positives--- Jordan Picket seemed to play pretty well (although his shot selection might be a little erratic). Crisman was very good. Thomas was OK, but given his game he's going to have to work on free throws. Jeff White was pretty solid.