OK, on the road searching for a win--How do you guys and Gal think we will do ?? Should we win, that will truly prove us to be a factor in our new League--
Roadie wins are hard to come by, but this could be one where we shine--IF we hit on all cylinders.

Osborne coming alive truly was a help--Makes our biggies credible--Thomas can now go about his business of fifreen or more points, I believe--

How about a starting lineup of Cody, Osborne Thomas Milton and KeKe with Devon coming off the bench to bomb away ?? You think ?? Crisman and O'Leary ready.

I think we prevail say 72-65 --

GO RAMBLERS !!

Crisman always start and if you watch the action closely on the floor you can see why. He has that holler guy leadership that we have been lacking and he has been stepping up. In the Drake game he was directing the other players on offense when the defense changed. Quite a kid. A great recruit for Loyola. Nice family too.

"Great recruit"? I think you're being overly kind,Streak.He's been ok,but not great.You remember that when he first came in,he had the reputation of being a great 3 point shooter.It hasn't happened.When he is in,it hurts us offensively.He's a great kid but not a great recruit.

Cripes !! Have yet to hear from 63 and its almost game time !!

For one, I am in between R and 2 on Crisman--Just cannot make up my mind. He does not hurt us much except when he is against speedie and quick guards--but then he really does hit BIG threes herte and there---eg I remember his early three got us rolling against the Bears--He does have something I feel is intangible-- A pure fens-sitter , me !!!

GO RAMBLERS !

On Crisman, you have to have someone out on the court like him at all times, providing on-court leadership. The problem is when he's out there with only one player able or willing to score freely-- or when you have a well-run full court press and Jeff White out of the game. When you've got Crisman playing and two or more of White, Doyle, and Thomas on the bench, who is going to pull the trigger on a good open shot or manufacture a play?

Here's a list of players by minutes played per shot attempt, (team rank in minutes played):

Doyle 2.95 (2)
Turk 3.02 (5)
Thomas 3.39 (1)
Johnson 3.46 (8)
White 4.32 (3)
Osborne 4.60 (7)
King 4.86 (12)
O'Leary 4.94 (6)
Pickett 5.00 (11)
Nixon 6.22 (10)
Crisman 7.81 (4)
Dokubo 23.75 (9)

Crisman has the fourth most minutes played of any player (and there's a big gap between him and Turk, the fifth player-- 72 minutes, almost two full regulation games), but he's the second most reluctant shooter on the team, ahead of only an experienced walk-on. Imagine how that factors in to defensive game plans against Loyola, especially in rotations when Doyle or White are sitting. Likewise, when Crisman is on the court and Thomas is sitting, the defense is allowed to provide better help to the three players who are likely to take a shot. Crisman shoots 44% from the field, which isn't terrible, but is probably that high because he usually only takes wide open shots or when there's a recovery of a ball on a broken play with the defense out of position. Maybe he needs to be encoraged to shoot a little more, just to keep the defense honest and open things up for the natural scorers.