Saturday, January 25, 2014, 3:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago

Loyola plays Northern Iowa for the first time since 2007, and stands at 1-5 in previous meetings. The only Loyola victory in the series that goes back to 1994 came on December 16, 2006, when the Ramblers won 76-67 at the Gentile Center. I was sitting in the back row of the student section for that game, and a familiar looking guy and his wife sat down next to me. It was then-UNI Athletic Director and NCAA referee Rick Hartzell, and we talked for a while about the players, the teams and other issues (he kept commenting on how much he really liked Blake Schilb, and especially Leon Young).

It’s not a coincidence that the sole Loyola victory in six tries came at the Gentile Center—the Panthers are traditionally an excellent home team. When they’re having a mediocre season, they usually struggle mightily on the road. This year is a particularly extreme example—they’re currently 7-0 at home, 2-2 at neutral sites, and 1-7 on opponents’ courts. The dichotomy of their play at home and away is rather stark. They’ve defeated higher-quality, above .500 teams like VCU, Iona, and Missouri State at home, but lost to below-.500 teams like Southern Illinois and George Mason on the road. To illustrate the difference in their home and road performance, the Panthers beat Bradley at home by 34 points on January 1, and lost their game at Bradley on Wednesday by four. Their one road win on the year, however, was a spectacular 27-point blowout at Evansville to start the conference season.

The Panthers are led in scoring and rebounding by MVC preseason first teamer, Seth Tuttle, a 6’8” junior forward. His 7.9 rebounds per game leads the MVC and ranks in the top 100 in the nation, and his 14.2 ppg ranks 8th in the league. Tuttle does a little bit of everything for the Panthers, leading the team in blocks and free throw attempts, ranking second in steals, third in assists, and setting a whole lot of screens with his 232 pounds. Another junior forward, 6’9” Nate Buss, mostly comes off the bench but averages 11.0 points and 4.8 boards in 20+ minutes per game, and often steps out to shoot threes at a 44% clip.

In the backcourt is 6’1” sophomore guard Wes Washpun, who averages 8.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. Deon Mitchell, a 6’1 junior guard is second on the team in points at 12.1, and also dishes out 3.5 assists per contest. UNI has two prolific three point shooters in 6’4” guard Matt Bohannon and 6’6” forward Chip Rank, who have taken a combined 207 three point attempts on the season, although they each connect on less than 33% of them. As a team, UNI leads the league in made threes and takes the second most three point attempts per game (23.3). Five different players (Bohannon, Rank, Buss, Mitchell, and 6’5” freshman guard Jeremy Morgan) have already attempted 50 or more threes on the season.

Ball screens. Lots of threes, Cuts to the basket. Making the freebies when they get to the line (UNI leads the league in free throw percentage). Big bodies establishing position on defense. Solid coaching from veteran Ben Jacobsen (8th season in the top job, 13 continuous years at UNI) who knows, recruits for, and drills his system. That’s the UNI game in a nutshell.

Opening Vegas Line: UNI by 6

Loyola Game Notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/sports/m- ... 14aaa.html

UNI Game Notes: http://www.unipanthers.com/ViewArticle. ... =209384209

TV: Comcast SportsNet Chicago

Streaming Video (ESPN3): http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id ... la-Chicago

Loyola Audio: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/luc.portal#

Here's their messageboard thread: http://www.panthernation.com/showthread.php?t=56802

We really need this one.

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Cigarboy sucks!

That was a really good summary of UNI. They've got some good players and I'm not sure why they've been so bad on the road this year. They haven't been shooting as well from deep this year as they have in the past but they're never scared to just fire away. If you're able to keep Tuttle down, your chances will go up. The kid is a good player and when he gets going he can be hard to stop. He's an athletic big and moves quite well and has pretty good touch. He can step out and shoot a little as well.

Bohannon should be a better shooter than he has been. He's struggled this year but is very capable of going nuts from deep. Washpun is a heck of an athlete and fast. He's a nice player. WSU recruited him out of HS but he chose to go to Tennessee. Mitchell is much better this year I think than last. More under control. Morgan is a nice looking freshman and helps bring an athleticism to UNI that they haven't normally had. Especially at his size.

Playing at UNI is never an easy task. Best of luck to you guys. I don't suppose this game is on ESPN3 is it?

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The Roundhouse

Yup, it is. Or you can always watch via our stream. It's free!!!

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Cigarboy sucks!

RAMBLIN RAY told me the game is on Comcast Sports Chicago for those that get it.

I'll be tuning into one of them. I'll finally get to watch a full game of you guys unless something unexpected comes up. And it'll help kill time until our game at 7.

Hope the weather up there is at least improving a little. Outside of the crazy wind down here, temps are rising at least for the weekend.

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The Roundhouse

Well, here we go again--A win this time ?? Hope so--

From the looks of 63 and Subs reports it appears that Cody and Osborne have their work cut out for them--
Our scorers will have to dictate--Milton Keke Turk and of course Christian, the Woner !!!

If we dictate rather than react, we will do just fine--Too bad we do not have more than 23 students rooting for this band of fighters !!

GO RAMBLERS !!

TWO blocked breakaway layups in the first 12 minutes? Oy...

If you're watching, you can see UNI has a much different offensive and defensive look than any other team we've seen this year. Christian Thomas is not built for this kind of game, trying to post up. He's going to have to hit some jumpers from beyond 8 feet if he wants to score, and we'll need more movement inside the paint. Those traps and double teams outside the arc are giving us a lot of trouble.

I know he is not a great defensive player....but how can you not put Cody Johnson in for those last 13 seconds of regulation? You need a big! You know -based on on our history- that a small guard was going to take the ball to the hole...and then we give up 2 put backs because nobody is in to grab a rebound. We dodged a big bullet there. At least PM had London in to play decent D on the penetration.

What a great win. I thought we were done for when UNI went up by 6 around the 4 minute mark. Everybody around the league has to know that Milton Doyle is a freakin' amazing player. Great game by Thomas.... the put back dunk and the driving dunk helped the team maintain confidence. And if Doyle wasn't so amazing, I'd give the Player of the Game to Crisman.... easily the best I've ever seen him play, complete on both ends of the floor. If he could bottle that... wow. Give a nod to Osborne going up against Tuttle, too. Free throws were clutch... we outshot the top free throw shooting team in the league from the line.

And the crowd was great. The students were fired up and loud. Not where we need to be, but a good start, and hopefully some exciting games like this will keep them coming back.

All things put together, this was a better win than Missouri State.