Wednesday, December 9, 2020 2:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, IL


Loyola welcomes Chicago State to Gentile Arena on Wednesday afternoon for the 11th contest in the series between the two schools. Loyola has a 9-1 advantage in the rivalry, which began in 1986. The Ramblers' only loss came on November 29, 2000 when a Jerell Parker inbound pass in the last few seconds of a tie game rattled off the rafters of the CSU gym, and a CSU tip-in won the game for the Cougars 78-76.

Chicago State has a reputation as a team that exists only as fodder for wealthy programs to beat in the pre-season. And there's a reason for that-- Chicago State funds almost (more than?) half its program's expenses by taking guarantee games that pay as much as $50,000 or more. There are many Division I programs that remain in the expensive D1 ranks largely by using this model. But it didn't always used to be this way-- Chicago State was a very, very good team when they moved from NAIA to D1 in 1984.

In CSU's 2nd year in D1, 1985-86, the Cougars amassed a 22-6 record as an Independent team (not in a conference). The wins included road victories at Illinois State, UIC, Boise State, and Dick Bennett-coached UW-Green Bay. The team also had home or neutral site wins over Eastern Michigan, San Francisco, Butler, UW-Green Bay, and Eastern Illinois. The losses included a two-point road loss at SIU, a 79-62 loss at #2 Michigan (Roy Tarpley, Gary Grand, Rich Rellford, Glen Rice), and a 98-73 loss at #7 Oklahoma (Stacey King, Anthony Bowie). According to the SRS rating system, the 85-86 Cougars ranked 143rd among college basketball's 283 D1 teams that year-- one notch below Detroit Mercy and one ranking better than Creighton. Loyola was ranked 108 by that measure that season.

Just three years after Coach Bob Hallberg lifted Chicago State from the NAIA to D1, Chicago State hired him away. Within a few years Hallberg similarly raised UIC from the Mid-Continent Conference to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference where they became a Loyola rival. Chicago State faltered badly after Hallberg's exit, and they've had only one winning season since (2008-09).

This year, Chicago State has had an impressive early schedule-- games against two Big 10 teams (Northwestern and #8 Illinois) and battles against Ohio and Eastern Illinois. They face Loyola Wednesday, and go on to visit Illinois State, Northern Illinois, Drake, and Iowa State. The Cougars are led by third year head coach Lance Irvin, who just happened to be an assistant coach at Loyola under Larry Farmer in that game where Chicago State beat the Ramblers.

Chicago State is 0-5, and they've lost their games thus far this year by an average of 35.8 points. KenPom.com currently has CSU ranked at #356, second from absolute worst in Division I. Second-to-last is an improvement over last season when Chicago State was dead last, and a decline from the 2018-19 season when Chicago State was third-to-last. Coach Irvin is 7-59 early in his third year as head coach.

The Cougars will likely start a five of 6'1" redshirt freshman Isaiah Lewis, 6'6" junior forward Jordan Polynice, 6'3" sophomore guard Rajeir Jones, 6'6" junior forward Aaris-Monte Bonds, and 5'11" senior guard Xavier Johnson. Johnson is the leading scorer among the starters and most prolific three-point threat with 8.4 ppg; he also leads in assists, turnovers, and made free throws. Polynice leads the team in shooting percentage (44.4%) and averages 7.6 points per game. Detroit-area native Lewis has been impressive as a freshman ranking second in points (8.0 ppg), and tied for the lead in made threes (7) and assists (13). Bonds leads the team in steals (6) and rebounds per game (4.6).

Six-one junior point guard Levelle Ziegler, 6'5" senior forward Carlo Marble, 6'7 senior forward Ke'Sean Davis, and 6'5" sophomore forward Kalil Whitehead are the top players off the bench. Going up against much taller teams, CSU has had to use their speed primarily. Seven-foot freshman center Lou Demuth has averaged only 16.8 minutes and played in only four of CSU's five games-- he averages 5.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Despite having a a head coach from the Irvins, a legendary Chicago basketball family, Chicago State has four players on the roster from California, two from Michigan, and only one (juco transfer Coreyoun Rushin, who hasn't played this season) from Illinois.

The Ramblers are coming off a convincing 76-48 win over Division II Lewis in their 2020-21 season opener, in which 11 Ramblers dented the scoreboard. Loyola led 39-11 at halftime and used the 2nd half to get game experience for newcomer Braden Norris (14 minutes of action in the second half), freshman Baylor Hebb (12 minutes), defensive specialist Paxton Wojcik (8 minutes), and junior walk-on Will Alcock (4 minutes). The scrappy Flyers matched the Ramblers in scoring in the 2nd half at 37 points apiece.

Loyola will beat Chicago State Wednesday afternoon, and will likely beat UIC on Sunday. But it's important to understand that with a hollowed-out non-con schedule slapped together at the last moment, the Ramblers have little leeway to be considered for an at-large bid should they fall short at Arch Madness. With AJ Green out of the season at UNI and having lost three games against top 100 competition, the Ramblers won't get to play a top 100 team this season.

The best the Ramblers can do to try and earn an at-large bid or to stay relevant as a tournament team is to run the table, and do it emphatically. Maybe some games need to have the pedal held down longer and harder than they would ordinarily-- working harder to get to 100 points, making sure games are won by double digits instead of only 9 points, holding down opposition field goal percentage even late in games, etc. The performance rankings (KenPom.com, BartTorvik.com, .NET, etc.) are the only way Loyola can maintain a high ranking that might affect an NCAA seeding or a possible at-large bid.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 2_9_20.pdf

Chicago State game notes: https://www.gocsucougars.com/news/2020/ ... oyola.aspx

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago, ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=35 ... yola-US-EN

Internet audio feed: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Archi ... &type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=322787

Vegas odds: Loyola by 34

Great write-up!

This game I’m hoping:

1) To see Krutwig assert first half dominance and get rolling so he has some momentum going into the UIC game. I don’t think we will NEED him, but it would help to get his confidence going.

2) to see Tate get some contact going to the rim, knock down all his foul shots, and make sure last game doesn’t become a trend.

3) to see some screen plays run for Cooper to get 5 or 6 good looks from 3.

These games suck because you can’t really try to do too much for too long without looking like A-holes (Illinois State). As much as I like seeing our main guys play, it’s games like these where I just hope we take care of business quick in the first half and cruise with our bench in the second.


No Frank last game. Does anyone know how he’s doing ?

Why is this game at 2 PM in the middle of a weekday?

Good question, especially in the middle of finals week for students.

Worse than the time, its on NBC Chicago and not ESPN+

Thanks for the link 2011. I just subscribed to ESPN+ for the first time.
Am I correct in thinking each ESPN variant (i.e., 2, 3, + etc.) requires a separate subscription?

Unfortunately ESPN+ is a separate subscription from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, which are all cable-based channels. ESPN3 was folded into ESPN+.

So if a Rambler game is listed as being on ESPN3 I can access it through my ESPN+ account?

We look lethargic.