How worried is everyone else for the Drake game on Sunday? Our guys clearly are not playing well. They looked fatigued tonight (understandably so), and have a game in Des Moines against a good team in less than 72 hours.

Man, that was ugly to watch. Agree about the officiating.... very inconsistent and not up to par with the mostly very good officiating in MVC games since we've been a member.

I think the issue with the offense was great defense by SIU, fatigue from two high-stress games in 50 hours (with travel in between), and the ordinary hard-scrabble grind of the MVC. Also recall, these two coaches game-planned and coached the Loyola offense and defense together in the same room for two seasons. There are probably no two other individuals in the nation that know each other's tendencies and their opposing players better than these two guys. Plus, there are two additional former Loyola basketball staffers on the SIU bench.

I don't think we're all that much better than the other top teams in the MVC. We've developed a system and a process and have a group of experienced players right now that give us an edge, but just about any MVC team could rear up and beat just about any other on any given night. And the players who excelled in our non-conference play (Schweiger, Hutty, Welch, etc.) are not the hard, physical, grab-the-jersey types who have a lot of success in this league. Non-con games are going to either be about who has the better athletes or who has the better execution-- hard physical play usually doesn't come into it unless there are other aspects like an old rivalry.

Loyola just happens to be an especially rich and prime target for other MVC teams right now, and we're going to get the opposition's best game and pent up peeves. 1. We're leaving the conference, and our opponents want to make a statement. 2. We were recently ranked, and our opponents want to knock off a ranked team. 3. We were never widely accepted or appreciated in this league; we were a socio-economic, stylistic and geographic misfit, viewed with suspicion and discomfort by a high percentage of opposing teams' fans. 4. We've been in first place in the conference continuously for 1 1/2 years now, and others want a shot.

That's what I think is "wrong" with the team right now-- we're running the gauntlet.

I agree with JCT. I don't think there is much to take away from this game.

It looked like what I imagined an intra-squad game looked like when PM let Coach Valentine and Coach Mullins divide up the players and play. I felt like I was watching Loyola circa 2019 - nonstop defense and disciplined offense. Neither team had a Krutwig, which made it look worse.

I thought we had more open shots than they did, but both teams looked awful offensively. My guess is there was an emphasis on playing defense which showed. We do need to get some rest and shoot better.

very

Well, put it this way: If we score 44 points again, we'll lose by 30.

I agree with most of JCT's post, though I don't think socioeconomic factors played much of a part.

Our defense looked very good, and I'd like to see us mix up the lineup a bit. I know starting is for high school and all that, but if Hutson is only going to play 10 minutes a game, that makes him a role/reserve player, so I don't understand why he needs to be out there at the beginning of the game when the opponents are usually at their best and most prepared. We should be matching our best against their best.

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watched the replay of the SIU2 and again looked like the team got some good looks...but there were drives to the basket where it appeared that they were trying to draw fouls at the hoop and did not get the calls. couple of turn around jumpers in the lane,,that they sometimes hit but didnt...would probably call them tier 2 shots....do not know what to think about Schwieger....those isolated back downs ???...but he has really cooled off....Knight and Welch seem to run the two man game much better than Huttson at this point...some of those Knight baskets are really slick.
LU scored 24 points in the first 30 minutes and then 20 points in the last 10,,,,,or 28 points in the first 35 and then 16 in last 5 ( lot of those were free throws). Increased scoring seemed to coincide with increasing the defensive pressure and with Knight in the game.
So we can go with worn out, SIU knows us, just in a shooting slump. ? but we went 2-1 while shooting poorly.
The one thing I noticed was that we take way more shots early in the clock than in the past.. So lets hope we heat up against Drake.