Thursday, December 22, 2022 9:00 p.m.
Kaiser Permanente Arena, Santa Cruz, Calif.


The Ramblers head west for their first-ever matchup with the Stanford Cardinal. The semi-neutral site is the Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, the home of the Golden State Warriors G-League team. Santa Cruz is a beautiful beach community about 45 miles south (on a one lane in each direction winding road through the Santa Cruz mountains) of Stanford’s Palo Alto campus.

Stanford has had a tough slog this year against one of the toughest non-conference schedules any team has played. The Cardinal have faced off against seven top 100 KenPom teams out of the 11 games they’ve played. They’re 0-7 against those top 100 teams, and 4-0 against the teams outside the top 100. According to KenPom, the Ramblers (at 129) are better than the best team Stanford has defeated this year (Florida State at 146) and not as good as the lowest-ranked team that defeated Stanford (Ole Miss at 74). Before the season began, both Florida State and Loyola were also considered top 100 teams by KenPom.

Coach Jarod Haase is in his seventh year and has yet to take Stanford to the NCAA Tournament (he took UAB to The Dance in 2015). With nine players back from a 16-16 season, including senior forward Spencer Jones and last season’s Pac 12 Freshman of the Year Harrison Ingram, The Cardinal were picked to finish 5th in the Pac 12 preseason poll. As this young season has developed, two things stick out about the Cardinal—they’re really tall (8th tallest according to KenPom), and their interior defense is very good. Stanford is in the top 50 in defensive efficiency, offensive rebounding, and block percentage.

Stanford will most likely start 6’7” senior forward Spencer Jones, 6’7” sophomore forward Harrison Ingram, 6’8” junior forward Brandon Angel, 7’1” sophomore center Maxime Reynaud, and 6’2” junior point guard Michael O’Connell. Raynaud gets most of the starts, but 6’9” senior center James Keefe gets most of the time in the middle. Six-foot-five grad senior wing Michael Jones—a transfer from Davidson who connects on 42% of his threes—gets starter-type minutes.

Spencer Jones leads the team with 11.5 ppg, while collecting 4.2 rebounds per game. He leads the team in blocks and takes the second most three-point shots after Ingram. The other Jones, Michael (no relation), is the Davidson transfer who averages 10.4 points and leads the team in three-point attempts, but is only hitting on 24% of his distance shots in the early going. The smaller Jones has actually been much more successful inside the arc and driving to the basket, where he’s shooting 62.5%. Ingram averages 9.4 points, leads the team with 3.0 assists, and collects 4.6 boards per game. The two big men are Angel (8.0 ppg, 3.8 boards) and Raynaud (6.6 ppg, 5.3 rpg), with Raynaud being the slow, lumbering scorer and Angel being more mobile and opportunistic. O’Connell averages 3.9 points and 1.9 assists.

Two 6’9” forwards, James Keefe and Max Murrell chip in 5.8 and 4.5 ppg respectively, while playing 15-20 minutes each. Isael Silva and Benny Gealer are the back-up point guards getting low double-digit minutes.

Stanford’s offense is not very good. They can be bogged down and taken out of rhythm if they’re getting into single digits in the shot clock. Their big wings can be trapped into corners. They take care of the ball pretty well, but O’Connell’s passing is not sharp and their big wings move awkwardly after getting passes.

The Ramblers will need to use quickness to counteract Stanford’s height and length. Loyola needs to get down court before they can set up into their 1-3-1 zone. That zone and the big players in Stanford’s interior defense is pretty good at guarding the give and go, which is a big part of the Loyola offense. Drawing the zone out high may leave the Stanford defense vulnerable to baseline cuts against the 1-3-1 zone.


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

Stanford game notes: https://gostanford.com/sports/mens-basketball

TV/Streaming video: Pac-12 Network https://pac-12.com/mens-basketball/even ... la-chicago

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=130&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=438676

Vegas odds: Stanford by 6.5

Go Ramblers! YOU CAN DO IT! Beat Stanford!

Found this on A10 talk
https://www.a10talk.com/game-12-preview-stanford/

JCT, I think you hit the nail on the head. Stanford is not a fast team. We will probably be the quicker team tonight. Clemson was also not a quick team. Just like Clemson, we need to run Stanford ragged in half court. We need ball and body movement for 40 minutes and hard defense. Let's stack another win and blow into the A10 with a full head of steam!

Hope this is nothing serious. I’m guessing Braden Norris is going to be playing 40 minutes. If not, it’ll be interesting to see who steps up at PG

No Quinn, Dawson or Hutty tonight. Non-COVID illness. Bug must be going around the squad. Hope it doesn't hit anyone else going into our A10 opener next week.

Sheldon and Bryce are big time net negatives when on the court.

Saint is absolutely lost out there. Horrible offensively and fouling three point shooters

Glad I checked the board. Listening to the game and was wondering what was going on as we are getting hammered. Our shooting so far brutal. Meanwhile, Stanford shooting LIGHTS out. With all those guys missing, it ain’t looking good.

Impressed with Stanford’s defense. Our O has been terrible.

Saint gets a looooot of open looks…..