Friday, March 7, 2014, 6:00 p.m.
Scottrade Center, St. Louis, MO

When Loyola wrapped up their regular season series with Indiana State with a 65-61 home loss on January 22, the Sycamores were 6-1 in conference and appeared to be easily cruising to a 2nd place finish behind nationally-ranked Wichita State. Yet the Sycamores stalled quite a bit after facing Loyola for the final time in regular season, finishing out the year 6-5 and losing their last three regular season games. So riding a three-game losing streak, the 2nd seeded Sycamores find themselves facing 10th seeded Loyola on Saturday on a neutral court, just hours after Loyola upset another team that defeated them twice before.

Loyola played Indiana State fairly close in their two previous matchups, losing by 12 in Terre Haute on the first day of the season, and by only four points a few weeks later in Chicago. What’s more, Indiana State’s current three game losing streak has come against teams that Loyola beat earlier in the season—Missouri State, Illinois State, and Northern Iowa. All year long, the Trees seemed to play to the level and style of their opposition, managing to win or lose by fairly close margins. But that habit of allowing the opposition to set the tempo and style of play has failed them in the last three games.

Leading up to the conference tournament, the heavy minutes played by Loyola starters all year took a huge toll on the energy level of the Ramblers. Loyola almost literally limped into Arch Madness, having lost six in a row and nine of 10 before their last-second buzzer-beating win over Bradley. Coach Porter Moser admitted to heavy minutes having a role in the poor performances down the stretch. Having to match the energy level of an emotional win less than 24 hours later might be too much to expect from a team that struggled in their finishing kick. Loyola frittered away an 11-point second half lead to Bradley before a miraculous last-second shot gave the team added life.

The experienced, even-keeled, better-rested Sycamores have to be a sizable favorite in this game. Yet the Ramblers have proven their ability to stage an upset on neutral ground. The key to a Rambler win will be taking care of the ball as they did against Bradley, and hoping their shooting legs hold out. Making the vast majority of their free throws would also help, as the Ramblers nearly lost the Bradley game by the margin of missed free throws. Loyola reserve center Cody Johnson might be a key to the game, as he’s well rested, a motivational sparkplug, and scored 15 points in only 12 minutes in Terre Haute. Hopefully, Terre Haute native Matt O'Leary will have gotten over his butterflies of playing his hometown team, because his movement without the ball adds an important dimension to the Loyola offense. The Ramblers will need to limit MVC 6th Man of the Year Khristian Smith, who lit up Loyola for a combined 23 points and eight rebounds off the bench in their previous two games.

Vegas opening line: Indiana State by 7

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 307aaa.pdf

Indiana State game notes: http://www.gosycamores.com/ViewArticle. ... =209427378

TV: MVC-TV (Comcast Sports Net, others) Due to conflict with Bulls basketball, game will be moved to Comcast Sportsnet Plus—usually a leased access channel on your cable system. Check your local listings.

Streaming video: ESPN3 (outside IL, IN, MO, KS, IA) http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index

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

Indiana State message board: http://www.sycamorepride.com/forumdispl ... 690ab3b624

You may want to fix the title

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The Roundhouse

I think he's looking ahead to the championship game Sunday

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MBB Scholarship Chart

The line is LUC +7

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I don't think I'd handle a loss to the Turds very well right now.

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The Roundhouse

Hastily put together.

Poor shooting does us in again. Hung tough for a while but there's only so much you can do when you are shooting about 25%.

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Cigarboy sucks!

we lost all the intangibles, steals, blocks. 2nd chance points and they outscored us in the paint 36 -14/

It was fun though..... nice to see LU represented .

I'm glad that the bench guys got in the game at the end. Especially great that Billy Clark got a 3.

Well, we shot poorly--Hmmmmmm ! i wonder why--perhaps a good defense by our opponent had something to do with it. My thoughts are listed on another thread. We WILL be a factor next season. The idea from here on out is --more real victories than the moral kind--a lot more. Its all well and good to feel good about a nice kid getting a three etc--BUT next year we get serious about WINNING and the nice little things will multiply--

Book it This team WILL be good next season. This was a "get to know the ropes in the Valley" . It turned ugly BUT there were some nice omens.

Its as simple as this--This IS the Big Time--Powers that be know it--The team knows it (proved it to me last evening )most all of us know it-- Next season we will be starting to dish out what happened to us in the last 5 games prior to Bradley win.

It will be all business which then will allow for many more of the nice thoughts about nice kids making their threes.

Another omen--the bunch that went to St Louis to root for the Ramblers--THAT tells me more than all the rest.

Now Porter MUST deliver--I think he will--BOOK IT !!

BTW--Tonight Indiana State was well rested and the the better team--FOR NOW !!

GO RAMBLERS