Loyola Ramblers Preview - https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/1/ ... s-vcu.aspx

VCU Stats and Intel - https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2025.html

Record: 10-4 (0-1, 9th in A-10 MBB)
Coach: Ryan Odom
PS/G: 77.4 (136th of 364)
PA/G: 62.4 (16th of 364)
SRS: 11.40 (66th of 364)
SOS: -1.29 (215th of 364)
ORtg: 112.3 (105th of 364)
DRtg: 90.5 (13th of 364)
Preseason Odds: Championship +50000

VCU Rams (10-4, 0-1 A-10) at Loyola Chicago Ramblers (9-4, 0-0 A-10)

Following a disappointing showing at the Diamond Head Classic, Loyola returns home to host the Rams of Virginia Commonwealth University. Loyola enters A-10 play at 0-0, while VCU is coming off a heartbreaker L (77-75) at St. Bonaventure.

This will be Loyola's and VCU's third meeting ever, with VCU winning both previous times. Last year, (on January 23, 2024) Loyola played at VCU for the first time and was on pace to win... until Joseph Bamisile erupted for 25 points off the bench, most of them coming in the second half on three's and and-1's... VCU was victorious, 74-67.

This year's version of VCU is greatly improved defensively and offensively, is #49 in the Kenpom, and was projected to finish 1st in the A-10 preseason poll.

VCU returns a league-high 65 percent of its scoring from last season’s 24-14 team that tied for fourth with an 11-7 mark. A trio of starters return alongside four other returnees, notably Preseason First Team selection Max Shulga and Second Team honorees Zeb Jackson and Joe Bamisile. Jackson is also on the Preseason All-Defensive Team.

Its senior-laden guard-heavy lineup and offensive attack is led once again by Joseph Bamisile (16.7ppg) and Max Shulga (16.1ppg). Rotation players and starters, Phillip Russel (11.8ppg) who erupted for 26 on St. Bonnies the other night, Zeb Jackson (10.7ppg) and 6-8 guard Jack Clark (6.7ppg and 6.7rpg) round out their crew.

VCU will most likely start 6-10 freshman forward, Luke Bamgboye, 6-4 senior guard Joe Bamisile, 6-4 senior guard Max Shulga, 5-10 senior guard Phillip Russel, and 6-8 senior guard Jack Clark.

Per JCT's preview of last season, "Shulga is the straw that stirs the drink", presently averaging 16.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg, and 3.6 assists. Much of VCU's offense runs thru him, who is a matchup nightmare for opponents, with Bamisile and Russell getting the most offensive looks and touches (with many of them from deep). As we know, perimeter defense has been a problem for us, and these two must be kept in check for all 40 minutes to have any opportunity at winning. Both must absolutely be shut down. Collectively, VCU attempts nearly 30 3 pointers per game.

VCU is still recruiting players that are able to play multiple roles on the court—for instance Shulga and Zeb Jackson off the bench can play all the spots from the 1 to the 3, and several guards and forwards who can also do the same. The versatility at most positions allows for mixing, matching, and maximizing the various team roles and skill sets as game situations or matchups dictate.

As we know, Loyola is struggling having lost 4 of its last 5 as a result of injuries, carelessness with the ball, poor FT's, poor rebounding, roster acclimation at new roles..... everything.... We have confirmation Jayden Dawson will be reactivated from injury for tomorrow, while Kymany Houinsou still remains out for another 1 to 2 weeks. With VCU’s guard loaded lineup, look out for Loyola to hopefully exploit this and rely heavily on Miles, DeLoach, and Nwaokorie getting several opportunities on the inside.

LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS:

Ramblers: 6-4, averaging 73.3 points, 31.7 rebounds, 15.6 assists, 6.2 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.5 points per game.

Rams: 6-4, averaging 77.4 points, 34.5 rebounds, 15.3 assists, 6.6 steals and 5.6 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.5 points.


Per Loyola ticket office, tomorrow's game is nearly sold out. Great job to them for filling the seats while ThePack and students are still away on break. Lets get wild and crazy for CBS....

Can't make it to the Joe? - Saturday's game will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network at 1pm, with Jason Knapp and Tim Doyle on the call, and can be listened to Rambler Sports Network with our friends Sudikoff and CT.

Postgame show, tune in to Sudikoff on RSN, followed by TalkinBlers Spaces on the X: https://x.com/blerstalking?s=21

Odds: VCU -5 (as of 9:45pm 1/3)

Thanks for taking up the mantle from JCT, Ragas! Much appreciated

I apologize for the bad formatting, too lazy to fix it up. Easier to view right on Twitter or Bluesky.

Rambler Sports Network
@Rambler_SN
·
2h
Des Watson turned it on
@A10MBB
play last year:

14.2 PPG, 5.4 REB, 3.1 AST, 44% FG, 41% 3PT and had 7 of his 9 15+ point game during the A-10 season. All numbers were higher than overall averages.
Rambler Sports Network
@Rambler_SN
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2h
With expected return of Jayden Dawson vs. VCU, the Ramblers get back their 2nd leading scorer at 12.0 PPG (behind Sheldon Edwards, Jr's 12.1 PPG)

Both Dawson & Edwards shoot the exact same % from 3PT range -- 19-51 and 38-102 respectively...37.3% which is 4th in the
@atlantic10
Rambler Sports Network
@Rambler_SN
·
1h
Since joining the starting lineup over the last 4 games, Jalen Quinn is averaging 26 MPG 11 PPG, 56% FG.

For reference, as a frosh, JQ played 15.5 MPG w/ 3.5 PPG and 44% FG. (He started 12 games during A-10 play)

As a soph, JQ played 16.2 MPG w/ 4.5 PPG and 41% FG.
Rambler Sports Network
@Rambler_SN
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1h
Jalen DeLoach (who is known by his team as JJ because there's so many other Jalens, Jaydens & Jacks) plays against his former school for the 1st time.

Only 2 players remain (& no coaches) at VCU that DeLoach played with: Zeb Jackson & Fats Billups.
Rambler Sports Network
@Rambler_SN
·
1h
For first time in his Loyola career, Sheldon Edwards, Jr. has put together 4-straight 10+ point games (22 vs. Cansius w/ 6-13 3PT and career-high 4 AST; 20 vs. OAK w/ 6-13 3PT; 11 vs. CofC w/ 5 REB; 10 vs. MURR.)

In Hawaii: 36.3 MPG w/13.7 PPG, 34% 3PT (down from regular 37%)
Rambler Sports Network
@Rambler_SN
·
1h
In Hawaii, Miles Rubin played 27.6 MPG w/ 15.7 PPG & shot 20-OF-23, including 10 dunks & 4 layups!

He was also 7-9 at FT line & came close to his 4th dbl-dbl of his career w/ career-high 21 PTS & 9 REB vs. Oakland. He's scored 10+ PTS 3-straight games for 2nd time in his career.

Some VCU notes:

3 players make 2+ 3s per game (Bamisile, Russell, Shulga) ... 24th best defense - KenPom ... Opponents have 21.7% TO% which is 31st ... 50.2% of shots are 3PTers ... Only 43.8% of points come from 2PTers which is 324th in the NCAA! [D1 avg is 49.5%] ... 37.3% of points from 3s [D1 avg is 31.5%]


77-75 Loss at St Bona on Tue: 48/50%, 11-31/5-15, 8-9/14-19, +3reb[11-11oreb], 15ast, 11to(-5) ... 32pnt(-16), 7pto(-4), 15scp(even) ... 10 ties, 16 lead changes

SHULGA - 8th in AST/gm ... 2 double-doubles ... Top 55 in FT Attempts ... 1.93 STL/gm (4th in A-10)

BAMISILE - 9th in PPG ... 8th most 3PA in A-10 (Erik Reynolds has taken 121)

BAMGBOYE - 2nd in BLK/gm (2.29) ...

Good first half.

OK first 10 min of 2nd half.

Absolutely atrocious second 10 min of 2nd half. Ran out of our own gym in a conference game.

Think we are are, at best, a .500 A10 team, unfortunately. Three point shooting isn't good enough. Bigs struggle to finish downlow. And defense gives up too many second chance points

OK, we were in the game but we let it slip away.
The downside stats

Ramblers to Rams
FT 65% to 75% (not again?)
FG% 38% to 49%
TOs 14 to 11 (not a stat we want to lose at home)
RBs 28 to 40 (not good)
Off RBs 13 to 18
Def RBs 15 to 22
2nd chance pts 5 to 30 (OMG!)
Fast Brk Pts 7 to 14 (bad)
Bench pts 19 to 29
Points in paint 22 to 40 (Rubin 4pts, need better)
Steals 3 to 8 (not good)
2nd half pts 25 to 47

A total bummer to lose that game. I will say, it was uncanny how many long rebounds VCU had opportunities on in the last 10 minutes. Sometimes luck goes that way. They got at least 5 rebounds that went 10 or more feet from the basket. In 9 of the last 10 minutes of the game (not counting the last minute of play), VCU got really hot shooting 5/8 from the field and 5/9 from 3. Many of those points were off of those long rebounds.

I didn't view it as a total collapse....I'm a little worried about the increased trash talk and technical fouls our guys (and coaches) are getting this year. To me that shows a lack of focus. Des and DeLoach need to shut the hell up and focus. Great athletes...just shut up and play.

It was great to see Dawson back. I think he did a great job for not playing in a few weeks.

I think we are just missing points in the paint. Miles is great on defense, but doesn't give us much offense. Deloach doesn't seem to be able to get it done, either. We need a Dame-like player to force the defense inside and get some points or free up shooters on the outside.

I still like the talent on this team and I think Kymany was really starting to become a key factor before he got hurt...hopefully he is back sooner than later.

I'm not giving up. Lose the trash talk, focus on the team, find some mojo.

(at least it took us a full 10 minutes to collapse and lose by 19....Dayton crashed and burned a lot harder than we did going on a 0-13 run in the last 3:30 of their game to lose by 20)

Agreed on the lack of interior scoring and points in the paint. We do not have that going for us this year.

Whenever we need a quick bucket or a +2 inside this year to stop the bleeding and change the momentum, I don't think we have anyone on this roster who can give us that...... You know, like a Chris Knight and Dame. Speaking of Dame, those points in the paint were a major reason why we won 20+ games last year, and in the fashion some of them were won.


First half of game was definitely good enough for a Blers winner. Then I don't know what happened. No adjustments? Too much VCU and Russell in our heads? Defense cannot allow 40+ points to teams in second halves. Happened SF and again VCU. Horrid.

Great job ticket office for packing the place. But we needed the volume turned up. It was very quiet. This was a marquee matchup.

Moore’s injury is affecting the roster more than imagined. It was PG by committee here.

With under a minute left Drew had the starters and main guys all sitting on the bench. With lots going on at that point I failed to hear what was being lectured other than a few curse words, but it was a real good and serious teaching moment. Lessons learned I hope, but that's 5 losses in 6 games now.

There were a couple times when the crowd seemed ready to boil over, but each time the Ramblers didn't make a play so the excitement died down.

As for the second half collapse, I guess fatigue is the most likely explanation. VCU smartly pressed us all game, which didn't result in a lot of turnovers but probably got us even more tired out. At a certain point, we started bricking all our open shots and getting beat badly on defense. It's those kind of wrinkles I see other coaches do against us that I wish Drew would start trying. I think he'll pick those things up as he gets more experience, but right now he seems like a "let's play our game" kinda guy, which is great to an extent... but when the other team makes adjustments, we have to counter instead of trying the same things over and over. There was one play where we were getting into our offense, a VCU guard knew exactly where the ball was going and easily swiped the ball for an uncontested layup.

You guys are correct about missing Dame, we really could use some kind of one-on-one guy. Our base motion offense is pretty well-designed but it is high-effort, and especially after getting pressed up the court, can be too much to go through late in games. Throwing it down the Dame allowed guys to get a quick breather while he went to work. Miles and JJ just don't have those kind of moves. I think our equivalent this year was isolating Moore, but obviously that's not an option.

Freshmen have been a disappointment thus far. You can see the potential, but they really don't seem as game-ready as typical highly-rate freshmen are (like Miles last year), which I guess you can attribute to being international guys. Daniil gets beaten off the dribble pretty consistently, and seems like Seif probably needed a redshirt year.

It's frustrating because in the first half you saw what this team could be, and that's a team that could win the conference. At this point, all that really matters is that we figure it out before the tournament, but for that to happen, Quinn needs to take a leap, and as much as we get glimpses, he's just too in his own head 90% of the time. I kind of wonder if we should try Houinsou at point when he gets back, just to see if there's something there.

This will really test Coach Valentine.....No doubt he recruited to have a 5 out system with out a dominant physical presence on offense and a point guard to run the show...with Miles Rubin not as a post player but a mobile pick and roll guy up top. Lost our point guard and best 3 point shooter for awhile. Defensively this is a lanky mobile bunch recruited because they can guard all positions on the floor.....With the injuries and slow development of the freshman plan has to change....will be interesting to see if we can adapt.