Loyola Ramblers Preview – https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2025/2/ ... dcats.aspx

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

Record: 15-10 (5-7, 11th in A-10 MBB)
Coach: Matt McKillop
PS/G: 74.2 (185th of 364)
PA/G: 70.3 (132nd of 364)
SRS: 3.06 (117th of 364)
SOS: 0.69 (123rd of 364)
ORtg: 111.5 (89th of 364)
DRtg: 105.6 (221st of 364)
Preseason Odds: Championship +50000


Loyola Chicago Ramblers (16-9, 7-5) at Davidson Wildcats (15-10, 5-7) – 6:00pm CST Belk Arena

Loyola Chicago travels to Davidson, NC for a 1 game trip Tuesday night, where they look to hit 3 straight wins. Unfortunately, this one also has “TRAP GAME” written all over it

The Ramblers have won 4 of their last 5 and are coming off back-to-back wins over Richmond and Saint Louis. Loyola took an 87-80 overtime win against the Spiders and followed up with a 78-69 win vs. the Billikens. Meanwhile, Davidson comes into this game (where they are 11-3 at home) having lost 3 of their last 5 – two of them being home losses to George Mason and Saturday night to George Washington (74-67). Big picture wise, Davidson has lost 6 of their last 9.

Davidson comes into this game at (15-10, 5-7). Projected to finish 12th in the A10 preseason polls, they’ve already outdone themselves and have exceeded most everyone’s expectations to this point – just simply winning every game they were supposed to win and beating all the other inferior opponents whom they’ve had scheduled. Despite no noteworthy wins to their resume (if we count Providence at Battle 4 Atlantis), they are a quality opponent whom Loyola cannot overlook.

Davidson’s trademark is playing fundamentally sound ball with heavy reliance on the three-point shot. We watched this for years under Bob McKillop and this tradition has been passed down to Matt McKillop. They are physical and gritty on defense which could wear us down, and clean on offense so there could be limited opportunity for Loyola’s defense to take advantage of mistakes. This is a high IQ team. This year they are one of the best teams in the country at taking care of the ball - leading the A-10 and 14th nationally with a meager 9.5 turnovers per game.

Another way they beat opponents is with their 3-point shooting. They hit more than 8 per game on 24 attempts. They are also efficient from the FT line at nearly 75%. Davidson’s three leading scorers - Kochera, Bailey, and Durkin - are 78% or better from the FT’s.

Davidson returns three starters from last year’s team, and we could be in for another marquee matchup of big men here.

This year’s Davidson squad is led by 6-11 junior forward Reed Bailey, who leads the A10 in scoring at nearly 20ppg. He’s taken a massive jump from last year when he averaged 12.5 ppg on fewer touches. Impressively, he’s scored 497 points on the year thus far. Watching some video, Bailey is a big body and is the Davidson offensive anchor this season who just seems to get in the right spots at the right time doing a little bit of everything – high post and low post – and passing to the open man and cutters thru the high post and outlets from offensive rebounds for threes. He also gets to the line a lot, attempting 7 to 8 FT’s per game. At present count, Bailey has had 13 20-point games this year. If Miles Rubin is up to the task once again and avoids foul troubles, his defensive presence and improving offensive game could challenge Bailey’s game.

Joining Bailey in the frontcourt is 6-7 sophomore F Bobby Durkin – a Chicago-area player from Darien and Glenbard West. Durkin averages 15 ppg and 6.0rpg and is one of the A10’s most improved players. Durkin leads the A10 in 3-point FG % at .408 and also hits 3 per game on nearly 8 attempts. Davidson runs a lot thru these two frontcourt players.

Davidson’s offense again features Connor Kochera (local from Arlington Heights and St. Viator) who averages 13.5 ppg and 4.2 rebs.
All three of them will be a handful for Loyola to contain.

Additionally, role players Zach Laput, Mike Loughnane, Roberts Blums, Sean Logan and Hunter Adam are key players for coach Matt McKillop’s rotation of 8 guys.

As nearly all our league road games have gone, we will be in for a very close and chippy game. Where Davidson is worrisome is IF they bring their grittiness and physical play and Loyola fails to match the intensity and/or gets into severe foul troubles…. OR worst case scenario shots aren’t falling and we didn’t show up on the flight for a day in North Carolina….. In a close game, Davidson will have the advantage from the FT line plus home court/


Davidson Probable Starters – 6-11 F Reed Bailey, 6-7 F Bobby Durkin, 6-5 G Connor Kochera, 6-4 G Mike Loughnane, 6-4 G Zach Laput.

Loyola Probable Starters – Watson, Dawson, Edwards Jr., Houinsou, Rubin


LAST 10 GAMES FOR BOTH SQUADS

Wildcats: 4-6, averaging 71.1 points, 30.5 rebounds, 14.8 assists, 5.7 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 45.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.4 points per game.

Ramblers: 6-4, averaging 69.8 points, 30.3 rebounds, 15.5 assists, 6.3 steals and 5.1 blocks per game while shooting 44.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.3 points.


Watch / Listen – Tuesday night’s game is televised on CBS Sports Network with Chris Lewis and Mike O’Donnell 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: Davidson -1.5

great preview...
Sounds like we will need to play a clean game......get guards to the hoop and finish....will be interesting to see how we try and defend Baily

I'm not sure there are trap road games for a team that is under .500 on the road. Every road game is an adventure for us. This one will be a tough matchup. I hope we win.

Definitely enjoyed the outcome. Didn't like it that we fouled so much ending up with 20 fouls to a team that does well at the line AND we're in their building. But we head home with a Win!

Of note, JQ probably fouled every or nearly every time he was on the court as I don't recall seeing him that much and he fouled out. When I did see him Davidson kept him from getting to the hoop.

JD was hot tonight w 24 pts and 5-10 from 3.
Miles played strong in the paint and had his dunks ending with 14pts and held his own against Bailey.

JD, Miles, Des and Sheldon with double digits on the score board.

9 Rambler Steals!

We won the pts off TOs 17 to 4.

Looking forward to Friday's game against Dayton. A game we can win!

Friday is going to be fun.

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Friday should indeed be fun.

This was a good win. We had are cold shooting streaks....but it never felt like we wouldn't find a way to win. Our confidence is growing - reflected in very nice execution on offense throughout the game. Turnovers were under control for the 2nd straight game. Des had some huge plays - the big 3 after Davidson tied it at 60-60 and then the steal and layup that gave us some breathing room (though he also left 2 free throws well short with 2 minutes to go - ouch).

A few things to improve on.

1) End of game execution. We are up by 8 or 9 or 10 points. Don't foul and stop the clock!. And stop their dribble penetration. How do we let guys that are slower then us just dribble right to the basket. Stop the ball and force some time off the clock! We have to be smarter in crunch time.

2) We did well with fouls in the first half - including Miles who I believe had none But way too many fouls early in the second half. Some of which were lazy. And one of which was 94 feet from the basket. That one also put Davidison in the bonus with about 15 minute to go. Let's hope we don't see that again.

3) 2 hooking fouls on Deloach. C-mon.

4) Quinn with 5 fouls and 0 points. And possibly 0 assists? He has played too many games and too many minutes to have a game like this. At least once a game he hands off a pass and runs right into the defender for an offensive foul. You have to figure that out Jalen.

The box score on KenPom has Quinn with 0 points, 2 reb, 4 asst.

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Really good win. Road games are hard to win. Conference road games even harder. We were slight underdogs last night and won by 8 points.

Agree that the team seems to be finding some confidence. Huge props to Drew & staff for staying the course and being creative enough to try Houinsou as the primary ballhandler. It took a few games but has paid out dividends.

Dawson seems to be 100% healthy and is performing the way I thought he would when I predicted him to be a dark horse 1st team All A10. Another 20+ point game and shot 50% from deep. And 5-6 from the FT line.

Kept TOs in single digits again. That's essential.

Miles with another double digit scoring game. Nice to see him finish a little better at the hoop. Needs to cut down on the dumb fouls.

Fouls were a big issue. Lucky that Davidson only shot 18-26 from the charity stripe.

Another Friday night on national TV hosting the Dayton Flyers. Both teams sit at 8-5, in 3rd/4th. Can't wait for the long beer lines, rowdy crowd and fun atmosphere. Hopefully not as many obnoxious dorks in baby blue quarter zips!

Yeah our new starting lineup has been really good, EvanMiya is showing that 5-man lineup at a +50.6 efficiency rating: https://evanmiya.com/?team_breakdown_overview/Loyola%20Chicago

That's good for the 11th-best 5-man lineup in the country (with at least 100 possessions).

For reference, the next best 5-man lineup in the A-10 is George Mason at a 34 efficiency rating. Dayton's best lineup is a 22.8. VCU has two lineups +30.

Stat of the Game is again Turnovers! It's amazing at how different the team looks and plays when they take care of the ball.

Offense last night was the best body and ball movement we have seen over an extended period of time during a game this year and in a while. The ball was popping quick with less dribbling. Guys were moving, cutting, and screening away from the ball. The last time we had such great pace on offense may have been when we beat Clemson on the road a couple of years ago.

Fouls are still an issue. The fouls that hurt are the ones we get well away from our defensive zone. Last night there were too many fouls in our offensive end. Got to clean that up. We caught a massive break last night in that Davidson shoots 74.4% from the FT for the season and in conference play they shoot 76.9%, which is 3rd best in A10. Last night they shot 18-26 for 69.2%. This included some front end of 1-1 as well. These fouls could have cost us the game or certainly made it a closer game.

Agree with the comment about Jayden looking like he is finally getting healthy. He some drives that looked more explosive than we have seen since he got hurt and his jumper is back to where it was previously.

Overall, starting to play better, still got some work to do and some things that can still be tightened up heading into stretch run and A10 tourney.

Dayton will be wild. Dayton will have a big crowd out there, so hopefully kids will be loud. If you are gonna get rid of your tickets, sell them to LU Fans!!!!