I miss the defense as well. It seems like they are overhelping as there are too many big swing passes to a guy wide open on the far wing ready to shoot a 3 with nobody there to challenge them. I do think this team is fixable if they address some of the issues on defense. Last night was a bit of a buzz saw....That Giles dude was 7-8 (before I stopped watching) and shooting from 5-8 feet behind the 3 point line. That was insane.

I dunno if it's over-helping... I'd say it's under-communicating and just plain not guarding people. If there's one thing I don't get with Drew it's that it seems like he always wants to abandon styles that have served us extremely well. For example, why start this "high-pressure" defense just because we supposedly have great athletes? We generated two turnovers last night. Two! And we are constantly out of position.

The offense is fine. Serviceable with Rubin in the game, and pretty strong when we are shooting well. But our guards are terrible around the rim. Even Miles's percentage is way down. Need to finish more plays.

But none of that is going to matter with a defense this awful.

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Yeah I don't know how much is scheme vs. lack of effort/execution vs. not having the right personnel for it. I'm sure Blers Breakdown will take a swing at it, obviously it's not working.

We have lost a bit of length on the perimeter but there are lineups we could play that are longer (although would help if Glazkov could contribute anything out there).

Dotson's defensive metrics are insanely bad. I don't think he and Moore should be on the floor together anymore, it's gotta be one or the other.

Where do you get individual defensive metrics?

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I'm just looking at the Evan Miya defensive ratings: https://evanmiya.com/?team_breakdown_overview/Loyola%20Chicago

And then Bart Torvik has a defensive rating too (don't ask me how either are calculated): https://barttorvik.com/team.php?team=Loyola+Chicago&year=2026

Sports Reference has a more basic DBPM stat if you scroll down a bit, and Dotson is actually not bad there, still slightly negative but below only Rubin for the team: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/loyola-il/men/2026.html

This early in the season, there is plenty of variance between these on how poorly everyone is doing, but obviously none of it is good. The BPMs probably give a decent proxy of who exactly is completely killing us, and no surprise Harris, Glaskov and Richardson are all deeply in the negative. Probably time to cut bait on those guys. Moore and Houinsou are both pretty bad too, I suspect because they aren't healthy.

If I were Drew, I'd go with a starting lineup right now of:

C - Rubin
F - Ola-Joseph
F - Love
G - Taverez
G - Dotson

Decent length on the wings, theoretically enough good shooting 1-4 to open up space on offense, hopefully Ola-Joseph and Love can effort their way into turning around the rebounding, and hopefully Dotson turns it around on D.

Moore and Houinsou are off the bench with reduced minutes to keep them fresh, at least until they're recovered enough to take on bigger minutes. I give Brayden Young a shot as Miles' backup -- why not? Anderson is your backup wing if you need him, and that's the rotation until Amos gets back and hopefully can contribute. Richardson and Glazkov are emergency-use only, as is Harris if he still wants to be on the team.

Painful to watch.... Hard to read.... Hope everyone out there is doing alright this morning.

Defense (system and effort) is next level atrocious. I don't know how it went from respectable and pretty damn good versus North Texas to last night. Really really bad communication and no connectivity there.

Rebounding.... Wichita 13 offensive rebounds and that led to points.

Thru the first 4 games there's been ZERO leadership on the roster and on the floor.

Offensively I think they will be okay. There are weapons. Just not using the parts properly. Guys don't know what their roles are yet, Drew has no lineup, and this is leading to mass confusion.

Went 11-25 from deep so you'd think the score could have been closer and much more competitive than it was had Wichita not hit 16 themselves. Would like to see more mid-range for easy buckets (Dawson and Des were great at this last 2 years). Seems like 10-15 feet away from the rim is almost always available to take, and lots of open space was there last night that nobody wanted.

Harris, Glazkov, Richardson are unplayable. Time to see what Brayden Young can do.

Would like to know how they're prepping and scouting for opponents, and what goes on at practices. Like what are we even doing, prep wise..... We are essentially 0-4 right now if not for a hail mary prayer in game-1. I watch many other games on TV and I haven't seen anything or any other teams come close to our level of bad.

OK. As many of you know, I can be as hard as anyone on the program, but I am not completely down on this group or coaching staff...yet. Here's why:

1. This has been our recent history. We just have not played well early in the season the past few years. It's disappointing for sure, but in the transfer portal era with new faces there is just no way to gauge how quickly a group will come to together and mesh. Factor in the fact that we are relying on a red-shirt junior PG in Moore, a freshman in Love, a sophomore SG in Dotson, and injuries to Amos and Kymany and it is to be expected to some extent. Amos and Kymany are huge. Amos was going to be one of our bigger players in the paint and Kymany is a Swiss army knife who does does a lot of little stuff that does not necessarily show up in the box score. These two guys not being healthy is causing us major problems on defense and on the glass.

2. I am not sold on this group being irredeemable. I do see some progress. We have shot FTs much better this year. We did not turn the ball over much yesterday. We did shoot the 3 well yesterday. Our main problem is we are not finishing near the rim as well as we need to and defensively we are not playing very well and rebounding well. We are not the biggest team and both rebounding and defense need to be an "all hands on deck" approach. I also would like to see us get back to the switching up high a bit more. We seem to be trying to fight over the top of screens and we are not getting there, leaving guys open for 3's. Our bigs are also not showing on the screen and which is also allowing that space for the ballhandler to tee up 3s. We used to switch and not give these up. Again, new guys and injuries slow down the process. Overall, we are also not forcing any turnovers and allowing offenses to pretty much run whatever they want. I expect this to get better. Last year we were struggling quite a bit early and really did not put it together until we had that little 10 day break before the con schedule began and then we played much better.

3. Drew needs to start paring down his rotations. Its clear he is feeling this group out a bit and is trying a lot of combinations, which also is not helping. There is no set pattern and some of lineups don't mesh well and its clear some of the combinations are not used to playing together. Think of offense and defense as a big glitzy Hollywood Dance production. There is a lot of "choreography" that goes into a production, and practice and repetition to perfect it. Playing offense and defense requires a lot of choreography to function well. With the injuries and different lineups, they are not getting the repetitions and practice. Right now the 5 on the floor are just not in sync. This should improve.

4. Drew has changed a bit this year. He has placed his trust in Love, he has started getting Anderson some minutes (probably due to Harris and Glazkov being ineffective so far). I agree that I think Young does deserve an opportunity. He is a bigger player and even if he just provides some rim protection and rebounding, it would be a help.

5. We are only 4 games in and there is a lot of season to go. I am not ready to jump ship. What I am looking for Sunday is simple. I want to see the team play with a sense urgency on both ends of the floor. I want to see that grit and desire. I want to see the ball and player movement. I want to see us take good shots and make that extra pass. Hit the glass hard and stop the other team from going on extended runs two or three times in the game like we saw North Texas and WSU do the last two games. Much of this stuff is correctable. Some of it is new guys trying to find their water level.

So, Colorado State is a good program. The team should be fired up and the students and fans need to come out and get into it. Let's help fire these guys up!

Worship, Work, Win! Go 'blers!

I like the lineup you suggested, if Kymany is not healthy. If he is healthy I would have him start over Ola-Joseph just because he is more familiar with the system. I think Dotson needs to be in the starting line-up. I think we need to keep him confident and aggressive. Tavarez is starting to shoot it well and we need his offense.

I think that Richardson is big and maybe a bit slow, but he was relatively effective in helping against that giant dude last night. that guy had a solid 70 pounds on Rubin. Until Amos gets out there, we don't have another option and when the other team has a huge center, he can be helpful. He appears to be a good team player...seems to be encouraging and upbeat on the bench and the court. He's not an All A10 player, but we could use his size from time to time.

A shockingly upbeat post by Mudville. Do you just like going against the grain?

I also think Drew can get these guys straightened out. But our small guards are an issue. And I hope attitudes don't take over. A guy like Harris to me is pretty key to our season. Not because he has to be all-conference, but because he has to stay engaged.

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