JCT's comments are on point . We are not very good. I will say this though--my memory is not what it should be , but of those players which he lost, was any one of them REALLY any good ? Taller , yes, but good ?? I do remember one who thought it was neat to run around barefoot outside in truly frigid weather--Maturity ?? Not !! Other than that none really were as good as what we have now --only taller.
I am not about to bury PM just yet--but JCT's goals for him are realistic. My take is , that he really does not place the emphasis that he should on BIGS. After all he does have Milton--hardly a bad get--the other "shorties" are not so bad either--KiKi plus this year's Freshmen as examples. BUT he does appear to be playing with only half a team plus Thomas whom we all know is out of position.
This very well could be his last year--Watson will get a newbie who is a good one--He has EASTERN experience ( a new broom , so to speak ) ..Fr G will approve the change as he is committed to winning.

Brot, if you saw what we had to offer, you'd know instantly that simply having a sizable body in the paint would have made a big improvement. Any ole stiff over 6'8" standing in the way of the Michigan State forwards shooting point-blank bunnies... That's why Rajala got more minutes (7) against Michigan State on the road tonight than he had in two home games combined against D-II competition. Christian Thomas-- undersized to begin with-- was totally lost on offense without any sort of sizeable body to protect him, and he got only five points and two rebounds on the night.

When we last played Michigan State and gave them a game (leading at halftime), we had Ben Averkamp and Jordan Hicks. We had freshmen Matt O'Leary and Nick Osborne (the no-good stiffs). That's four players at 6'7" or above with scoring and rebounding ability. Averkamp had 8 rebounds on his own and 25 points to lead all scorers; Hicks, O'Leary and Osborne combined for 4 points and 8 rebounds off the bench.

Tonight we had two players at 6'7" or above, each never having played a single Division 1 game. So Michigan State's starting forward had a new career high in scoring and rebounding, and we had no coverage of outside shooters when we had to double team.

While the loss is disappointing, I don't think we can overreact to a road blowout against a top 20 team in the country that is angry coming off a loss. Especially one coached by Izzo.

I've been a critic of many things but calling for Porter's job a week into the season seems early to me. We know we'll be small all year, but let's get Jeff back healthy and see what the guys can do. Plus, there's this to remember: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/sports/m- ... 13aaa.html

Porter has 3 years under contract after this year. Shoot he may even have a fourth. I do not know what buyout clauses are but I wouldn't be confident that if they wanted to, LU could/would terminate his contract.

For what it's worth I liked watching Knuth and Ingram in the second half. Thought they played hard even though completely out-matched.

John I will agree with you on progress. Got to show improvement this year. Somebody earlier mentioned the UNC game where we lost by 50. Two years later we played at Ohio St who was 1 or 2 in the country and eventual national runner-up. Never had a serious chance to win that game but competed hard and lost by 12. That was progress. We haven't seen that type of step forward from the Ramblers, and in Porter's fourth year he has to show ability to get a team better as the season goes on.

Richardson, too.

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Porter's contract extension, being the work of Grace Calhoun, Superstar, is a problem which suggests its own solution.

By all accounts, Penn is headed into an historically bad season in men's basketball, and their coach, Jerome Allen, is a dead man walking. Undoubtedly, Grace will be in the market for a new coach next March.

Is it crazy to suggest that Grace should hire Porter for the Penn job, relieving Loyola of the burden of buying out Porter's contract, while giving Porter (and Grace) yet one more chance of vindication?

I guess not. The ironic thing was that Grace fired Whitesell mainly because he was a lame duck coach. She left LU in a position where it would be really difficult for her successor to do the same because Porter's contract doesn't make him a lame duck coach. She hired Moser because of his ability to recruit Chicago. The Penn job requires recruiting all over the country; so it's not like she's going to hire solely a Philly/East Coast guy.

To add my two cents though, I don't think this season is all for naught yet. As 08 mentioned on this board, a game this early in the season that exposes our flaws should help us improve. I think we should have more of these games because at least we get something out of it (a nice check and valuable experience). The D2 schools we schedule are a waste of money and games, but that's besides the point. If PM and the team can use this as a building block to make adjustments, we could avoid a Thursday game. That's the ceiling for this team, and yes it is quite low given this is Year 4 for Porter (it would be higher if kids didn't transfer, flunk out, or just flat out quit). But if this team can hit it's ceiling and show some improvement, then he could help use it as momentum on the recruiting trail (maybe bring Roosevelt Smart and Marlon Jones back into the fold) and for next year's team.

With out naming names I heard from what I would consider pretty reliable sources that our bigs who left had not enamored themselves to the coaching staff for a variety of reasons. So the real issue is 1. We didnt coach them well?? 2. They were over-rated and we did a bad job of recruiting? 3. We did a bad job of recruiting to replace them? Granted big men are the hardest to recruit but I guess we would have to say that PM is a big zero in recruiting centers at this point.

They say he can Chicago recruit--except for TALL guys with heft--WHY is this , I wonder ???

Another humiliating defeat --We might have made it closer IF we had some bigs who could board. This is obvious, of course.

The next two games will tell us more than a lot.

And BTW if we take "money drubbings" for the money, it is pretty sad for the LUC brand.

I guess you could say overrated: https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/c ... ID=1285132