Friday, November 11, 2016 7:30 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
Loyola begins a promising new men’s basketball season with Friday night opener against Alcorn State. Last year the Braves had a decent season, with an RPI of 252 from a 15-15 season which saw them finishing 2nd in the Southwest Athletic Conference with a 13-5 record. Like many SWAC teams, they finance a large part of their program by playing guarantee games in their non-conference season, and they lost all eight of their 2015-16 non-conference games against Division I teams—all on the road or at neutral sites. In fact, Alcorn’s last win over a non-con Division I school was in 2012 against Samford, and their last non-con D1 win before that was in 2003.
The Braves are likely not going to be as good as they were last year, having graduated their top four leading scorers. Coach Montez Robinson’s 2016-17 squad was picked to finish 5th in this year’s SWAC pre-season poll, led by SWAC pre-season second team member Marquis Vance. The 6’7” senior forward weighs in at 265 pounds and averaged 8.0 points and 5.2 rebounds last season. Despite having some height and a lot of weight to throw around, he shots only 33.7% from the field, and took a surprising number of three point attempts (85) for a guy with his frame. Another senior forward, DeAndre Davis, stands 6’8” and plays with more effectiveness on offense in the paint—he chipped in 6.6 points and collected 4.2 rebounds per game last year, shooting 60.9% on his two point shots. The Braves have not played any exhibition games this season, so it’s hard to predict their starting line-up and depth charts, but their backcourt is likely to suffer from inexperience.
For its part, Loyola fans are excited about the season, welcoming a great deal of raw talent, some newcomers, and a few returning players primed for breakout seasons. There are also many question about how the newcomers—and there are a LOT of them—which includes four freshmen scholarship players, two freshman walk-ons, two juco transfers, one eligible Division I transfer, one junior walk-on, and one D 1 transfer sitting out for eligibility.
Senior Milton Doyle, the top active career scorer in the MVC, is reported to be in his best physical shape since his freshman season, has added some strength, and scored a spot on the MVC preseason 2nd team. Joining him in the probable starting lineup are Clayton Custer, a 6’2” junior point guard; Ben Richardson, a 6’3” junior guard; Aundre Jackson, a 6’5” junior forward; and Maurice Kirby, a 6’9” junior forward. Six-six junior guard/forward Donte Ingram and
There are going to be a lot of substitutions and lineups tested in the first three games for the Ramblers, which will be played at home between Friday and Monday against Alcorn State, IU-Northwest (an NAIA school Sunday afternoon), and Division III Eureka (Monday night). It promises to be a good chance to get a look at some of Loyola’s 3+ star recruits like 6’4” shooting guard Cameron Satterwhite and 6’6” guard/forward Matt Chastain. Also expect to see a lot of newcomers who played well on the Summer exhibition trip to Spain, like freshman guard Bruno Skokna, 6’8″ freshman forward Igor Cvorovic, and 6’8″ juco forward Vlatko Granic.
Links
Game discussion at the Ramblermania message board
Loyola game notes: Pending
Alcorn State game notes: http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/a … pdf?id=277
TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 (http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/i … olachicago)
Vegas odds: Pending
