Saturday, December 30, 2017 3:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
Evansville was supposed to struggle in 2017-18, but the teams’ struggles have mostly been due to injury rather than personnel or performance. The Purple Aces have knocked off Fresno State at a neutral site and Bowling Green on the road en route to their 10-4 start (8-4 against D1 competition). They gave Illinois State all they could handle last Saturday, racing out to a 10-point lead in the first half and taking back the lead with 2:26 left to play before losing 72-66.
Injury and illness has taken out leading scorer Ryan Taylor for seven games, second leading scorer and point guard Dru Smith for four games, and senior shooting guard Duane Gibson for three games. All three were out together for the Aces’ epic 104-40 drubbing at #3 Duke a couple weeks ago. Taylor and Gibson have returned without missing a beat; Dru Smith remains on the injury list while he recovers from a stress fracture in this foot.
The Aces will likely start 6’5” senior Blake Simmons at forward, 6’9” junior Dainius Chatkevicius at forward/center, 6’5” sophomore guard K.J. Riley, 6’3” Duane Gibson, and 6’6” junior guard Ryan Taylor. Averaging 21.4 points per game on 42.7% shooting from the field. He’s a good player who takes a LOT of shots to get his points; even when the opposition knows he’s going to take twice as many field goal attempts as anyone else on the team, he makes them at a respectable clip.
Joining Taylor as a prolific scorer are the two senior starters, Blake Simmons and Duane Gibson. Gibson is deceptively quick to rebounds and always seems to give Loyola headaches; in six previous career games against the Ramblers he averages 13.2 points and 4.8 rebounds, while shooting 54.1% from the field. This year Gibson is averaging 8.4 points and 3.4 rebounds. Very unusual for a 6’3” guard, Gibson does not take three-point shots; he’s 0-for-3 in his career on threes, despite playing in 114 career games.
Blake Simmons had seen a declining role and playing time each year since his impressive freshman season where he averaged 9.2 points and 3.0 rebounds, and he missed all of last season with an injury. But in his senior campaign, Simmons looks poised to be the team’s second banana on offense. Through the first 14 games of the 2017-18 campaign, the coach’s son is averaging career highs in points per game (11.9), field goal percentage (47.5%), three-point field goal percentage (50.9%), and rebounds per game (3.1). He’s hitting three-pointers at twice the rate of his career season high as a freshman, and he leads the league thus far in minutes played.
Dainius Chekevicius has been starting most games as the rim protector and top rebounder for the Aces, but he played only four minutes against Illinois State. The 6’9” juco out of Vincennes University averages 6.0 points and 5.4 rebounds. Sophomore K.J. Riley, a strong combo guard out of the Bronx, has been starting in place of Dru Smith; he has ability to drive to the basket and finish. Riley doesn’t take threes, and averages 7.9 points and 3.2 boards.
Six-four freshman guard Noah Frederking (6.0 points), 6’9” center Dalen Traore (3.9 points, 3.2 rebounds), and 6’7” redshirt freshman forward John Hall (3.2 points) get most of the minutes off the bench.
This year’s Aces have several outstanding characteristics. Marty Simmons’ crew leads Division I in three-point field goal percentage even after their 1 for 10 showing against the Redbirds last weekend. UE doesn’t take a lot of three-point shots (almost 50 attempts fewer than Loyola, which is the 2nd least in the league), but when they fire, they hit at 46.3%. They are great from the free throw line, firing in 77.5% of their shots and getting to the line the second most often of any team in the MVC. They are not very good on the boards, and they do not pressure the ball very much (especially with Dru Smith on the sidelines).
Similar to many recent Loyola teams, the Aces rely on high shooting percentage, controlling tempo, team rebounding, and getting to the free throw line to win games. They typically only use one player at a time over 6’5”, and they really struggle against long and versatile forwards. Illinois State’s Malik Yarborough torched them for 28 points on Saturday, Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr. scored 27 points in 18 minutes against them. Austin Peay’s chunky 6’5” forward Terry Taylor scored 30 on 12 of 17 shooting in an overtime game at the Ford Center.
Coming off a hard-fought road loss to the league favorites, the Ramblers need to win this game more than the Aces. Loyola has struggled on both sides of the ball without their two experienced backcourt players, especially on the road. The Aces can get hot from anywhere on the court, and (almost) always seem to be within striking distance. No team should ever sleep on a team that leads Division I in three-point shooting percentage, especially after losing two in a row. The Ramblers will be favored in this game, but the Aces have the ability to shock as Fresno State can attest.
Loyola game notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/documents/2017/12/27//Evansville_Home_Notes_12_30_17.pdf?id=4772
UE game notes: Pending
TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago / ESPN3 (out of market) http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3232403/evansville-vs-loyolachicago-m-basketball
Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=189597
Vegas odds: Pending
