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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 1:45 pm 
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Next year is the single most important year for Loyola basketball in the immediate future. The goal is to sustain success, and next year is the real start of the next generation. Last year everyone said the success was a result of Krut. This year everyone said it was because of the super seniors. Every player from the final four team is now gone. Although Drew helped to recruit before, players now will be directly because of him and what he’s looking for. The last 5 years have been a good run, but a successful season next year (too early to say exactly what that would be at this point) would really show that this isn’t just a “good run” and that Loyola is here to stay.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 10:55 pm 
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Location: Chicago, Illinois
This is my first chance since getting back to comment with some first impressions on the game. Haven't watched the replay or postgame comments yet, maybe I'll have some different impressions after that, but here goes..

- Playing 7 games in 16 days and then having a looonnnggg 12-day layoff seemed to have worked against us. I think that was a big part of the missed shots.
- Defense was excellent, almost all the way through. We held them to their 2nd lowest scoring total of the year. 97 times out of 100, you win a game when you play like that.
- I think OSU had a game plan to be physical inside, and the officiating complied. Every layup and drive had some contact, almost none called.
- I think their physicality and length intimidated our inside shooters and drivers.
- They took us way out of our rhythm, and it definitely worked. We never got any kind of flow in the offense.
- ** We did not lose because of officiating ** There were some terrible calls that were really demoralizing because of when and how they happened.... missed out of bounds (after a tough, long defensive stand) and goaltending (on one of our few fast break opportunities), non-calls on some real physical mugging by (23?) off the bench (but by then it was really too late). And the fouls called were all on the ball and ignoring most of the away-from-the-ball bumping and pushing-- that really favors a team with the kinds of players and size Big Ten/OSU has. ** Again, we did NOT lose because of officiating **
- I've seen teams play as good if not better defense against us, and we still made a much higher percentage of shots than on Friday.
- In the future, I think we need to have some players who embrace some physicality. I think Marques Townes was that kind of guy. Christian Thomas didn't LIKE it, but he dug in deeper when we had teams try to out-tough us. Leon Young, Andy Polka. We need guys who get tougher when the other teams try to bully.
- Obviously, we need to have the option to go big-- we desperately need a guy who's 6'9" or taller/245 or heavier who can be a rim protector-- some length and average hops to block some shots. Just need to have that option available for the matchups with teams like this one, Michigan State, Auburn, and Drake. Almost every team in the A10 has enough height to exploit it against us.

Maybe I'll change my mind after watching on a screen, but those were my impressions. And sad/devastated that Lucas and Aher especially didn't have a more emphatic final game.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 11:53 pm 
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Anyone else having trouble "moving on"? I'm excited about a new conference, a team led by Quise & Braden. But I can barely picture a Loyola team without Lucas and Uguak. They've been such staples. Ugh.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 7:25 am 
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JCT your post views as good as your previews. Our centers this year were good enough for the grind
of MVC inside play but not what OSU gave us.....In trying to figure out the limited use of Tom Welch this season besides what I saw as good play. and I am thinking they thought he was getting pushed around...then it hit me , and this is a crazy idea, that maybe he is limiting his bulk up because he may go back to soccer after college?
Any way , over the last 5 years basketball has made an emphasis to let gaurds get into the paint by trying to restrict hand guarding on defense and this year chest bumping. The result is guards getting to the rim, this favored teams with rim protectors and big centers and bodies who could really free guards on screens to get to the hole...and man we got to the hole but didnt finish or as you mentioned get enough calls.
So I wonder if Coach Valentine in thinking of the makeup of this team next year will be considering this? and if he thinks Huttson will improve to handle the post as a big bang guy and rim protector.
If we had a center that we could have posted up one-on one in this game it would have helped. They tried a couple times with Knight and a couple with Hutson but no go. Great team, tough loss.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:17 am 
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Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 6:16 pm
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Ohio State beats us 6 out of 10. Friday was one of the six.
So proud of our guys. Tough to take this loss but more sad that Lucas and Aher will not be in the maroon and gold again.
A great trip overall. Glad we got Pittsburgh if we could not get Indy or Milwaukee site.
Pittsburgh is a nice town and has improved over the years. A very scenic drive as well and the steak as Ruth Chris' was as good as any other RC location.
Thanks to Coach V and his staff for a great job and to AD Watson and his staff for the team send offs and the pre game and evening events.
Looking forward to next year but definitely will miss Arch Madness. The Barclay Center is a great location but surely will miss having so many Rambler fans there as the distance is certainly not convenient.

(A note on the Barclay site; it is where O'Malley of the Dodgers wanted to build his retractable roof stadium Robert Moses would not grant the permits to qualify the land purchase under a government program. Moses was a real tyrant.
He wanted the Dodgers to go to Queens where the Mets eventually built their stadium). O'Malley then decided to take the LA offer and move the Dodgers in 58. O'Malley convinced Stoneham who owned the Giants to move to San Francisico and not Minneapolis like the Giants were going to go..)

As for the A10 the inconvenience to having to fly to so many sites to see the Ramblers is the price you pay for a league upgrade.

The price you pay for moving up in leagues.
The challenge will be to recruit some bigs to play in the A10 but confident Drew and staff will come through.
Would not surprise me to see Hutson move on to the portal. The problem with some athletes is they cannot handle the adversity of suddenly they have to step up and improve their game. Many cannot handle it from an ego standpoint and blame others. If Hutson comes back we will know he is a fighter and not a quitter


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:23 am 
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Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:48 pm
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Brutal assessment of Hutson Streak just brutal. By your logic Clayton Custer was a quitter at Iowa State, then came here and went to a final 4.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:27 pm 
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I think it is valid to ask the question.....Hutty took a step down this year. He had the job at the beginning of the season and lost it. So to ask how he will respond is legit....a lotta guys leave..others have the talk with the coach...know what they need to improve on and get to work.. I hope he stays, I just hate to see kids leave....


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:40 pm 
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My response is only relative to the quitter vs fighter statement. If he transfers, he’s not a quitter in my opinion.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:58 pm 
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Believe it’s a legitimate question to ask. I like Jacob, he seems like a really good kid and the effort is always there. He is young, last year he got a free year due to covid so we have to keep in mind he really was a freshman this year. That being said, the question is can he improve? He had a great game against Arizona st. this year, one game does not make a player. He had four games scoring in double digits, Arizona st, Roosevelt, Chicago St. and San Fan, and he did not have more than 7 rebounds in any game. That’s almost unforgivable considering his height advantage and some of the undersized teams we played this year. Defensively he looked lost and was beat often, could be youth, could not be. He did not really seem to do anything well this year, harsh but an honest assessment. The concerning thing is that he couldn’t handle MVC centers, the step up in competition will be large in the A10 as if you watch any of those games the bigs there big, athletic, and play with a nastier/edgier game. Can he match or exceed that edge? Not sure to be honest, he just doesn’t seem like the grind it out, tough defense/rebounding type center. If he stays there needs to be major step ups in rebounding, post moves, and defense. Time will tell and curious to see what happens.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 2:18 pm 
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The worst part about this loss is that we are a better team than Ohio State. They have two good players, but I am not sure if they will be anything at the next level. Offensively, Mosley, DeVries and Green are better players.

This was the harmonic convergence of the offensive problems that we had all season, but it occurred in a 2 hour period. I thought I was watching an Oliver Stone movie. It was brutal.

We didn't shoot well in warm ups and it carried over into the game. We mishandled passes, dribbled balls off our legs and we missed lay-ups. We missed free throws, we missed wide open threes, etc.

At the close of the first half, we missed two shots. Schweiger's lay-up that rolled out was a fitting end to the first half. It would have been nice to be down by 3 at half. Despite not scoring for like 8 minutes in the first half, we were still in the game. I felt like we wouldn't shoot that bad in the second half. Alas, I was wrong. We started out the second half with some missed opportunities and never got on track. We got worse. Luckily, I felt that we were a few defensive stops and threes away from turning the game around.

As far as Pittsburgh, it was a ghost town. we walked form our hotel to the game. The only people I saw downtown were people going to game, homeless people and a handful of union protesters. It was dirty and empty. It was a beautiful spring day, with 20,000 basketball fans in town and it felt like we were the only ones there. Luckily, I was able to catch an early flight home.


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