Tuesday, January 9, 2024 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
The Richmond Spiders come to Chicago to play the first time ever in Gentile Arena on Tuesday night. U of R holds a 2-1 advantage in the three games the two teams have played, twice at neutral sites and last year in Richmond, where the Spiders won 74-71.
These are two teams that have changed quite a bit from their matchup last year, in both cases for the better. Richmond and Loyola both finished well into the bottom half of the league last season, and both had many departures and new players from the transfer portal and recruiting. Of the 10 players that started last year’s game between these two squads, only four are likely to start on Tuesday.
Richmond lost their top scorer and rebounder Tyler Burton, who went to Villanova for a grad transfer. Seniors Matt Grace and Andre Gustafson ended their college careers. One freshman bench player transferred to VCU, and a sophomore bench player transferred to Saint Peter’s. This year’s Spiders return only 35.8% of their minutes and 37.9% of their scoring from last year. Loyola added Des Watson from the portal, got a healthy Jayden Dawson, recruited a top candidate for A-10 Freshman of the Year in Miles Rubin, and got two proven Ivy League players.
Coach Chris Mooney is in his 19th season at Richmond, doing fine, back from his late-season heart surgery last year. He’s loaded up his team with some fantastic finds from the portal and recruiting, and developed some players from last season. The returning starters are 7’0” senior forward Neal Quinn, and 6’5” senior guard Dji Bailey. Quinn averages 13.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and a team-leading 3.8 assists. Much of the offense goes through Quinn at the top of the key, and the 280-pound 7-footer is an immovable object in the paint and not surprisingly leads the team in blocks. Bailey has taken a huge step up from last year, improving his scoring average from 3.0 to 9.2 per game; he leads the team in steals and shoots an astounding 69% from two-point range, but curiously shoots under 50% on freebies.
New to the Spider starting lineup are 6’0” grad transfer Jordan King, 6’7” Isaiah Bigelow, and 5’10” freshman guard Mikkel Tyne. King is an East Tennessee State transfer, and the leading scorer at 17.8 per game. He also leads the team in minutes played, made three-pointers, free throw attempts, and free throw percentage. The guy knows how to score. Bigelow was a top bench player for the Spiders last season, but the Wofford transfer took a huge step up this year and averages 12.0 points and 6.3 rebounds to lead the team. Tyne is a freshman ball-handler from Canada who worked his way into a starting role and averages 6.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 steals.
The top bench guys are 6’5” junior forward Jason Roche (4.1 ppg), 6’11” sophomore center Michael Walz (3.0 ppg), 6’7” senior guard Tyler Harris (2.5 ppg), and 6’7” sophomore forward Aiden Noyes (3.2 ppg).
The Spiders have won four in a row. Their five losses are all against teams at 137 or better in KenPom, and all have come away from home: against Florida in Ft. Lauderdale, at Northern Iowa, at Wichita State, against Colorado in Daytona Beach, and at Boston College. Last time out, they beat St. Bonaventure impressively, 65-54, by clamping down on defense to end the first half and pulling away on offense in the last ten minutes to close it.
Richmond is number one in the country in taking care of the ball (12.0 turnover percentage), and sixth best in the country in steal percentage. Another superlative for U of R is three-point percentage defense—they’re 26th best in college hoops by holding their opponents to 28.6% three-point shooting.
The Ramblers (especially under Coach Moser) and U of R share a lot of similarities in style—almost disregarding offensive rebounds to get back on defense (Richmond is 359th in offensive rebounding, Loyola is 336th), concentration on field goal efficiency, using the center in the high post to distribute the ball (Cam Krutwig, Chris Knight, and Richmond native Bryce Golden last year for the Ramblers; Grant Golden, and former Ramblers portal recruiting target Neal Quinn for the Spiders), high assist rates, and a more deliberative pace of play. This year the Ramblers play at a moderately higher tempo, and shot blocking/post up play is how the frontcourt excels.
With all the similarities in style, pace, and experience, home court is likely to be a factor. The Spiders are 9-5 overall with a KenPom of 94, but they’re 8-0 at home, 1-2 at neutral sites, and 0-3 in true road games. The Ramblers are 10-5 overall with a KenPom of 122, with a record of 8-1 at home, 1-2 on neutral courts, and 1-2 on the road. Can a Tuesday night, snowstorm possibility, winter break crowd make enough noise to carry the Ramblers to victory? It promises to be a close one.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... chmond.pdfRichmond game notes: https://richmondspiders.com/documents/2 ... hicago.pdfTV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago
https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=166&type=LiveLive stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=482154Vegas odds: Loyola by 2.5