Southern Illinois Preview and Game Thread -- 2-21-2018

[swellafelon]

Let me go on the record now and predict that if we beat Illinois State Saturday and make it to the final at Arch Madness but lose, we will still make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.

[Rambling Tiger]

I don't even want to think about the selection committee yet. Every year they contradict their own justifications for selecting teams and you could go crazy guessing how they'll treat mid-majors.

Right now, I just want to party on Saturday. The environment will be a special one.

[GoRamblers]

Just win, baby! Deal with the rest later

[ToledoRambler]

I disagree that you “can’t” factor in the Custer injury. IF we are truly a “bubble team,” and there is an actual “committee” in charge of evaluating who is in and out - I would hope that the committee is full of competent, basketball-knowledged people who investigate “bubble teams” and evaluate their wins and losses by examining readily-available statistics (box scores) to determine the circumstances behind major wins and losses. If they don’t — what’s the point of a committee? I’m sure players injuries factor into selections and seedings. If Michigan States top two scorers got diagnosed with Mononicleosis and were ruled out for the rest of the season, you can darn well bet the committee wouldn’t give MSU a 1 or 2 seed despite their regular season resume... so a bubble team like us doesn’t get an evaluation of the circumstances for OUR season? That doesn’t seem right.

I totally understand — win the Arch and it doesn’t matter. But I love loyola and I particularly love this years team - so I’m going to be really upset with college basketball, in general, if a team full of high quality guys who play hard every game, win 80%+ of their games, and completely changed the basketball culture of a university in one year doesn’t get a bid - and a team like Louisville, who is 18-10, and is 2-7 in Q1 games, and has been riddled with scandal and controversy (because of their own program’s lack of accountability) gets a bid. Teams like Louisville get built-in chances at q1 wins because of their conference. Give this years loyola team 9 chances At Q1 wins and I guarantee you they would have gotten as many as Louisville. Meanwhile, other “bubble teams” like NC state keep getting love and nobody but us is talking about the fact that they completely pansied out of playing us.

I just feel like this year’s team has earned the right to an NCAA tournament bid. I want us to win arch madness, but 1 bad game out of the next possible four shouldn’t ruin that. Especially when if you look at the 29 games we’ve played, we’ve only had TWO bad games (Boise State and Milwaukee). Of the 29 we’ve played, we’ve proven 27 times that we can compete with no matter what other team is on the court on any given night. To me, that’s a sign of a team that’s worthy of an NCAA tournament appearance.

Sorry. Rant over.

[brot4britu]

I wager that Mrs Graybe is ecstatic at this great moment !!

[ToledoRambler]

Has everyone seen the video on the loyola basketball twitter account where Porter was was wearing the “Loyola conference championship” t shirt underneath his button-down the whole game, and unbuttoned it in the locker room in front of the team? Freaking awesome!

[Rambling Tiger]

Just saw the twitter video...that's awesome.

I want one of those shirts now!

[ahunte1]

SIU’s RPI only dropped to 85. If they can reel off a few wins and meet us in the conference title game, there’s a chance we could get another win in the tier 1 column. Florida clearly isn’t helping with that lately.

All of our Tier 1 and 2 games are roadies right now. That is tough. (Thanks again, NC State!)