Ramblermania

Wednesday, February 8, 2017 7:00 p.m.
Ford Center, Evansville, Ind.

Loyola defeated Evansville 67-61 on Jan. 21 before the largest crowd of the year (3006) at Gentile Arena. The fans showed up to watch Sr. Jean Dolores Schmidt receive induction into the Loyola Hall of Fame, and to see the Ramblers start a three-game conference winning streak. Evansville played the Ramblers close throughout, and took the lead briefly with six minutes left to play, then tied the game with four minutes left. Ultimately, the Ramblers pulled away as Bruno Skokna scored seven of his 13 points in the closing four minutes. The Purple Aces eventually ended their nine-game losing streak last time out with a somewhat shocking 74-66 win over Missouri State.

The Ramblers have lost their last two games, an overtime road loss to Missouri State and a home loss to Southern Illinois. The two losses to fellow middle of the pack teams have put a dent in Loyola’s once-promising chances of getting a three seed for Arch Madness.

In the previous matchup between the two teams, Loyola held the Aces’ leading scorer Jaylon Brown to just six points in the first half and 16 for the game, a good 4 ½ points below his season average. Ryan Taylor, the other big scoring threat was also held below his average. Six-three junior guard Duane Gibson almost single-handedly kept UE in the game with 21 points and nine rebounds on 8-for-12 shooting. Loyola was led by Aundre Jackson with 17 points; Milton Doyle, Ben Richardson, and Skokna also scored in double digits.

The previous Evansville game might have been a win, but the Ramblers didn’t play all that well. It came during a spell when Clayton Custer wasn’t feeling well, a seven-game span where the 6’1” sophomore guard scored only 38 points and was held to two points or less in three of those games. Donte Ingram was held to less than half his season average and got off only four field goal attempts. And the closeness of the game throughout (or perhaps illness?) kept both Cameron Satterwhite and Vlatko Granic out of the game entirely, as Loyola only checked in 8 players. Loyola is likely to have more players available to play at 100% in the rematch.

As the Ramblers are playing in southern Indiana on Wednesday night, Loyola fans will want to keep an eye on the score in Cedar Falls between UNI and SIU. The winner of the game between those two teams takes a step forward as the front runner for the three seed at Arch Madness. If Loyola fans are confident in beating SIU in Carbondale, they may want to hope it’s SIU coming out a winner. If not, they might be rooting for the Panthers, since Loyola will likely have an RPI tiebreaker over UNI.

LINKS

• Loyola game notes (PDF)
• Evansville game notes: Pending
• TV/Streaming video: ESPN3
• Vegas odds: Pending
• Ramblermania message board game thread

Saturday, February 4, 2017 1:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Loyola gets their first look at Southern Illinois 12 games into the conference season, with both teams having posted a 6-5 record. The Salukis are fresh off a 20-point home win over Bradley on Wednesday night, while the Ramblers lost Tuesday night at Missouri State in overtime. The Salukis currently own the tiebreaker among the three teams tied for 3rd, thanks to their season sweep of Missouri State (the other team tied for 3rd). The bunching of three teams and 6-5 and two teams at 5-6 makes this home game with SIU (and the tiebreaker advantage that goes with a win), a must if Loyola has designs on a third place finish.

Coach Barry Hinson has piloted SIU to yet another competitive season even after losing key talent. Anthony Beane was a team leader, the league’s second-leading scorer, and a SIU’s third all-time scorer with 1917 points before graduating last June. Bola Olaniyan was the league’s second-leading rebounder before using the graduate transfer rule to play his final year at Alabama. Yet despite losing that experienced team leadership, the Salukis are poised for another .500 or better season, their third in the past four years.

Almost seamlessly, the Salukis have morphed from a team with a dominant scorer to a balanced squad with many equally dangerous contributors. Leading the way are two guards, 5’10” senior point guard Mike Rodriquez and 6’4” sophomore guard Armon Fletcher. The two average 13.3 and 13.1 points per game respectively, with Rodriquez scoring a significant percent of his points by getting to the free throw line and Fletcher scoring significantly through threes. Rodriquez is a great ball handler (tied for 3rd in the league in assists, 5th in assist to turnover ratio), shoots 74.1% from the free throw line, and ranks second in the league in made free throws. Fletcher leads the team in steals and has more than doubled his scoring output from his freshman year, helping to make up for the loss of Anthony Beene.

In the frontcourt are 6’6” senior forward Sean O’Brien, who averages 11.9 points and 8.0 rebounds, and 6’8” junior newcomer Thik Bol, who notches 9.1 points and 7.1 rebounds while leading the league in blocks. Bol is especially dangerous on the offensive glass, and makes good on a lot of second chance points. O’Brien has improved his shooting touch, but is still prone to fouls—he leads the league in personal fouls and has fouled out of four games. O’Brien, a Mundelein native, has the ability to explode offensively; his season high is 28 points, and SIU is 6-0 when he scores 18 or more.

The fifth starting spot lately has been held by 6’5” sophomore guard Sean Lloyd, who averages 7.8 points and 2.7 rebounds. Earlier in the season 6’1” senior guard Leo Vincent (7.8 ppg) was getting starts, but he has been replaced by Lloyd, who is a much better defensive player with more efficient scoring. Joining Vincent on the bench are 6’1” freshman Aaron Cook (quick hands, and a dangerous steal threat, not much on offense), 6’6” junior guard Jonathan Wiley, 6’8” junior forward Austin Weiher, and 6’9” sophomore forward Rudy Stradnieks.

The Salukis like to play at a faster tempo, and usually win when they score in the high 70s to mid 80s. On the year, they are 12-3 when scoring 73 points or more. When they get bogged down in long possessions they tend to make mistakes, and if you’re forcing them to shoot a three pointer late in the shot clock you’re probably going to win. The Salukis are the worst shooting team in the league behind the arc (32.0%), and the worst team in the league defending the three (40.5%). But as much as the three-point disparity seems attractive, a more subtle key to beating SIU is keeping their two-point shooting below 44%– territory where SIU is 2-10. In games where they shoot 44% or better on two pointers, they’re 12-1. Deny the ball inside to O’Brien and Bol, double-team in the paint, and do your best on the defensive glass. Take care of the ball, put pressure on the ball on defense, throw in some traps and presses, take advantage of your available threes, and you should be OK against SIU at home.

The Salukis have only three road wins on the season: at SIU-Edwardsville, at Missouri State, and at Evansville. But they’ve played very well each time they’ve come to Gentile Arena: they 2-1, with their one loss by only four-points in the year where Loyola won the CBI and SIU finished 9th in the league.

A couple last tidbits to make Loyola fans feel a bit more comfortable about this big, BIG game… Loyola is 10-3 on weekends this season, and 11-1 at home.

LINKS

• Loyola game notes (PDF)
• Southern Illinois game notes: Pending
• TV/Streaming video: CSN Chicago / ESPN3
• Radio: WLUW 88.7 FM (Get that WLUW app from Google Play or iTunes, or you can listen at wluw.org)
• Vegas odds: Pending
• Game thread at the Ramblermania message board

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 7:00 p.m.
JQH Arena, Springfield, Mo.

Loyola faces Missouri State just 16 days after the Ramblers overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to notch a 77-71 win over the Bears in Chicago. Since then, the Ramblers have won three of four and climbed a game above a pack of four teams tied for 4th. With losses in their last two games– against Drake at home and an overtime loss at SIU– the Bears are stuck at the bottom of that four-team morass, meaning they’ve fallen to what would be the 7th seed on Thursday at Arch Madness. Just after the loss at Northern Iowa on Jan. 18, the Ramblers were in a similar predicament.

Alize Johnson, who impressed everyone in the losing effort at Loyola, has been on a tear since that game, averaging 20.4 points and 12.8 rebounds in the past five games. Dequon Miller has scored in double figures in seven consecutive games while averaging 17.4 points. Miller has scored 16 points in every career appearance against Loyola, despite averaging 12.7 for his career. Chris Kendrix, who played great against Loyola until his over-aggressive foul on a Milton Doyle dunk resulted in a game-changing six-point possession for the Ramblers was demoted to the bench in the Bears’ last outing against SIU.

Loyola’s Clayton Custer was playing despite flu-like symptoms against MSU on Jan. 15, but seems to have finally recovered with a 15-point showing on 5-of-6 field goal shooting and a perfect 3-for-3 from distance. Aundre Jackson suffered a mid-season mini-slump just before Loyola’s last meeting with MSU where he scored just 13 points in three games, shooting only 40% on just 10 attempts. Since then, he’s back to his early-season form, averaging 14.2 points and shooting 72% from the field. Jackson still ranks 5th nationally in overall field goal percentage and 4th in two-point field goal percentage. The top 10 players in field goal percentage includes one 7’6” player, two 7’0” players, five 6’9” players, one at 6’7”, and Aundre Jackson at 6’5”.

One thing that hasn’t changed since Loyola’s last meeting with the Bears is MSU’s problems closing out games. Since blowing their 11-point halftime lead in their loss to Loyola, they had a six-point lead at home against Drake with less than five minutes left and failed to score on three possessions in the final two minutes of regulation of a 72-71 overtime loss. Against SIU on Saturday, they blew a 12-point halftime lead and lost their second consecutive one-point game in overtime. MSU has outscored their opponents by 205 points in first halves of games, but their opponents have outscored them by 17 in second halves. And the Bears are 1-3 in overtime, which includes the one-point losses in their last two games.

Missouri State has the kind of talent that can take over a game and make the opposition look silly for several minutes at a time, but when the clock becomes a factor they have frozen up or faltered many times. The Bears have had sizable second-half leads year over Valpo (8 points), DePaul (13), Indiana State (11) Illinois State (5), Loyola (11), Drake (9), and SIU (11) and got forced to overtime or lost. They have also had a lot of games where they’ve held a lead throughout. The Bears certainly pass the eye test on talent with flying colors, the question is whether they can perform when the clock becomes a factor.

LINKS

• Loyola game notes (PDF)
• Missouri State game notes: Pending
• TV/Streaming video: ESPN3
• Vegas odds: Pending
• Ramblermania discussion