Ramblermania

Saturday, November 19, 2016 2:30 p.m.
Sports and Fitness Center, St. Thomas
U.S. Virgin Islands

Loyola lost to St. Joseph’s 71-57 in their first-ever meeting on Friday at the Paradise Jam in the US Virgin Islands. Following Loyola’s loss, Oral Roberts took Ole Miss to overtime before losing 95-88, setting up Saturday’s matchup.

Loyola was a conference mate of the Golden Eagles for many years in the 1980s, and met several times through the 1990s and 2000s in non-conference battles. The Ramblers knocked ORU out of the 2015 CBI in their last meeting with a 86-78 win on March 23, 2015.

Coach Scott Sutton’s team looks promising and potentially dangerous in the early going, losing by 15 at Baylor and taking Ole Miss to OT. The Golden Eagles got an 11-point home win over non-D1 Rogers State last week. ORU will likely start Kris Martin, Aaron Anderson and Jalen Bradley at guards, Emmanuel Nzekwesi at forward, and Albert Owens at center. Nzekwesi and Owens each scored 20+ against Ole Miss, and Bradley got 12 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals playing 44 of the 45 minutes of the game. Nzewkwesi played also played all but one minute of the game, and Owens put in 36 minutes. Junior guard Aaron Young was the only ORU player off the bench to log double digit minutes. Fatigue may be a factor in a game beginning less than 24 hours after a tense OT contest.

The Ramblers disappointed against a short-handed Saint Joseph’s team, who were playing without their top rebounder and returning scorer. Nevertheless, the SJU backcourt torched the Ramblers with a combined 46 points from the two starting guards, one of whom scored a career high 26 with five three pointers. Loyola only found the bottom of the net on six out of 27 (!??!?) attempts. Ben Richardson and Bruno Skokna combined for zero points in 50 minutes on the court. Aundre Jackson was excellent, with 22 points on 9 for 11 shooting from the field, but no one else met or exceeded their season average or expectations. Only Doyle (34) and Ingram (31) played more than 30 minutes, so the Ramblers will be better rested.

Now on the losing side of the bracket, the Ramblers will just have to make the best of what’s left to them and try to grind out two wins against ORU and either Montana or Washington State on Monday to partly salvage the trip. The next two teams will be similar to the low-middle or bottom of the MVC, so it will be a good early indicator of how we might do in the conference season.

Links

Talk about the game on the Loyola Rambler basketball message board

Paradise Jam Bracket: http://paradisejam.com/wp-content/uploa … turday.pdf

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy … 119aaa.pdf

Oral Roberts game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: (pay) http://www.flohoops.com/event/253702-u- … sion-i-men

Radio: http://www.oruathletics.com/broadcast/naswrp

Vegas odds: Pending

Friday, November 18, 2016 11:30 a.m.
Sports and Fitness Center, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

The 2016 Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands kicks off Nov. 18, when Loyola faces Saint Joseph’s. The Hawks enter the tournament at 2-0, after defeating Toledo 77-76 in their home season opener and demolishing Columbia three days later, 85-65. After a 28-8 season in 2015-16, where the Hawks beat Cincinnati in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 before losing to Oregon in the 3rd round, St. Joe’s was picked to finish 10th this year in the preseason poll of the 14-member A-10.

The Ramblers are 3-0, with lopsided wins over Alcorn State and two non-Division 1 schools. While back-to-back wins over teams with few players taller than 6’4” might be what will most help some of the many newcomers develop more quickly, the downside of otherwise meaningless games became apparent in Loyola’s 97-59 win over Eureka. One of the Ramblers’ most promising freshman players, Matt Chastain, suffered a knee injury. The severity of the injury hasn’t been announced, but the 6’6” freshman forward who has averaged 3.7 points, 3.0 rebounds in three games will likely not be available for a while.

Phil Martelli’s squad will likely start 6’0” junior Shavar Newkirk and 6’0” sophomore Lamarr Kimble at guard, and two forwards—freshman Charlie Brown and sophomore Markell Lodge. Nick Robinson, a 6’6” freshman guard out of Kenwood Academy is likely to start for junior forward James Demery, the team’s best rebounder and the sixth man from last year’s squad, who suffered a stress fracture in his foot during the season opener.

Newkirk is a dynamic scorer, who leads the team in the early going by averaging 22.5 points per game. Kimble led the team with 19 points on Monday against Columbia, despite going 0-for-7 on three point attempts. Both Newkirk and Kimble are on the court as long as possible to guide the younger newcomers. Of the two freshmen in the starting lineup, Brown appears a little better than Robinson on offense. Lodge is primarily the defensive force in the paint, with the same number of blocks on the season (4) as rebounds, and averaging 2.5 points.

Six-foot-eight senior forward Javon Baumann, 6’6” forward Brendan Casper, and 6’3” sophomore guard Chris Clover get most of the playing time off the bench, with Casper and Clover capable of scoring in double digits. They are also defensively sound, with Casper showing skill at taking charges (three of them against Columbia) and Baumann shaping up as a very strong rim defender (six boards, two blocks, four points in 16 minutes versus Columbia). Lorenzo Edwards, a 6’7” freshman forward out of Lake Forest, and 6’9” junior forward Jai Williams may also play a few minutes. However, the loss of Demery really hurts an inexperienced team with not much height in a rebuilding year.

Loyola will most likely start Milton Doyle, Clayton Custer, Ben Richardson, Donte Ingram, and Maurice Kirby. With Chastain likely unavailable and the level of competition taking a huge step up in quality at the Paradise Jam, expect to see Doyle, Ingram, Jackson, and Satterwhite play considerably more minutes than they have in the early going. The Ramblers will need to limit the scoring by St. Joe’s backcourt duo of Newkirk and Kimble, make great interior passes, and find the shooting touch on mid-range shots against the Hawks’ talented but inexperienced frontcourt. Expect the play of Aundre Jackson and Donte Ingram to determine the outcome.

The winner of this game will face the winner of the Oral Roberts/Ole Miss game on Sunday and capture a path on the winner side of the bracket, assuring no worse than a 5th place finish; the loser plays the Ole Miss/Oral Roberts loser and can finish no better than 4th.

Links

Discuss Loyola basketball and the game at the Ramblermania message board

Loyola game notes: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy … 117aaa.pdf

St. Joseph’s game notes: http://www.sjuhawks.com/pdf9/5089207.pd … M_ID=31200

TV/Streaming video: (pay) http://www.flohoops.com/event/253702-u- … sion-i-men

Radio: WTMR AM 800 (http://www.iheart.com/live/wtmr-800am-5801/)

Vegas odds: St. Joe’s by 5

IU Northwest
Sunday, November 13, 2016 2:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Eureka College
Monday, November 14, 2016 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

After looking a little unsure through the first 2/3 of their season opener on Friday night against Alcorn State, the Ramblers turned up the defense to spark their offense in a 69-44 win. Loyola’s newcomers will have plenty of opportunity to get tuned up for the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands next weekend with games against NAIA and Division III foes on Sunday and Monday.

IU Northwest likes to play up tempo hoops, but they aren’t really great at it. In four games so far this season, they average 86.3 points per game and have yet to be held under 76 points in a game. The bad news, and the reason they’re only 1-3 on the season, is their opponents are averaging 87 points a game.

The RedHawks are built for speed and ball handling. Their top scorers– senior Darius Davis, junior Ronald Alexander, junior Vince Gooden, and freshman Jovan Jackson —are all guards between 6’1” and 6’3”. They only have five players listed as forwards on their entire 15-player roster, and only three players listed as taller than 6’4”. So expect the challenge for the Ramblers to be controlling the tempo and preventing the runnin’ RedHawks from fast break opportunities.

The Eureka College Red Devils have only played one contest thus far, an exhibition against Eastern Illinois, which resulted in a dismal drubbing by the score of 94-58. Eureka Coach Chip Wilde started 6’0” Lewis transfer Shea Feehan, 5’10” Ryan McElmurry, and 5’10” Hank Thomas at the guard spots against Eastern Illinois; 6’5” senior Parker Gibson and 6’4” sophomore Alex Wiegand started in the frontcourt. Only Feehan ( a team leading 16 points) and Thomas (13) scored in double digits for the Red Devils as EIU out-rebounded tiny Eureka 51-25 and held Eureka to 32.1% shooting.

Last year, Loyola beat Eureka 84-51, which allowed many bench players and walk-ons to get some playing time after led 44-18 at halftime. Eureka is about half way between Bloomington-Normal and Peoria. As many people know, was the alma mater of Ronald Reagan and located in the home town of Chicago Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist. There are nine freshmen and four sophomores from Central Illinois on Eureka’s roster, so many of Eureka’s players are probably well acquainted with Loyola’s Matt Chastain and Jake Baughman.

Loyola’s game on Sunday will be broadcast on 88.7 FM WLUW, returning Loyola to the radio airwaves after a long absence. I recently downloaded the free WLUW app for my android phone, and the app provides a great one-click option to listen live to WLUW with excellent sound quality away from a radio or outside the station’s signal reach. It would be nice if Loyola fans could support the broadcasts, because it would help justify having the games on WLUW. I highly recommend this app!

Links

Game discussion at Ramblermania

Loyola game notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/sports/m- … 16aab.html

TV/Streaming video: ESPN3 IU-Northwest (http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/i … olachicago)

ESPN3 Eureka (http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index/_/i … olachicago)

Radio for IU Northwest: WLUW 88.7 (http://wluw.org)