The Loyola Ramblers head into the 2024-25 season for the first time in five years without Braden Norris on the roster, and without a single player left from Loyola’s time in the MVC. Entering his fourth season at the helm, Loyola Head Coach Drew Valentine has re-made the roster to reflect improved recruiting power and more athletic competition in the A-10. A tie for the regular-season title last year in Loyola’s second season in the league shows his strategy is moving the program in the right direction.
The most immediately notable thing about the 2024-25 Ramblers is the height and length and athleticism. They will be able to do a lot of things that previous LUC teams weren’t able to do. There is certainly more depth in the frontcourt than I can ever remember on any Loyola team— 15 fouls to give between 6’10” Miles Rubin, 6’9” Jalen DeLoach, and 6’9” freshman Brayden Young. That’s an astounding level of talent at the center position. With DaRon Holmes, Toibu Lowal, Matt Cohen, Chad Venning, Bradley Ezewiro, and many other big-bodied, experienced, athletic centers out of the league this year, the Ramblers have an opportunity to run more offense through the front court, and Rubin appears to have gained skills on offense in the off season. The top offensive and defensive threats in the league down low this year will be Robbie Avila at St. Louis and Rasheer Fleming at St. Joe’s.
In the backcourt, Des Watson, Jalen Quinn and Jayden Dawson are top on-ball defenders. Justin Moore (a 6’3″ point guard and Drexel transfer) has great quickness and picks his moments on defense more selectively, resulting in a team-leading 1.1 steals per game last year at Drexel, and a game-high 4 steals in Loyola’s exhibition. Quinn is great at streaking to the basket and finishing, and Moore can score in furious streaks from inside and outside.
Besides the previously-mentioned Justin Moore, incoming transfers
Kymany Houinsou (Washington State) and
Francis Nwaokorie (UC San Diego) are two experienced 6’7″ forwards. Housinsou is known more for his defense, and Nwaokorie was the fourth leading scorer and second-best rebounder for the 21-win Big West runner-ups.
The four exciting freshmen coming up on this year’s team are maybe the best group of true freshmen at Loyola since the early 1980’s (that class with Alfredrick Hughes, Andre Battle, and Greg Williams combined for 5002 career points, 1730 rebounds, and a first-round NBA pick). Six-foot-six guard Daniil Glazkov, 6’8″ guard Seifeldin Hendawy, 6’9″ forward/center
Brayden Young, and 6’3 point guard Jack Turner are each talented enough to earn some crucial game minutes and perhaps earn a regular rotation spot.
The keys for this year’s Ramblers will be limiting turnovers (there were 14 on Tuesday), establishing a go-to scorer, and maintaining enough high-percentage shooting from behind the arc. Those are my only worries. In recruiting and assembling this team with the emphasis on length, height and athleticism (I think that’s the order of preference), and high willingness to play defense as a team, this team is just a bit less versatile overall than last year’s squad. Will the Ramblers miss the old man skills in isolation of Dame Adelekun, the sharp-shooting of Braden Norris when open behind the arc, and the bull-in-a-China-shop muscle of Philip Alston? Absolutely. There is a possibility that something like those specialties could develop from this year’s squad, sure.
Last year’s team had the versatility of tapping specialties from various players. But those skills weren’t apparent at the start of the season. Adelekun’s set of exceptional skills and their precise utility didn’t become apparent until game 19 against Fordham. Norris was coming off the worst season of his career when last year began, and he got back his stride in the Central Michigan game– the last non-con game. Alston was injured in the home loss to UIC (playing only 9 minutes) and had his worst game of the year in the home loss to Richmond. But two games after the Richmond loss, Alston’s particular skills won the UMass game with a coast-to-coast drive to the basket, foul, and a sunk free throw to win at the buzzer.
Loyola is picked 4th or 5th by the league poll and most prognosticators, which is encouraging, and I think pretty accurate. In a league with 15 teams and unequal scheduling, finishing among the top 6 can often be realistically good enough to get to the Tournament. Last year both the #1 and #2 seeds got two byes and went down in their first league tournament game to teams that had played knock-down, drag-out games the day before. The #3 and #6 teams made it to the Tournament, and both teams got a win in the tournament to reach the Round of 32. Fifth-seeded VCU went to the NIT and won road games against Villanova and South Florida.
I expect the floor of the league to be a little bit higher than it was last year. I see VCU and Dayton in the top tier of the league (15-14 conference wins); Saint Louis, St. Joseph’s and Loyola in the second tier of teams (13-11 wins); George Mason, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island, and UMass in the group around the .500 mark; and Duquesne, Davidson, LaSalle, George Washington, and Fordham battling to stay out of the A10 pillow-fight (7 to 5 wins each). I see a lot of those pillow fight teams capable of knocking off second-tier teams at home, and a few .500 or under teams shocking contenders. LaSalle, for instance, has had the least talent in the league for three years in a row including the upcoming season—but Fran Dunphy has kept them out of the basement (10th and 12th place the past two years), while winning three A-10 tournament games in the two seasons.
The Ramblers really need to take care of business in the non-con to be in position to get an at-large bid. Even a 10-3 record in non-con with losses to Princeton, San Francisco and Nebraska probably isn’t enough. Going 11-2 with a quality win in non-con, finishing 12-6 or better in conference, and winning one or two games in the A-10 tournament would possibly qualify for an at-large based on the strength of the league.
