Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:56 am Posts: 3928 Location: Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 7:00 p.m. Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
Back when Loyola knocked off Illinois State on Jan. 19 by the score of 62-50, the win didn't seem like momentous occasion. But winning at Illinois State has been one of the toughest nuts for Loyola to crack as members of the MVC, and the win at ISU in January made the Ramblers winners of two of the last three there. The Ramblers also had a habit of losing to Illinois State at home when they first joined the MVC, dropping the home game in the series three of the first four times out.
A funny thing happened in 2017... Illinois State tried (and mostly succeeded) in bringing up to Chicago more fans than Loyola for a New Year's Day conference game. It was a total debacle, with the Ramblers losing 81-59 and Redbird fans crowing for months over their invasion of Gentile Arena.
That Jan 1, 2017 game played a significant role in the athletic department deciding to designate the lower north sidelines seats as reserved for students, and making a concerted effort to involve the students as a high priority at Loyola games. The result was a stark turnaround. In Loyola's first four years in the MVC, the Ramblers were 16-20 (44.4%) in home conference games. Beginning with the season following the Illinois State game on Jan. 1, 2017, Loyola is 23-2 in home conference games (92%) and counting. The added result is now Loyola can sell out games because of their high home winning percentage and the electric environment produced by the students being front and center.
Wednesday night's game with ISU promises to add to Loyola's gaudy home conference winning percentage. Illinois State is on track to have their worst season since Porter Moser's 2005-06 rebuilding year at ISU. Since their shocking win in their conference home opener against Northern Iowa, the 9th-place Redbirds are 2-11. Last time out, Coach Muller's crew had a 17-point 2nd half lead at Redbird Arena (and a 4-point lead with less than two minutes) only to lose to Valpo by the score of 65-62.
The Redbirds are likely to start 6'4" senior guard Zach Copeland, 6'8" junior forward Keith Fisher III, 6'6" senior guard Jaycee Hillsman, 6'1" freshman guard DJ Horne, and 6'9" freshman forward Abdou Ndiaye. Copeland leads the team with 15.1 ppg, mostly coming from 40% shooting behind the arc. Fisher and Hillsman, the tall forward-guard duo who transferred from San Jose State each average about 8 1/2 points per game. Ndiaye is mostly a rim protector-- he leads the team with 27 blocks, but scores only 1.7 points on average and gets 3.4 rebounds. Horne, and Antonio Reeves out of Chicago's Simeon HS coming off the bench, are very talented guards with a lot of potential.
Dedric Boyd is a 6'4" sophomore transfer from Eastern Kentucky who comes off the bench and scores an average of 6.6 points. Six-nine sophomore forward Rey Idowu is the top big man sub.
Illinois State is near the bottom of the league in field goal percentage, free throw percentage(a tick above Loyola), and scoring margin. But they're in the middle of the pack in three point shooting percentage and three point defense. Last time these two played, exactly a month ago, Tate Hall was Loyola's offensive hero with 17 points. Keith Clemons added 10 points, Jaylon Pipkins had nine, and Krutwig and Uguak each had 7. Zach Copeland had 17 and Dedric Boyd had 15 points for the Redbirds, but ISU's bench had a total of only two points in a total of 60 combined court minutes.
It's the Jesuit Jam, so look for a little extra excitement, events and participation from the Jesuit community.
I'm not necessarily disputing your claim that the 2017 ISU home game led to the change in student seating, but is this more your inference or is there documentary proof?
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:56 am Posts: 3928 Location: Chicago, Illinois
Swella... I can't say it was that one game by itself. There was also a stat about that time that showed Loyola won almost every home game with more than 1750 in attendance (except the WSU games), and lost about half of the games with attendance below that.
I think that game and the SIU game where we allowed all of their fans to sit right behind the cheerleaders and next to our bench had a lot to do with it.
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