Tuesday, December 7, 2021 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Loyola looks to complete a sweep of four Chicago schools on their schedule with a Tuesday night matchup with NAIA foe Roosevelt University. The Ramblers have already defeated Chicago State, UIC, and DePaul-- the three other Division I schools in the Chicago city limits-- over the past three weeks.
Roosevelt University re-initiated their sports programs in 2010, and in 2020 the university merged with neighboring Robert Morris University, which had a large sports footprint. Many will remember Robert Morris as the NAIA school that leased the Gentile Center for their men's basketball teams and played Loyola several times. Roosevelt is attempting to carry over most of their wide range of sports programs, including football and ice hockey.
Why would a small NAIA school attempt to field so many (14) sports? Because as an NAIA school, athletes pay full tuition unless they have an academic scholarship. Additionally, (and this is little-known by most outside the community of smaller schools with open admission requirements) athletes tend to be much better students, have much better attendance records, and persist toward graduation at a higher rate than the average student at the least competitive academic institutions. The small South Loop non-profit college that I worked for from 2004-2013-- which has a current enrollment under 600 students
total-- is playing at Valpo on Tuesday night.
Roosevelt's sports teams are known as the Lakers, and they play in the Chicago Area College Conference. They are coached by Joe Griffin, a Flint, Mich. native who served as a Grad Assistant at Michigan State from 2006-2008. Roosevelt is 7-3 on the season, with their only losses against IIT, Trinity International and St. Francis (who played at Loyola last year).
The Lakers are likely to start three forwards (6'7" senior Eetu Villa from Finland, 6'5" senior Ayomide Ajiboye from Von Steuben, and 6'4" senior Matt Myers from Willowbrook HS) and two guards (6'3" junior Justus Mouton and 6'3" junior Josh Redic out of Mt. Carmel). Redic (13.5 ppg) and Ajiboye (9.5 ppg) are the top scorers, with Redic taking the most three point shots-- an average of 7.4 per game. Ajiboye is the top rebounder with 5.8 per game, and another part-time starter chunky 6'7" junior forward Caleb Brown snagging 5.2 boards per game.
Coach Griffin always goes to 8 players deep, but can go to as many as 11-- even in closer games. Brown (7.9 ppg), 6'6" junior forward Andrew Veon (3.8 ppg), 6'4" junior guard Mark Johnson (1.6 ppg), and 6'5" junior guard Lucas Jordan (4.6 ppg) are the top players off the bench.
The Ramblers are coming off an intense, spirited, emotional 68-64 victory over crosstown rival DePaul on Saturday. It was an exhilarating local college basketball game, but the Ramblers have to keep focus with a trip to up-and-coming SEC squad Vanderbilt on Friday, a decent Norfolk State team on Dec. 19, and a top-100 team on the road in Davidson on Dec. 22.
Obviously, the Ramblers are more than 99% likely to beat Roosevelt-- Loyola hasn't lost a regular-season game to a non-DI team since a 2008 loss to Rockhurst. But it can still happen. Expect most of the regular starters for the Ramblers to open a large lead, and expect to see a lot of the players who still haven't quite adjusted to the system or we haven't seen enough of lately-- freshman Saint Thomas, junior Tom Welch, grad transfer Chris Knight, and freshman TY Johnson.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 2_7_21.pdfRoosevelt game notes: Pending
TV/Streaming video: ESPN+/ESPN3
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... %3AresultsRadio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=90&type=LiveLive stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=369443Vegas odds: N/A