We are currently 286 in the NET. This is not a misprint. We knew it was going to be a tough year, but 286? If this continues, how will our recruiting be affected and will players change their minds or perception of Loyola? We are in a delicate period right now . We lost the group that raised the program up and right now this team has no identity. If we have a couple of bad years it will be interesting to see if we become a perennial after thought or door mat again.

Not too surprised. Hopefully they figure it out but as of now you've got to think we're the worst team in the A10. 20 losses seems likely... we should be Green Bay, Albany, and a couple of the lesser A10 teams, but not sure I see eight more wins on the schedule.

Let's not go crazy because we lost an overtime game to a Big East team. I watched Saint Joseph's lose to Fairleigh Dickinson at home by 17 points on Saturday. LaSalle isn't very good this year, and George Washington has had one win (at home) against teams better than KenPom 300. I've seen just about every team in the league have bad stretches and meltdowns. Dayton lost to BYU after opening the game with a 32-9 lead.

I think the team will get better as the year goes along. We'll be worse than we thought at the beginning of the season, the hope is we avoid the pillow fight.

Our NET in the 260's is in the territory of UIC and Illinois State. Better than only Valpo and Evansville in the Valley. Simply shocking.

All that said, it looks like the A10 will be a one bid conference.

Ahead of only La Salle among A10 teams. It's so frustrating because you can squint and see a good team, and ostensibly the talent level is about as high as it's ever been. It's tough to go back to approaching these games like it's 2012 or something, we are too talented for that but those are the results we are seeing.

Still time to turn things around a bit, But if the season ended today, you have to give Drew an F. No way around it. Complete failure on multiple fronts

- predictable/uncreative X's and O's
- complete inability to react to other teams' adjustments as they go on 10+ pt runs and put the game away, much less any hope of meaningful pro-active adjustments for us
- players not improving, if not regressing
- halfway through the season and rotation is STILL just throwing crap against the wall. Seems like nobody on the team knows what their role is

Agree.
1. We should have been better.
However
1. I think this year can be written off to the # of new players, and the quality of the players we lost and the bump up in schedule. So I think next year is the real season in which we have to be in form. Two seasons would say we cant develop players etc and maybe cast dispersion on Coach Valentine and
2. Remember it took Coach Porter some time to get the Ramblers up to speed.
3. I think more important this year is
A. We do not continue to fully just fall apart. Kids need to play hard, win the games we can win and
not quit.
B. The Atmosphere at games needs to stay the way it was. The loss to Depaul was brutal but if I was
a recruit at that game what would have won me over was the atmosphere. Going to games for
over 50 years and have never heard the gym as loud as it was that night in the last minute. If I
was a recruit I would have said. " I want to be part of that!" and if we can continue to do it in an
off season..? So lets make sure WE do our part and get to the games
C. That the team and the coach continue to portray that this is a great place to play. the Coach is a
great guy to play for and the kids love to be here. I have had some concerns this year about the
behavior of Coach. Have heard some things from people who sit court side.
D. I got a feeling we are going to see some player changes and development and play is going to
improve

The player matrix was totally disrupted by having multiple players return for their bonus covid year last season. The result was a tournament qualifying team and continued winning successes last year. The biproduct is eleven new players and a team this year lacking game experience in key positions. My thought is that it is unfair to evaluate the team or coach at this point in the season. I personally will be looking for continued growth and will also wait to evaluate coaching performance and team results until this season is played in full. In my mind, this team needed to be prepared to compete at a championship level by mid February. I still see the possibility of this happening and will provide my unwaivering support and encouragement regardless of individual game outcomes. If this team grows as a unit like i think possible, some of the critical comments in here will not age well. With eleven new players, coaching can be very challenging. Drew was handed this situation, he did not create it. Just like the young players, Drew is a young coach but I have no doubt that by season's end he will have this team competing at a more competitive level. Go Ramblers! Beat George Mason!

Yeah well the "11 new players" coach excuse fades day by day. The ivy league guys from last year didn't have too much time in the system, but it was Porter time. And they did so much better than any of the guys are doing now.

Consider this ... last season players new to the system scored 25.6% of Loyola's points. This season that ratio is 53.7% (more than double). Last season, players new to Loyola consumed 21.9% of playing time minutes. This season that ratio is 45.3% of playing time (more than double). Last season, players without previous D1 experience consumed 3.3% of the available playing time. This season, that same unexperienced playing time ratio is 36.4% (10 times more than last season). Point being, it is difficult to compare how newbies settled in last year vs this year, it is a totally different scenario.

Rambling On...some good and interesting stats.. Made me think how the new transfer rules have made things different and how schools now have to make choices. We see some teams now come in with all new , seasoned , experienced teams made up of transfers like GW the other night. Only one player who came in as a freshman and they had tons of new but experienced players from P5 schools(11 total). Not one recruited, inexperienced freshman on the bench. Loyola would have had , if Ty Johnson had stayed, essentially 6 inexperienced players on the squad. Johnson, Thomas, Scweiger, Dawson, Quinn and Lewis. The richer will always get the best of the pick...lets say Dawson had a great year and averaged 20 points...would not P5 teams come sniffing around ? So now in this new landscape incoming freshman have two liabilities 1. most likely inexperienced and not ready to play and 2. If they are they could get swiped...

I think the answer is that the NCAA needs to limit the amount of transfers a team can get per year.
Personally I like to see LU bring in freshman , watch them grow and develop and get their LU degree.