One observation and one question. First, it may not have been picked up on TV, but the understandably smallish crowd of about 1800 was very enthusiastic and clearly helped when the team was on a run. Loyola did everything but give away tickets for the games w/o students and helped create a genuine home court atmosphere. Second, what is wrong with Alston? I'm not talking about the zero points last night. Rather, ever since he went down early in the StL game, he has not been himself. In that game, several times when he got to the basket where he is normally automatic, even if he needs two or three attempts, he was stripped of the ball. Normally he is too strong for that to even be a possibility. He is no longer getting to the basket on strong drives; more often than not he's called for an offensive foul. Overall, he seems to have lost some of his strength and maybe isn't as mentally focused as he usually is. I thought what happened in StL was a scratch in the face, but now I wonder if there might have been a concussion. I was at the game, so you all who watched on TV may have had a better view and maybe some replays and commentary. Or there may be something else. But am I the only one to think there is something going on?

He lost a contact in St. Louis (I was three rows behind the bench). But he also seemed banged up in general, and came out of the game a few times. I thought that seemed to continue in the Duquesne game.

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We gave our hottest three point shooter a clean look at the basket to win the game. Not much more you can ask than that. I thought it was pretty well coached all things considered. The team still struggles with the same things but they've clearly turned a corner. The technical on Des really blows but they didn't show it on TV so it's hard to say if he deserved it or not. That and the poor FT% is the ball game. This game felt like an MVC rockfight. Sucks not to come away with it but in a tight game like this those blown coverages at the end will do you in. I don't understand the people talking down on Richmond. They're 30 ken pom points ahead of us so it's clear improvement that we're some ticky tacky calls and or a made 3 away from winning this.

Also: King went 0-fer from 2 point land. I thought the defensive game plan on him was great except for the blown switches on the ball screens he got the threes off of. I think Jayden Dawson's improvement is one of the primary reasons the team is playing better.

Also: Phil only played 14 minutes? Something is definitely up there.

Thanks. I never saw that and the play was right in front of me. I think it continued last night, too. But with such a small sample (14 minutes) it's hard to tell . I also found it strange that Drew never put him back in the game with 4 fouls during crunch time. If nothing else he would have drawn some defensive attention.

Couple of things:

We score in the 50’s at home…Schweiger had 17 against these guys last year if I’m not mistaken. You cannot tell me that his offense would not help this team.

The sets were effective on O, the ISO game was much less impactful and it led to turnovers or late in the clock shots.

Lastly a well coached team would have never watched a player airball a 3 out of a timeout early into the clock with under 30 seconds to go in the game.

That simple.

Talent is there in uniform to be 5 games above .500 in the league.

I agree that it was one of ALston's worst games. He was late getting to a 3point shooter at least on 3 made 3s and watched him not get back on d one time and the drives to the basket from around 15 feet are not effective and often lead to foul trouble. We only had a two day turn around for this game so basic fatigue certainly could have played a part.
We did not run the offense as effectively tonight and as several people mentioned we reverted to a lot of dribbling and one on one stuff.
They shot 45% from 3 which is just darned good..we had some responsibility for some but King hit some long range stuff and was 5 for 6...you can give guys wide open 3s and seldom will they hit 5/6. Richmond set some good screens to open up some of the 3s, we went under some screens whether intentional or not dont know...
Jalen Quinn gets to the basket easily but has to learn how to finish.
Miles Rubin is basketball smart...
As for Schwieger I would like to see him get some PT subbing for Alston.
As for the 5 spot I think we have to do a better job of figuring out who will be effective. As for Tom Welch not playing last night looked like he had had treatment on both shoulder areas but have no idea if he is injured.