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PostPosted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 8:42 pm 
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Saturday, December 4, 2020 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Loyola's home conference opener Saturday night is against the MVC's hands-down pre-season favorite, Missouri State. The Bears are loaded with talent and experience, big bodies and good athletes-- but they haven't seemed to bring all the elements into good working order this season. Coming into Saturday's game at Loyola, Missouri State stands at 7-7 overall, 1-0 in conference and approximately 140 in the KenPom ratings.

In fairness, Missouri State has had their share of injuries. Hometown star Jared Ridder, a 6'8" sophomore forward who transferred back home from Xavier, averaged 5.1 points last year as a freshman. One of last year's part time starters and the first man off the bench, Kabir Mohommed, missed three games. MSU's impressive juco transfer center, Gaige Prim, missed the first five games of the year on crutches.

Under second-year head coach Dana Ford, MSU has mostly played to just under the level of their competition. The Bears lost to Little Rock (at home) and Buffalo (on a neutral court) by one point, lost at Xavier by three points, and lost to Miami (FL) by four points. They beat St. Joe's by two points, and got a two-point win over Murray State at home thanks to a missed free throw bouncing the right way in the closing seconds. In their conference opener on Tuesday, they looked uninterested and a bit distracted as they trailed Evansville by 13 points late in the first half before waking up and cruising to a 65-52 win.

The Bears are likely to start Keandre Cook (a juco transfer), Tulio Da Silva (a senior transfer from South Florida), Lamont West (a senior transfer from West Virginia), Tyrik Dixon (a junior transfer from Middle Tennessee), and freshman Isiaih Mosley. Top players off the bench will be juco transfer Gaige Prim, senior transfer from Nevada Josh Hall, and another juco transfer, Kabir Mohammed.

Cook, a 6'5"senior guard, is leading the team with 14.7 ppg on 40.6% shooting from the field. He takes a lot of shots, almost 50% more than the second most prolific shooter on the team, but when he gets hot, he can carry a team. He's had one 31 point game this season and averaged 19.5 ppg in MSU's two wins against Loyola last season.

DaSilva, the 6'8" senior forward, was also a big factor against Loyola last season. The Brazilian averaged 15 points and 8.5 rebounds in the two MSU wins over Loyola. This year, he's averaging 10.7 points and 7.6 rebounds, shooting less frequently from behind the arc, and sharing the ball a bit more often.

Lamont West is a 6'8" senior forward who's averaging 10.7 points per game. Junior guard Tyrik Dixon is a 6'1" point guard who averages 7.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists. Freshman guard Isiaih Mosley is chunky at 6'5" and 195 pounds, but he can shoot the ball from anywhere on the court-- he was just added to the starting lineup after shooting 58.1% on two-point shots, 56.3% on three-point shots, and 72.7% on free throws. Mosley is averaging 13.3 ppg in his last three games.

The big factor, however, especially when it comes to Loyola is 6'8" junior center Gaige Prim. The 250-pound center has been compared to Cameron Krutwig when it comes to footwork in the paint, and averages 13.1 ppg playing about 22 minutes per game off the bench. It will be fun to watch Prim and Krutwig facing each other as two old school, throwback centers using footwork, skill, size and savvy more than athleticism.

Loyola is 4-2 in home conference openers, Missouri State is 0-4 on the road this year, and Loyola is 5-2 at home. The Ramblers are 6-6 against MSU since joining the MVC, 4-2 at home and 2-4 on the road. Last season was the first time MSU swept Loyola in a season series, the Ramblers swept in 2014-15. The Ramblers should be favored, but Dana Ford-- who played his last three years in college under Porter Moser-- seems to pull out all the stops when facing his former coach.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 1_4_20.pdf

Missouri State game notes: https://missouristatebears.com/document ... tes_15.pdf

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago / ESPN + https://www.espn.com/watch?id=5d3b88b9- ... yola-US-EN

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=16&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=280005

Vegas odds: Loyola by 5.5


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:35 am 
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MSU sounds impressive.....you mentioned injuries....is everyone back and healthy now ? nice review.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:55 am 
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Hopefully we can get some better bounces this year. I remember this game vividly from last year. It was such a close game and they hit so many contested 3s at the end of the shot clock. I think a couple were even banked in. They actually shot better from 3 (11 for 16, 68.8%) than 2 (13 for 22, 59.1%).


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:32 am 
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Last year's two games vs Missouri State still haunt me. The humiliating blowout at their place and then the game of lucky bounces and shots at Gentile. Time to get rid of that bad taste.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:44 am 
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goramblers2011 wrote:
Last year's two games vs Missouri State still haunt me. The humiliating blowout at their place and then the game of lucky bounces and shots at Gentile. Time to get rid of that bad taste.


This makes me thing Big Joe should do a Ten Worst Losses of the Decade list...

EDIT: I'll do it.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 1:10 pm 
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ahunte1 wrote:
goramblers2011 wrote:
Last year's two games vs Missouri State still haunt me. The humiliating blowout at their place and then the game of lucky bounces and shots at Gentile. Time to get rid of that bad taste.


This makes me thing Big Joe should do a Ten Worst Losses of the Decade list...

EDIT: I'll do it.



Yet another opportunity to type “Boise State game!”

We need to pull up that thread so we can see all the horrible things we wrote about the team after that game.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:10 pm 
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It didn't turn out to be a really terrible loss, but because of the way it happened and the timing, last year's Furman loss still haunts me.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:40 pm 
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ToledoRambler wrote:
ahunte1 wrote:
goramblers2011 wrote:
Last year's two games vs Missouri State still haunt me. The humiliating blowout at their place and then the game of lucky bounces and shots at Gentile. Time to get rid of that bad taste.


This makes me thing Big Joe should do a Ten Worst Losses of the Decade list...

EDIT: I'll do it.



Yet another opportunity to type “Boise State game!”

We need to pull up that thread so we can see all the horrible things we wrote about the team after that game.


viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2102

Surprisingly not too awful. Even some optimistic posts scattered. Not nearly as pessimistic as the Cleveland State thread from a few years back that was pulled up in another thread.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:42 pm 
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JCT wrote:
It didn't turn out to be a really terrible loss, but because of the way it happened and the timing, last year's Furman loss still haunts me.


That's on the list. Hopefully tomorrow's revenge attempt goes better than our trip to Furman did...

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 4:21 pm 
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I can't make it tomorrow night. I have four tickets if anyone wants them. Send me a message

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