Saturday, February 1, 2020 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.


With half the MVC schedule in the rear view mirror, Loyola gets a chance to face Bradley for the first time this year. At 6-3, the Braves have survived some key injuries to earn a tie with the Ramblers and Salukis for second place, well ahead of their performance last year when they surged late in the year to take Arch Madness.

Bradley returned almost all their players from their trip to the NCAA Tournament last season. The Braves were picked to finish second in the conference preseason poll on the basis of their returning personnel and newcomers. But rather quickly, some of the key Bradley players went down with injuries. Elijah Childs, in my opinion Bradley's best player, re-injured his hand in early January and elected to have surgery. Darrell Brown, Bradley's floor leader for nearly four years, missed two key conference games with a leg injury. Only three Bradley players have played in every game, and only two players have started every game.

The Braves are very tough at home, where they're 12-1 this season. Their only home loss was against Northern Iowa with Darrell Brown out with the injury. They're similarly tough at neutral sites, where they are 1-1, with the win over Kansas State and the loss to Northwestern. But on the road, in true road games, Bradley has lost to St. Joseph's , Memphis, Miami of Ohio (by 16 points), Northern Iowa, and Indiana State. Their two road wins were at Evansville and at Missouri State.

The Ramblers looked pretty sharp and running on all cylinders until their overtime session at Northern Iowa. After the OT loss at UNI, the Ramblers played their weakest game of the conference season at Southern Illinois, where the Salukis won their fourth straight and earned a tie with Bradley and Loyola. Loyola has had a several two-game losing streaks in the past two seasons, but the Ramblers haven't lost three in a row since they lost four straight in February 2017. But given the competitive MVC this year, with four teams within one game of the top spot, any game between those top four teams becomes a must-win-- especially after losing two in a row against those top four.

Bradley will start three guards, 5'10" senior Darrell Brown, 6'6" senior Nate Kennell, and 6'1" junior Danya Kingsby. As everyone knows, Brown is the feisty floor leader for Bradley, averaging 14.3 points per game and 4.9 assists per game. Brown is not a great shooter from the field-- he shoots only 29.2% on two-point shot attempts-- but he shoots a respectable 34% behind the arc. He also has a patented head jerk (NOT a flop, but rather a quick subtile backwards jerk of his head to simulate actual contact and get foul calls when he drives to the basket) that has helped him make a league-leading 124 trips to the free throw line. Watch it in slow-mo if you get a chance... that took a whole lot of practice to perfect.

Nate Kennell is another Bradley guard who shoots better from behind the arc than inside. Kennell is probably the MVC's most prolific three point shooter, firing at nearly 46% behind the arc and hoisting up the third-most attempts in the league. He averages 13.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and takes care of the ball really well. He may look like a guy a guy behind a rental car desk, but he's an assassin. Juco transfer Danya Kingsby rounds out the starting guards and averages 8.5 points per game.

In the frontcourt, there's much-improved Koch Bar, a 6'11" senior center, and 6'6" sophomore forward Ja'shon Henry. Bar is averaging 7.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, and passing much better in traffic than he ever has before. Bar is third in the league in blocked shots, right behind the guy who comes in for him when he leaves the game, 7'1" Ari Boya. Henry promises to be a first or second-team all conference player by the time he's a senior, and currently averages 10.2 points per game with really good finishing ability inside. Henry can also shoot open threes at 38% and collects 6.0 rebounds per game.

Newcomers Ville Tahvanainen (a 6'4" distance sharpshooter from Finland), and 6'2" freshman guard Antonio Thomas also get a lot of time off the bench.

Up until now, there haven't been any conference games that have been "must-wins" for Loyola, but this one probably is. After losing in Carbondale, Cedar Falls, and Des Moines, the Ramblers can't afford to lose any home games and still maintain a realistic hope of winning the conference regular season title. A Bradley win would put the Braves ahead of the Ramblers with the remaining game in Peoria. And the Ramblers' next game is against Indiana State, a team that's currently 9-0 at home.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 2_1_20.pdf

Bradley game notes: https://bradleybraves.com/documents/202 ... f?id=11210

TV/Streaming video: ESPN 2 https://www.espn.com/watch?id=ba83e69d- ... 23c3e2c175

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=24&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=280009

Vegas odds: Loyola by 6

He also has a patented head jerk (NOT a flop, but rather a quick subtile backwards jerk of his head to simulate actual contact and get foul calls when he drives to the basket) that has helped him make a league-leading 124 trips to the free throw line. Watch it in slow-mo if you get a chance... that took a whole lot of practice to perfect.

Well done.

So you're saying a head fling alone is not a body flop. What if you add a shoulder shrug to the head fling? Would that be enough for a flop?
How about a head fling, shoulder shrug AND chest heave? Still not enough? What if you continue down the torso to include a hip shake along with the head fling, shoulder shrug and chest heave?
Or do you have to involve some nether regions before you can be called for a flop?
Are there any explicit body part guidelines for what constitutes a flop, or is it a judgment call by the referee?
I'll hang up and listen offline.

In the words of the late great Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart “ I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["Flop”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it...”

Hopefully Bradley will be called today for such transgressions.

Go Ramblers!

SIU is taking it to Drake. Up 18 a minute into the second half.

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Brown did the neck jerk going around the Krutwig screen

I really don’t like Brian Wardle.

Frustrating last 10 minutes. We should be up by 10, but missed free throws and missed fast break opportunities are killing us.

What really concerns me is that Bradley played pretty bad in the first half and they're only down by 1. Didn't like the body language going to the locker, either.

We know what they're trying to do offensively and defensively. We need to execute better.

Aher needs to help on offense, most of the time he doesn't even look at the basket 《sigh》
I don't know why they aren't trying to get big Frank more touches under the basket, utilize him please!!!

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