Well said.

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Had we not picked up these last two games, we’d likely be undefeated heading into conference play. But, would we be a better team or in a better position for conference run? No, IMHO. Not by a long shot. Whether we have an at large bid or not is always a long shot for our conference, and probably even more so this year. The goal is to be better by March, and these games went a long way towards that happening.

Absoloutely. Nicely framed.

Well said and 100% agreed, this these past two games will have us in better position come conference play.

We played one of the worst halves of basketball ever played against decent competition in years. The team was unrecognizable. Instead of giving up (Boise State - final four year) we stepped up. We played well enough to win against a great team despite 20 minutes of poor play. That, in itself, is impressive.

If your dream is to have a winning season - congrats. We are going to do that. Loyola will finish the year with more wins than losses. Given where we were 10 years ago, that’s not a terrible dream to have....

But if you want to be a great program that competes year-in and year-out in the tournament against great teams, we are not near that.

There’s only one key stat to take away from this game. Richmond went 15-19 from the line and we went 12-18, for 66%. Free throws are the one aspect of this game that mid majors can gain ground on power 5 big boys and other great teams. We make just 2 more free throws in this game, and we probably win it, in spite of our poor first half play. Say what you want, but Porter’s post-game press conference after the Valpo loss at arch madness was telling.... the team had been blowing free throws all year, and he stated that he knew it was a problem and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to them. It was up to him to push the guys to get better after that and that aspect of coaching and preparation in the off season was a complete failure. To make it worse - free throws during the pandemic was the one thing that each player could have taken the initiative to work on, individually, with ease and it’s obvious that most did not. It will be our eventual downfall.

Obviously Uguak didn’t single handedly lose this particular game. Everyone blew the first half. But at some point, with all the talent on this team, when you lose against quality opponents you have to assess what you might be able to fix.

Tonight - Uguak gives 15 minutes, 0 points, 0-1 from the field, 4 fouls. Every other starter was in double figures except Williamson, and he had 8.

Meanwhile, in 9 minutes. Welch goes 3-4 (with a very good look on a miss driving to the basket), playing out of position. Everyone sees how Welch looks out there... He can play 9 minutes at backup center and another 11+ at the 4-spot. He’s not gassed!

I am officially sick of hearing about Aher’s defense. Uguak has 60+ games under his belt starting. I dare anybody to comb through the records and find me 20 (1/3) games where you thought he played “a great game” AND scored 6 points or more! If you think you can do it, then I’ll look at your twenty games and figure out how many you picked that were against teams who finished that season with a winning record. I bet you won’t be surprised at that number....

Were you blown away by his defense in the big Norfolk State win when he scored 0 points in 20 minutes ?

Or how about the Coppin State debacle where he put up 5 points, 4 turnovers and fouled out in 28 minutes of play, going 3-6 from the line?

Would you bring up the overtime loss to UNI where he had 3 points in 24 minutes with no assists or steals?

Or the UNI overtime win when he had 4 points 2 assist and one steal in 39 minutes? (All 5 starters for UNI scored in double figures against his stellar defense that game, by the way).

The Valpo overtime loss might have been one of his better games. he went 2-8 from the field in 37 minutes? He went 3 of 9 from the free throw line in that game for 33%.

Nobody plays a perfect game each time out, but with 60+ games and 3 years under Porter’s direction, if you dont think we need to change out a starter who has 0 points, 0 steals, 1 assist and 6 fouls in 35 minutes of play against Wisconsin and Richmond, then we have different expectations for that position.

Talk about defense, talk about experience, chemistry, playing within Porter’s system., etc... but I’m pretty sure Anderson or Welch could figure out how to put up 0 points and 1 assist while playing good defense in 20+ minutes if they got the chance.....

Uguak is not a bad player. He’s a bad starter and he hinders our offense significantly. The dude needs to come off the bench for defense. It’s not a coincidence - it’s an actual ISSUE. Porter needs to address it.

I realize my last post was negative, but there are positives from this game, in terms of looking forward to Valley play.

No team in the Valley is better than Richmond. We got rocked for an entire first half and then came out and punched back hard in the last 15 minutes and gave ourselves a chance at the end. If we can do it against Richmond, we can do it against anyone.

Why I’m optimistic about capturing a Valley title is, imagine after that second half, if we came back and played Richmond again at 7pm tomorrow, I bet we win by 10. The back-to-back series style is huge for us in the valley.

Short term, the Uguak issues aren’t as bad for Valley play as the free throw shooting. We’ve won the valley or placed second with him starting ... there no reason to think we can’t do it again. I just really want to see us try something else for a game or two....

I generally agree, Toledo. I don't see what Uguak has done to warrant a continued starting role. If we give Welch more minutes in place of Uguak and our defense really suffers, re-assess. But our offense is just at a huge disadvantage with him out there. He isn't even reliable to be part of just working the ball around as he is prone to lose control of the ball, misfire on a pass, etc. I think we had all hoped he would "settle down" by now and play with more flow, but we are at year 3 with him and it is still the same. It is time to give others a run out there. Welch shows so much promise--a legit threat from deep who also has some post moves. He isn't a major liability on defense (unless he is defending a pure center with Krut on the bench), so why NOT give him Aher's minutes and role.

Maybe Porter is slowlyyyy realizing it as the minutes breakdown goes:

Aher: 30 minutes (UIC), 19 minutes (Wisconsin), 15 minutes (Richmond)
Welch: 8 minutes (UIC), 7 minutes (Wisconsin), 9 minutes (Richmond)

Toledo's passion is awesome-- I'm glad he's looking at the upside.

This is a really different year. I think the cream will rise to the top more so than in recent years because the bottom halves of power conferences aren't going to pile up their buy game wins like they usually do. Home court advantage is about half what it was with fans in the stands....

I think we'll have a chance for at large or an 11 seed if we don't win the auto bid at the Arch Madness Final. I think we could get a 10 or a 9 seed if we sweep the MVC slate and tourney. But we've got to win every game, and learn or practice something each time out.

The frustrating thing about Uguak's usage is how wildly divergent his skillset is from a prototypical player in Porter's offense. To play in PM's 4 out offense, you need to be a 3 level scoring threat. Uguak is 1 level, maybe 2 at best. If Porter is going to use him, he has to amend his system to get Uguak higher percentage shots. Maybe we can run plays where we get Aher going north-south to the basket. I suggest stealing a few back-cut plays from Richmond's Princeton offense. However, having Aher catch the ball stationary and outside the 3 point line and sending only him to the offensive glass to be outrebounded by 4 opposing players is not it.

We've seen plenty of other players lose all their playing time because they didn't fit PM's system. Quite frankly, when PM's offense is clicking, no one here questions why other guys, as talented as they are, aren't playing. We all agree that the system works. If Porter wants to be stubborn and not amend his system/philosophy, it's totally his prerogative, but if we're going to be so rigid in how we play, Uguak can't be this prominent of a player for his sake, his teammates' sake (specifically Welch and Anderson), and the team's sake. The fact that Uguak is still starting and getting a big chunk of minutes in this offense is only setting him up for failure. It's maddening because nobody wants to rip on the the kid who is doing the best he can and is by all accounts a good guy, teammate, and representative of Loyola. Why Porter is blind to the problem and so insistent on cramming this round peg into a square hole though is beyond me.

Also, MAKE. YOUR. $*)@#0! FREE THROWS.

What's the number?

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