Saturday, November 20, 2021 3:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Illinois

Loyola and cross-town rival UIC meet Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. for the 58th time in program history. The Ramblers are coming off a 92-56 win over another cross-town team, Chicago State, while UIC defeated Trinity Christian from suburban Palos Heights 91-50 the same night.

The Ramblers and Flames have had a sometimes tempestuous relationship over the years. The rivalry was pretty fierce in the late 90s and early 2000s, when UIC was at their height as a program. At one point, famously, a single basket in overtime decided which of the two teams (and which of two brothers on opposing teams) would go to the NCAA Tournament. The Flames hold a 26-31 lead in the all-time series, but the Ramblers have won the last eight in a row and 10 of the last 11. Loyola currently holds a 25-game home court winning streak which ranks 5th in all of Division I college hoops.

Second year Head Coach Luke Yaklich starts five seniors: 6'0" guard Kevin Johnson, 6'4" guard Damaria Franklin, 6'5" guard Jamie Ahale, 6'6" forward Zion Griffin, and 6'8" forward Michael Diggins. Franklin, a wide-bodied guard out of Niles North via State Fair Community College and Tennessee Tech, leads the team in scoring with 14.3 and also leads the Flames in rebounding at 7.3 per game. Franklin had 23 points and 11 rebounds in UIC's 74-70 OT win at Valpo. Johnson is a grad transfer from Nicholls State, where he scored over 1100 points in four seasons. At UIC, he's making better shot selections and running the offense. He averages 12.0 points and 8.0 assists through three games.

Griffin, Ahale, and Diggins all played big minutes in Loyola's 77-66 win last year at UIC Pavilion (a.k.a Credit Union 1 Arena). Griffin (the Iowa State transfer) is averaging 13 points and 4.3 rebounds this season. Ahale is an Aussie three-point shooter who does some good work on the boards. Diggins is a Covid-year senior who does a lot of defensive work under the basket and chips in 6.7 points and 4.7 rebounds. The top players off the bench are skinny 6'3" senior guard Jalen Warren, 6'8" senior forward Brandon Battle, wide-bodied 6'7" freshman forward Filip Skobalj, and 6'1" Murray State transfer Jalen Johnson.

One can't help but feel that this is the last year of players left over from the Steve McClain regime, and that next year is the real beginning of the Luke Yaklich era. Covid really did a rough job on recruiting-- not only by opening transfer pathways and giving seniors an extra year, but by suppressing the discovery of late bloomers in far-flung areas. Loyola seemed to do fantastic in the sideways fire drill, adding players like Saint Thomas, Chris Knight, and TY Johnson. UIC has some unknowns that might be impact players, and some of the old regime players who moved on to greener pastures might be addition by subtraction.

The Flames played well at Dayton to open the season-- actually taking a brief lead in the middle of the 2nd half before losing 64-54. They were picked to finish eighth in the Horizon League Preseason Poll.

This game is Loyola's last tune-up before facing off against three of seven possible Top 100 Ken Pom teams at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. First round opponent Michigan State is currently ranked 18, and the two possible 2nd round opponents are UConn ( 21), and Auburn (24).


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _20_21.pdf

UIC game notes: https://uicflames.com/documents/2021/11 ... Loyola.pdf

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=38 ... cago-US-EN

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=84&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=369441

Vegas odds: Loyola by 19

Nice preview, especially your rundown of UIC's roster. Lots of good research.

Is "sideways fire drill" the politically correct term nowadays for "Chinese fire drill"? I'm compiling a personal dictionary of permissible alternatives for outdated, offensive words and phrases so I don't run afoul of current standards.

Keeping pace with these ever-evolving standards is difficult, especially for a person of my advanced age who remembers while in high school this cheer at football games when my school St. Laurence played arch-rival Brother Rice:

WHAT COMES OUT OF A CHINAMAN'S BUTT? RICE! RICE!! RICE!!!

I won’t lie I’m a little nervous for this game. UIC is probably the best team we’ve played thus far, and on top of that I’m a little worried the players might be looking ahead to next week and the big tournament in Atlantis and matchup with MSU. I still think we’ll be fine, but count me in as someone who’s a bit more concerned and thinks this may be a close game all the way.

Right there with you. UIC will be hungry to knock off the city rival who has been getting all the national love. They know this would be a way to make a name for themselves. It's a pretty big step up in competition from the first three teams we played (although FGCU could end up being just as UIC) and our guys might be caught looking forward to a trip to the Bahamas. Luckily, I saw that Gentile is close to a sellout so I am hopeful a rowdy crowd can push the team. I think we win by 10ish points, in a game similar to last year's.

Any chance any of you know how to transfer a season ticket to another person? I've logged into my account at www.ramblertickets.com but I can't seem to find anything from there. I've called the ticket office but it appears as if they're closed until 90 minutes before the game. Thanks in advance!

There's a lot option called Forward Tickets in the menu when you're logged in. You have to click on your season ticket order, then you can choose the specific seat/game to transfer.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I think we got it… TY

4 assists to 5 turnovers in the first half. Ugly

So much for the depth this year. Game 3 and we had - essentially- a 7 man rotation. There’s going to be a fair amount of growing pains on the sideline this year.

Agreed, happy with the W don't get me wrong, but if Coach D didn't feel comfortable putting Hutty and Saint in for only a few minutes at a time, I don't see how that's going to fly next week in the Bahamas