Thursday, November 25, 2021 1:30 p.m.
Imperial Arena at Atlantis Resort, Nassau, Bahamas


The Ramblers suffered a tough 63-61 loss to Michigan State in the opening game of the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament on Wednesday. With UConn's 115-109 double overtime win over Auburn, Loyola will face Bruce Pearl's Auburn Tigers on the consolation side of the bracket in game two on Thursday. The other games were VCU defeating Syracuse 67-55 and Baylor knocking off Arizona State 75-63.

Loyola fans know Bruce Pearl well. While at UWM, Pearl lost his first game at home against Loyola and then proceeded to reel off eight straight victories. At Auburn, he's compiled a 141-93 record (.602), and reached the Final Four in 2019. The Tigers came into this tournament ranked #19 in the most recent AP Poll before the 2OT loss to UConn.

Auburn is likely to start 6'1" sophomore K.D. Johnson, 6'1" senior guard Zep Jasper, 6'6" junior guard Devan Cambridge, 6'10 freshman forward Jabari Smith, and 7'1" sophomore forward Walker Kessler. Johnson is the leading scorer, a muscular attacking guard who also shoots the three really well. He's averaging 18 points per game after notching 27 against UConn on Wednesday. Zep Jasper doesn't shoot all that well (7.3 ppg on 35.3% shooting), but he's second in assists.

Devan Cambridge scored only six points against UConn in 22 minutes; most of the small forward minutes went to Jaylin Williams who scored 12 points playing 32 minutes. Six-ten freshman forward Jabari Smith was Georgia's Mr. Basketball last year, and was ranked as the #6 recruit in the country by ESPN. He had the second best game of his young career with 22 points including 12 of 12 free throws against UConn. Sophomore 7-footer Walker Kessler transferred from North Carolina where he had limited minutes as a freshman. Kessler mostly operates as a rim protector, but he scored a career-high 14 points to go with 10 boards in 25 minutes against UConn.

The top players off the bench are 5'11" guard sophomore guard Wendell Green (13.3 ppg), 6'8" junior forward Jaylin Williams (9 ppg), and 6'6" sophomore forward Chris Moore, but 6'11" center Dylan Cardwell also averages double digit minutes.

Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _25_21.pdf

Auburn game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: ESPN2 https://www.espn.co.uk/watch/player/_/i ... ected/true

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=86&type=Live

Live stats: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... /401389430

Vegas odds: TBA

JCT, does your research indicate if Auburn turns the ball over at all? It if so, mifght we some more of the zone press we have been using to have their players handle the ball more? It sounds like with their height motion and looking to shoot outside of the lane unless we can create mismatches will be important.

My view is that Auburn is not quite as tall/long as MSU but just as athletic. They also play a lot faster and have guys who can hit shots anywhere on the court. They are a much better offensive team than MSU. That being said, their defense isn't really close to MSU's. They are also the type of team that can rattle off 8-0 runs like it's nothing. Up-tempo is their preferred style so I think we need to avoid getting into a shootout with them.

I have Auburn pegged as slightly better than MSU. We really need this one as the other game in our side of the bracket is Syracuse/ASU...neither of whom looks like they'll move the needle on an at-large resume this year.

Huge experience gap in this one.

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Hope we are comfortable breaking presses and traps.

Michigan State just beat a very good UConn team, which looked a bit tired from yesterday.

All of these games are going to be similar to playing in the Sweet 16.

Obviously we want our guys to win, but this elevated level of play is going to be huge for the continued growth of the team.

100%

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Not a fan of the refs letting Auburn put their hands all over us, reach across our arms, and bump our guys out of bounds.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

In general been a bit surprised by the reffing this week. Feel like they are really "letting them play."

Yeah...I recall at least one play where Schwieger got bumped out and ball went to Auburn.