Tuesday, December 7, 2021 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Illinois

Loyola looks to complete a sweep of four Chicago schools on their schedule with a Tuesday night matchup with NAIA foe Roosevelt University. The Ramblers have already defeated Chicago State, UIC, and DePaul-- the three other Division I schools in the Chicago city limits-- over the past three weeks.

Roosevelt University re-initiated their sports programs in 2010, and in 2020 the university merged with neighboring Robert Morris University, which had a large sports footprint. Many will remember Robert Morris as the NAIA school that leased the Gentile Center for their men's basketball teams and played Loyola several times. Roosevelt is attempting to carry over most of their wide range of sports programs, including football and ice hockey.

Why would a small NAIA school attempt to field so many (14) sports? Because as an NAIA school, athletes pay full tuition unless they have an academic scholarship. Additionally, (and this is little-known by most outside the community of smaller schools with open admission requirements) athletes tend to be much better students, have much better attendance records, and persist toward graduation at a higher rate than the average student at the least competitive academic institutions. The small South Loop non-profit college that I worked for from 2004-2013-- which has a current enrollment under 600 students total-- is playing at Valpo on Tuesday night.

Roosevelt's sports teams are known as the Lakers, and they play in the Chicago Area College Conference. They are coached by Joe Griffin, a Flint, Mich. native who served as a Grad Assistant at Michigan State from 2006-2008. Roosevelt is 7-3 on the season, with their only losses against IIT, Trinity International and St. Francis (who played at Loyola last year).

The Lakers are likely to start three forwards (6'7" senior Eetu Villa from Finland, 6'5" senior Ayomide Ajiboye from Von Steuben, and 6'4" senior Matt Myers from Willowbrook HS) and two guards (6'3" junior Justus Mouton and 6'3" junior Josh Redic out of Mt. Carmel). Redic (13.5 ppg) and Ajiboye (9.5 ppg) are the top scorers, with Redic taking the most three point shots-- an average of 7.4 per game. Ajiboye is the top rebounder with 5.8 per game, and another part-time starter chunky 6'7" junior forward Caleb Brown snagging 5.2 boards per game.

Coach Griffin always goes to 8 players deep, but can go to as many as 11-- even in closer games. Brown (7.9 ppg), 6'6" junior forward Andrew Veon (3.8 ppg), 6'4" junior guard Mark Johnson (1.6 ppg), and 6'5" junior guard Lucas Jordan (4.6 ppg) are the top players off the bench.

The Ramblers are coming off an intense, spirited, emotional 68-64 victory over crosstown rival DePaul on Saturday. It was an exhilarating local college basketball game, but the Ramblers have to keep focus with a trip to up-and-coming SEC squad Vanderbilt on Friday, a decent Norfolk State team on Dec. 19, and a top-100 team on the road in Davidson on Dec. 22.

Obviously, the Ramblers are more than 99% likely to beat Roosevelt-- Loyola hasn't lost a regular-season game to a non-DI team since a 2008 loss to Rockhurst. But it can still happen. Expect most of the regular starters for the Ramblers to open a large lead, and expect to see a lot of the players who still haven't quite adjusted to the system or we haven't seen enough of lately-- freshman Saint Thomas, junior Tom Welch, grad transfer Chris Knight, and freshman TY Johnson.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 2_7_21.pdf

Roosevelt game notes: Pending

TV/Streaming video: ESPN+/ESPN3 https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... %3Aresults

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=90&type=Live

Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=369443

Vegas odds: N/A

NAIA schools at both levels 1 and 2 offer athletic scholarships. It would be very rare that a player would receive a full ride to one of these schools but they don’t have to be academic.

Rambling is right, there are athletic scholarships at NAIA, but to JCT’s point it’ll be a mix. For myself, a couple NAIA schools in Iowa and Missouri offered, and it was a blend of like 15-30% athletic and then 30-60% academic with some need based as well. Had some friends that went that route in similar boats.

Semantics aside, obviously a very different world than D1. Hoping we can get some good minutes for Saint, TY, and Will! Keith too depending on whether the coaching staff thinks he needs more run or more rest.

Tonight's game should tell whether Drew plans to redshirt Ben Schweiger. I think that's Drew's plan, but if not this would be the game for Ben to see his first action.

Winless Texas Southern defeats #20 Florida....just saying......keep your eye on the prize

Good for those guys. 7 losses - but wow - Those dudes will play anyone on the road! Their non con schedule is insane.

One of the student reporters already asked and tweeted out that both Damezi and Ben are red shirting as of like the second or third game I believe.

Thanks. I knew Anderson was out for the year but I wasn't aware about Ben, particularly since, unlike Damezi, he still dresses for games.

Bad omen?
Roosevelt University invades The Gentile Center this evening.
The university is named in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was President of the United States eighty years ago today.
That was the day that the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor.
Guard the three-point line.

_________________
Let's go Braden!

Yeah, Smythe dresses too if I remember correctly, not sure if the difference is injury or what. Found the tweet