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PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2022 11:46 pm 
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Location: Chicago, Illinois
Thursday, January 6, 2022 1:00 p.m.
Lifetime Activities Center-Bruin Arena, Salt Lake City, UT

Loyola is scheduled to play its first game since Dec. 10 on Thursday afternoon-- marking 27 days since their last contest-- and what a wild ride it's been. The Ramblers have endured cancellation of games against Norfolk State, Davidson, Southern Illinois, St. Xavier, and Illinois State. Another top ranked mid-major, 13-1 San Francisco out of the West Coast Conference, had similar problems and agreed to face off with Loyola at a neutral site. What a great job to scramble and get such a quality game!

Like Loyola, San Francisco is a Jesuit school with a similar sports history-- including an amazing story about their role in integration of men's college football in the early 1950s (also, read "Undefeated, Untied, and Uninvited" by Kristine Setting Clark), and TWO college basketball National Championships in the mid-1950s. Also like Loyola, the Dons are off to a great start under a young coach, and yearning to schedule a game to help lock in an at large bid.

At 13-1 under third-year Coach Todd Golden, the Dons are #34 in KenPom and #32 in the NET rankings with their only loss a 1-point road defeat to Grand Canyon in a scrappy defensive game played in Phoenix. USF's best wins are against UAB, Davidson, and Arizona State (by one point on the road). Loyola missed a chance to play Davidson, but also beat Arizona State (by 11 at a neutral site). Loyola is #18 in the net and #21 in KenPom.

San Francisco starts four seniors and a junior: 6'2" senior guard Jamaree Bouvea, 6'10" senior Yauhen Massalski, 6'1" guard Khalil Shabazz, 6'3" junior guard Gabe Stefanini, and 6'9" senior forward Patrick Tape.

Bouvea is one of the nation's most efficient scorers, averaging 17.8 points on 51.1% overall shooting from the field and 44% from distance. He also picks up 5.0 rebounds on average and dishes out 3.7 assists per game. Bouyea handles the ball a lot for the Dons, so his career-high 2.8 turnovers per game might be because of usage numbers or because he's playing too fast. Massalski is a grad transfer from fellow conference member San Diego; he chips in 13.6 ppg while shooting a lot more than he ever has previously in his career. Massalski leads the Dons in rebounding (7.9) and blocks (2.1).

Shabazz plays like a second point guard with a more defensive mindset. He shoot well enough inside the arc, but takes a few too many shots from distance (a team-leading 6.7 attempts per game while connecting on only 28.7%). Shabazz is their steals leader and second in assists. Gabe Stefanini is a muscled guard (6'3", 210) who can muscle it up to the rim or hit from outside. Knight and Schwieger should be familiar with Stefanini from his first two seasons at Columbia. Tape is another wide-bodied Columbia transfer by way of Duke. He's is in his sixth collegiate season, and does all of his work in or near the paint. Tape shoots 65.4% on his two-point shots and brings down 4.6 rebounds while playing an average of 20 minutes per game. Think of him as somewhat similar to Drake's Darnell Brodie, but a bit less prone to fouls.

Coming off the bench, the Dons have a lot of height: 6'5" sophomore guard Julian Rishwain, 6'8" sophomore forward Josh Kunen, 6'9" junior forward Dzmitry Ryuny, 7'0" center Volodymyr Markovetskyy, and 6'9" sophomore forward Zane Meeks appear in just about every game, giving Coach Golden a lot of options.

Loyola has had some problems matching up with teams that have a lot of height. The Ramblers might have an experience advantage, but not much. If there's a place where Loyola has an advantage, it's probably their three-point shooting. Loyola is third in the nation in three point shooting-- yet the Dons are pretty good at three-point shooting defence, holding opponents to only 28.2% shooting (29th best in the nation).

Controlling the tempo will also be important for the Ramblers. USF struggles when they score fewer than 70 points a game. Their lone loss was a 49-48 battle against Grand Canyon, and they nearly lost to Arizona State (66-65) before a late bailout. Their razor-thin win over UAB was 63-61.

Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... 1_5_22.pdf

San Francisco game notes: https://usfdons.com/news/2022/1/5/mens- ... icago.aspx

TV/Streaming video: WCC Network https://wccsports.com/watch/?sid=475739

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=96&type=Live

Live stats: https://slccbruins.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Vegas odds: USF by 1.5


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 7:31 am 
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Great preview, JCT, even better than usual.

Dons now -2.5 favorites.

My main concern is that we get off to a slow start because of all the rust. Especially shooting the three. If we stay close the first half and connect on 3s at a decent rate I think we win a close one. But that is a big IF.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:01 am 
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Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:32 am
Posts: 2282
great preview. lots of questions.
how rusty are we?
is Keith Clemmons ready for more minutes ?
is Jacob Hutson ready for a dominate game against a big team?
Tate Hall usually gets more minutes against big teams...will he be hot or cold?
Glad to be back to basketball....Go Ramblers...


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:55 am 
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Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:24 pm
Posts: 587
Think the Vegas line has been jumping around a bit. I've seen everything from San Francisco -1 to Ramblers -2.5 posted online. I'm seeing Ramblers -2.5 at the moment.

Some other "lines" from various respected analytics sites

Site - (Rank) | Team | Score for the formatting below

KenPom - (21) Ramblers 68 - (34) San Francisco 66
Haslametrics - (12) Ramblers 70 - (48) San Francisco 63
Bart Tovik - (31) Ramblers 67 - (36) San Francisco 66
Evan Miya - (21) Ramblers 70 - (48) San Francisco 66


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:51 am 
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I wouldn't equate USF's size with that of Auburn and Michigan St. Auburn's center is a lottery pick, and their SF is the projected #1 pick. MSU has freak athletes in the front court that also happen to be tall. These guys are nowhere near those type of athletes.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:42 pm 
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MBB Scholarship Chart


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:54 pm 
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:55 pm 
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Does anyone know to go get this WCC stream to work ?


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:02 pm 
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ToledoRambler wrote:
Does anyone know to go get this WCC stream to work ?


Yeah, after the ad I’m just getting a blank screen…


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:02 pm 
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ToledoRambler wrote:
Does anyone know to go get this WCC stream to work ?


Might not be live yet? I paid the $8 for the other stream so have it pulled up and they just finished the national anthem and are doing intros.


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