Sunday, January 30, 2022 1:00 p.m.
Knapp Center, Des Moines, Iowa


The Ramblers head for Des Moines for a match up with the Drake Bulldogs on Sunday. Drake is the site of Loyola's last conference road loss, a 51-50 overtime decision on Feb. 14, 2021. The Ramblers have won 11 of their last 12 conference road games.

Sunday is the first meeting of the season between the Ramblers and Bulldogs. Loyola finished up their season series against SIU with a 44-39 win in Carbondale on Thursday night to sweep the season series. The Ramblers have also completed a sweep against Indiana State; besides Drake, the Ramblers have also yet to face Northern Iowa and Illinois State.

Drake was picked to win the Valley in the MVC preseason poll, capturing 29 of the 43 votes for first place. The Bulldogs came out of the gate and won their first three-- including a quality home win over Richmond-- but ran into big trouble as they lost all three games of their MTE in Orlando. Drake took Clemson to OT before losing, only to be forced to overtime in their next game by Jackson State. Drake has been forced to OT in their last two games at UNI and at Illinois State, but they came out with the road wins.

Going into Sunday's game, the Bulldogs find themselves at 15-6 overall and 6-2 (good for 2nd place) in the Valley. Coach Darian DeVries' team hasn't been without their injuries and setbacks-- it almost wouldn't be a real Drake team if there weren't. Point guard Roman Penn missed seven games in December. Super Senior ShanQuan Hemphill has missed five of their eight games since Christmas, but the Bulldogs appear to be back at mostly full strength for Sunday's game-- which counts as the halfway mark of the conference season for both squads.

The Bulldogs will most likely start 6'0" point guard Roman Penn, 6'2" senior guard D.J. Wilkins, 6'6" senior forward Tremell Murphy, 6'3" senior guard Garrett Sturtz, and 6'7" guard/forward Tucker DeVries. The last two games, Coach DeVries has started four guards and only one forward as 6'10" senior Darnell Brodie has come off the bench. Senior forward ShanQuan "Tank" Hemphill has just returned to playing, with 15 points in 21 minutes off the bench in Wednesday's 89-88 overtime win at Illinois State.

The coach's son, Tucker DeVries, leads the team in scoring (13.5 ppg) and ranks second on the team in minutes played. DeVries takes a lot of shots to get his points-- he shoots only 39.3% from the field and only 33.8% from behind the arc. DeVries is tied for fifth in the league in field goal attempts, the only player on his team (or Loyola, for that matter) to rank in the league's top 20. He has 49 made three-pointers, but it's taken 145 three point shots to get there.

Penn has played against Loyola for several years, so most Rambler fans know he plays with a lot of energy and creativity. Penn is averaging 10.9 points and 3.6 assists per game. The 6'3" Sturtz averages 10.9 points per game, but leads the team with an astounding 7.4 rebounds, 28 steals, and 65 trips to the free throw line. Sturtz' 61.4 field goal percentage leads the team, and he leads the MVC in Box Score Plus/Minus (9.0) and offensive rating (141.4, well above runner-up Gaige Prim at 121.1). Hemphill averages 9.8 points and 4.9 rebounds. Murphy is the team's best inside scorer and defender, averaging 9.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per game.

Drake has a lot of weapons-- several players that can identify a mismatch and score 8-10 points in a flash. Six players average between 25-30 minutes a game and between 9.8 and 13.5 points per game, so they're all capable of taking charge on either end of the court. Almost all of them can drive to the basket and finish, or step back and hit a three.

Loyola leads the all-time series 22-14, and the Ramblers have a 12-5 advantage since joining the MVC. Loyola and Drake usually play close games-- only six of the 17 games between the teams have been decided by more than 10 points, and seven of the last 15 games have been decided by five points or less.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _30_22.pdf

Drake game notes: https://godrakebulldogs.com/documents/2 ... _30_22.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN2 https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=f5 ... ddcba9887d

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=102&type=Live

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

Vegas odds: Loyola by 3

In my expert opinion the two keys are whether our Centers-by-Committee can match up against Liam Robbins, and whether Lucas can keep Joseph Yesufu in check.

Funny how things work out...Robbins (after going to Minny) has not played a minute this year at Vanderbilt, foot injuries, Yesufu is getting 7 minutes a game and presently shooting 18% from 3.
I worry about every game so why not worry about this one!.....3rd game in 7 days...hope we got rested....gonna have to guard.and hit some 3s...but we seem to find a way.....what were they yelling in the locker room at SIU....ROAD HOGS

also we will find out how loyal the Drake fans are...going up against some serious NFL competition.

If any of you are interested, here's a link to our message board's thread about the game

https://www.drakenation.com/157852/Loyola-Drake

I wish you guys well (after today). I grew up about 5-6 miles from the Loyola campus, and my father has a master's from Loyola.

Knight gets the start, hopefully we don’t start slow.

This would be such a huge win if we could pull it off… both for confidence and conference race.

Good start except for the turnovers. Lots of contact going uncalled.

It would be great if Kennedy learned to keep his dribble and make a pass out of those hopeless drives.

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Great start. But now we have gone absolutely ice cold...missing FTs and wide open looks. Hate it. Although while typing this, CK made a layup and Braden hit a 3. haha

At least they fixed the audio...but super delayed.

We are looking much better than the previous 6 games. Hutson, great spell, he looked way better.

Very physical though, guys will just have to match Drake’s physicality.

A+ flop by Penn

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