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.pdfSan Francisco game notes: https://usfdons.com/news/2022/1/5/mens- ... icago.aspxTV/Streaming video: WCC Network
https://wccsports.com/watch/?sid=475739Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=96&type=LiveLive stats: https://slccbruins.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summaryVegas odds: USF by 1.5
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