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PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2023 7:51 pm 
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Location: Chicago, Illinois
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 6:00 p.m.
Mullins Center, Amherst, Mass.


Loyola travels to Amherst, Mass. on Valentine’s Day to play UMass for the first time ever in the history of the two programs. The Ramblers (8-16, 2-10) are coming off a down-to-the-wire 74-71 loss at Richmond, and the Minutemen (13-12, 4-9) are fresh off an 86-72 loss at La Salle. These two teams are currently 14th and 15th in the A-10.

Although Loyola and UMass have never played each other, first-year Head Coach Frank Martin has a 2-0 record against the Ramblers in 2011 and 2012 from his days at Kansas State, before he took South Carolina to the Final Four in 2017. The Minutemen were picked 8th in the A-10 preseason poll.

Martin and his crew started off the season strong and with great promise, posting a 9-3 non-con record with wins over Top 100 KenPom teams Colorado and Hofstra. UMass won the Myrtle Beach Invitational championship (the same MTE Loyola played in), and shocked Saint Louis in their second conference game. But that’s when the injury bug, personnel issues, and some weak spots in the skill set of the healthy players came to the fore.

Since their big home win over Saint Louis on Jan. 4, UMass is 3-8. They’re 0-6 in road games, and they’ve lost four in a row. They are 3-2 at home in that span, with the wins against URI, Richmond, and Duquesne. The losses were to La Salle and Davidson. The sharp downturn came when the Minutemen lost their preseason A-10 2nd Team point guard, Noah Fernandes, to an ankle injury. Then there were several missed games by sophomore UConn transfer Rashool Diggins, three missed games by 6’10” senior South Carolina transfer Wildens Leveque, and four missed games by 6’7” freshman forward RJ Luis. Six-seven forward Matt Cross missed two games and hobbled through limited minutes in a couple others. Those are the games that were missed entirely—some of these players have tried to play part of games while banged up.

The Minutemen are likely to start 6’0” freshman point guard Keon Thompson, 6’4” junior guard TJ Weeks, 6’5” senior guard Brandon Martin, 6’7” junior forward Matt Cross, and 6’10” senior center Wildens Leveque. Cross leads the team with 16.2 ppg and 6.6 rpg—he’s a beast, and a Top 100 recruit from 2020 who transferred from Louisville (and Miami before that). Thompson is from Merrillville, Ind., a freshman foisted into the starting point guard position recently-- he averages 5.2 ppg. Weeks averages 8.8 ppg and shoots the three at a respectable 34.5%. Martin, the coach's son and a South Carolina transfer, averages 3.6 points and 3.7 rebounds.

Now for the weakness with the personnel. UMass has essentially only two players over 6’7” with any experience or rim protection ability: 6’10” Leveque, and 6’8” junior Dyondre Dominguez. Earlier in the season, both of them came off the bench and averaged well under 20 minutes per game. Now Leveque makes some starts and Dominguez plays starters’ minutes when he stays out of foul trouble. Dominguez shoots the three over 43%, and causes matchup problems as a forward-sized player with guard skills. Tafara Gapare at 6'9" has played a little, but only 3 times over 20 minutes throughout the season; he averages 3.4 points and 1.5 rebounds.

The bench doesn’t have much quickness or experienced guard play, thanks to those injuries to Fernandes and Diggins. In the game I watched against La Salle, the Explorers guards lit up the Minutemen with 11 threes, and tall inside players had their way against the overmatched Minutemen. Hutson should get some bigger minutes, along with Golden and Welch. This would be a great game to think about playing Golden, Welch, and Alston at the same time. Quinn is coming off a breakout game, and his abilities should also create mis-matches in this one.

UMass is 7-4 at home this year. Loyola is 1-9 on the road, but they took Richmond to the wire and forced overtime at Dayton in their last two games. This would be a great opportunity to secure Loyola’s first A-10 road conference win, because the only remaining road games after this one are at Saint Louis and resurgent La Salle.


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

UMass game notes: https://umassathletics.com/news/2023/2/ ... la-chicago

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... e6c32d2ba1

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=143&type=Live

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

Vegas odds: UMass by 3.5


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2023 9:03 pm 
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I predicted zero road wins (as JCT knows), but let's go get this one. It will be a nice valentine for Frank Martin. We owe him one

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:34 pm 
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Location: Chicago, Illinois


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:45 pm 
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Do we know if Marquis is playing tonight??


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 6:26 pm 
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That arena is dead. I know UMass has struggled this year and is dealing with injuries. But man does it make me thankful for Gentile.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 6:39 pm 
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Love the way we're breaking the pressure. We look like we have more urgency and intensity than they do right now. Need to be more precise when taking charges, need to keep from fouling so damn much. Save some energy for the 2nd half, because Martin is going to have them revved up after halftime.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 7:16 pm 
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Halftime lead already cut in half. 2nd half Blers appear to be making their return.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 7:57 pm 
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Kennedy got mauled on that jump ball call.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 8:02 pm 
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Free throws. Terrible. Ben missed front end, Quise and Norris split. We are completely in a shell right 5.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2023 8:03 pm 
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Are we about to blow another one? I have invested so much energy in this team this year and am ready for this to be over.


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