Wednesday, February 8, 2023 8:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.


Loyola suits up for St. Joseph's on Wednesday night at Gentile Arena, riding a two-game home winning streak and seeking to avenge a road loss at St. Joe's three weeks ago. The Hawks are solidly in the middle tier of the A-10 standings at 11-12, 5-6. Meanwhile, the resurgent Ramblers have improved their defense and ball handling, and are seeking crawl out of the A-10 basement. It's the annual Jesuit Jam, and for the first time in a long time, it's against a Jesuit school.

There's no doubt Loyola has struggled this season. When the Ramblers met St. Joseph's in their road game earlier this season-- an 86-55 loss at Hagan Arena-- it might have been the lowest point of the season for Loyola. Sophomore guard/forward Saint Thomas didn't make the trip and was facing issues which caused him to step away from the team. Impressive freshman guard Jayden Dawson incurred a hand injury in that game (or just afterwards) that would put him on the sidelines for a few weeks. The Ramblers were winless in the A-10, and the listless loss to the Hawks on a gray-skied winter trip to Philly matched their worst losing streak in 11 years.

Since that low point, Loyola has changed the starting lineup and witnessed inspired performances from Bryce Golden, Jacob Hutson, and Jeameril Wilson-- three players who had trouble defining roles for themselves in the early going. Freshman Jalen Quinn has also made some good contributions and played solid minutes, adding speed and athleticism while taking pressure off the seniors in the backcourt. Only six turnovers in the win over George Mason on Saturday stands in stark contrast to the 19 turnovers when Loyola lost to St. Joe's in Philly. From the beginning of the season through the first St. Joe’s game, Loyola averaged 16.2 turnovers; since that game, the Ramblers have averaged 11.2 turnovers.

For their part, the Hawks are coming off an embarrassing 73-65 home loss to local rival La Salle. Hawks Coach Billy Lange has a shortened bench, since 6'8" starting forward Kacper Klaczek had a face injury in practice a week ago. Klaczek scored 17 points to lead the Hawks in that game against Loyola, but will be out for several games.

Wednesday night's starters for St. Joe's will likely be 6'2" sophomore guard Erik Reynolds (a team-leading 17.9 ppg), 6'2" sophomore guard Lynn Greer III (10.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg), 6'5" guard Cameron Brown (13.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg), 6'9" freshman forward Rasheer Fleming, and 6'10" senior center Ejike Obinna.
There's not much firepower coming in off the bench in 6'2" freshman guard Christian Winborne (6.4 ppg) and 6'5" junior Louis Bleechmore (2.2 ppg). Seven-foot junior Charles Coleman has been getting a few more minutes since Klaczek went down. It’s likely that no one else will see court time in a close game.

Loyola needs to limit the scoring by the Hawks' dynamic guards, Reynolds, Brown, and Greer. Reynolds and Brown take slightly more than half their shots from behind the arc and hit them at 37% and 39% respectively. Greer is not as good a shooter (only 24.5% from deep), but he’s very quick to rebounds and averages 4.2 assists per game. The Hawks are 24th in the country in three point attempts this season, and 53rd in three-point makes; they hit 14 of their 30 three-point attempts when they beat Loyola in Philly. They are not very good from the free throw line as a team, but they tend to get there a lot—that’s where 18 points of their 86 points came from in their win over the Ramblers Jan. 14.

By now everyone has realized that in general-- compared to the MVC-- A-10 players are taller, longer, quicker, and more athletic. The strength training and weight difference is about even—I could even concede a slight advantage to the MVC. New to the league with a lot of players recruited for MVC play, Loyola has to compensate in other areas to get an advantage. Playing hard defense, communicating well, knowing (and sticking to) the game plan, executing on offense (the free throw line is a big part of the offense!), and otherwise limiting mistakes are some of the best ways to do it. In a league where there are so many athletically talented players, some of those “grinding it out/hard work” factors have never been a particular focus for those extremely gifted athletes-- because they have often come by advantages without exceptional effort.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _-_SJU.pdf

Saint Joseph’s game notes: https://sjuhawks.com/news/2023/2/7/mens ... tchup.aspx

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago/ESPN + (out of market) https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=141&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=426268

Vegas odds: Loyola by 3.5

JCT...thanks again for another great pre-view...Also some really good thoughts on the differences between rosters and style of play between A-10 and MVC.

I saw someone on Twitter post we're on a 9-game Jesuit Jam winning streak, for what that's worth. Let's make it 10!

Surprised by the line. Thought it would be closer to pick 'em.

Another great preview JCT! I’ve been talking about the difference in physiques between the MVC and A10 all year and just like when we moved to the MVC, it took a couple of seasons for the roster to transform their bodies to fit the new style of play.

Would be a great time to get hot with 4 games in 10 days!

8 PM start is new. Can’t get here soon enough for me. Will be interesting to see what LUC learned from first time around. My observation is that St. Joe loves the three more than anything and will hoist from three , even on a breakout, rather than drive the lane. So, defensive rebounding is essential to cut down those fast breaks. Look for hard bounces off their missed shots. Also defend the three and not go for the fakes that give them clean step back shots, and block those cross court heaves to a wide open three on the opposite side of the play. That all I’ve got. Don’t know if that is possible to do. Let’s make home court a home court with plenty of crowd intensity.
Go Ramblers.

Dayton went on the road and beat league leader VCU yesterday. A lot of parity in the conference. Let's do all we can to get out of the Tuesday play-in games to give us a real shot in Brooklyn. Big hole to dig out of, but the rest of the schedule is more favorable and the team has been playing well.

We don't have the same defensive intensity and discipline as the Mason game.

The refs have been brutal missing calls. Coach Drew's tech was well warranted.

Really, really, really, really disappointed with the officiating.

St Joseph extends the lead to 6 and Drew takes a timeout to stop the bleeding. We respond with a 5-0 run and steal to take us into the next break. That's a small thing, but probably a timeout that Drew doesn't take in the past. He is learning and it's showing