Tuesday, March 7, 2023 1:00 p.m. Central
Barclay’s Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Ramblers make their Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Tournament debut Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn against the St. Joseph’s Hawks. The 15th-seeded Ramblers lost both of their regular season matchups against St. Joe’s, seeded 10th.

On Jan. 14, probably the lowest point of the season for Loyola, the Ramblers lost 86-55 to St. Joe’s in Philly. That spiritless 31-point loss dropped Loyola to 0-5 in conference, with every one of the losses by double-digits (an average of 17.8 per game). It also came at the time Saint Thomas was leaving the team for health/personal reasons and Jalen Dawson had sustained a hand injury.

In the second matchup between the two teams in Chicago, Loyola had a small lead midway through the second half, and came back to tie the game at 71 with just 3:38 to play. But St. Joe’s scored the game’s final 12 points as the hapless Ramblers clunked shots and coughed up turnovers down the stretch. The final score was 83-71.

In the two games thus far, St. Joe’s backcourt trio of 6’2” sophomore Lynn Greer, 6’2” sophomore Erik Reynolds, and 6’5” senior Cameron Brown have torched the Ramblers and practically scored at will. Greer has scored 37 points in the two games, shooting 8 of 12 from behind the arc. Greer is shooting 66.7% on three-pointers in two games against Loyola, and 23.4% (15 of 64) in the other 38 games of his college career.

Reynolds has scored 38 points in the two games, going 10 of 10 from the free throw line while adding six threes, six assists, and five steals. Brown scored 23 points, with five more threes, seven rebounds, three steals and a couple of assists. That’s 98 points from the three starting guards, with 48.7% shooting behind the arc-- while the rest of the roster had 71 points combined in two games.

Let’s talk about the rest of the roster-- 6’10” Vanderbilt transfer Ejike Obinna usually starts at center, but has not played the past three games with a foot injury, and is unlikely for the A-10 tournament. Obinna had 15 points and 17 rebounds in the two games against Loyola. In the first game against St. Joe’s, 6’8” sophomore Kasper Klaczek got the start and scored 17 points, made five assists, and snagged four rebounds. Klaczek has only played 24 minutes since January (all in the VCU loss on Feb. 21).

St. Joe’s has patched the frontcourt with 6’11” junior Anton Janssen and 7’0” senior center Charles Coleman, with 6’9” freshman Rasheer Fleming coming off the bench. Janssen averages 0.1 points and 0.4 rebounds in 61 total minutes of playing time this year). Coleman, a transfer from East Carolina, averages 1.8 points and 1.3 rebounds. Fleming started the year slowly and with the injuries to Klaczek and Obinna is now playing 25+ minutes; he averages 5.6 points and 4.9 rebounds (don’t sleep on his three point shooting, he hits at 31.7%).

The backups at guard off the bench are serviceable for a few minutes, but everything really relies on Greer, Reynolds, and Brown. Six-two freshman combo guard Christian Winborne is a pretty good backup for a freshman, averaging 5.7 points. Louis Bleechmore is a 6’5” junior guard/forward who averages 1.9 points in less than 10 minutes per game. That’s pretty much it.

The over-reliance on Greer, Reynolds and Brown, combined with the top two frontcourt players injury problems may have finally caught up with St. Joe’s. They started off the conference season 0-4, turned it around to 7-6 in the middle of February, but lost four of their last five to end the season—the only win being a senior day win over Richmond (without their Coach Chris Mooney, recovering from heart surgery).

There’s an old adage in sports: “It’s hard to beat a team three times in one season.” During their 9 years in the MVC, the Ramblers were involved in potential 3-game season sweeps 12 times. When teams were attempting to sweep Loyola, they were 4-3. When Loyola was attempting to complete a sweep, the Ramblers were 4-1. Combined, the team attempting to close out a sweep was 8-4. Not that hard, really—most teams would love to win 66.7% of their games, and especially so in potential season-ending contests.

Shutting down three players who are providing 80% of the offense of late may sound like an easy assignment, but Loyola has proven especially bad at stopping these three particular players. Maybe with reduced options under the basket the Ramblers can find a way this time, the third time.


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

Saint Joseph’s game notes: https://sjuhawks.com/news/2023/3/4/mens ... -seed.aspx

TV/Streaming video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... a946ff1902

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=149&type=Live

Live stats: https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/ce ... id=214&t=1

Vegas odds: Hawks by 2.5

So Coach mentioned the defensive improvements of Edwards. He brings some length at that defensive guard position if he isnt making mistakes. I think Quinn does as well. And Marquis can really rattle some people. And Norris besides his height is just so fundamentally sound and smart. So maybe a 4 guard rotation with some renewed enthusiasm...??? Ramblers

Reynolds causes problems, lots of problems for opponents.

Throw everything we have at their guards. It's the only shot.

1. Just a reminder that if you have HULU streaming you can get the Rambler game on ESPN + on the big Screen..
2. I do not want to see their whacked out mascot flapping his wings...

Interesting that the spread has come down to pk on some sites. It's either that or down to Loyola +1. Bettors seem to be liking our chances a little bit more than I'd expect. Maybe that's a good sign of what's to come

What's Golden's status for today? If I'm not mistaken he didn't play last game and there's been some vague chatter here that he's done.

Defense is a joke. Missed switches and going under screens just leading to wide open 3's. They are carving us up from deep. Greer destroying us and staring down the LU bench with every 3.

What was the point of getting fouls on Reynolds if Greer n.v is left wide open? Furious.

Would love for Drew to avoid calling out opposing players next year....

Lynn Greer is 12/17 from 3 against us. 15/63 the rest of the year. Kid's don't need bulletin board material from an opposing coach...