All good points above, especially in regards to style of play. Loyola plays anything but smart basketball and they take a lot of average shots. Drew can’t seem to regign them in and it seems like the assistants have limited input at least on game day.

Didn’t watch but listened to Sudikoff and CT on the broadcast. And then listened & conversed with lots of other pissed off fans afterwards.

LUC 28-61 FG made. 13/34 from 3. 8-14 FT’s. 20 TO’s 28PF’s
Tulsa 26-51 FG made. 14-29 from 3. 22-33 FT’s. 18 TO’s 16PF’s

LUC fouled them 28 times. Was this a ref show or really really bad defense? Inexcusable really. That’s another winnable game pissed away.

Does that wall of culture filled with defensive philosophies still get looked at in the locker room? Or did that get eliminated also?

Without Dawson we lose by 40-something to these inferior opponents once again……

Hard to know what to say...after re-watching some good stuff ,,some bad stuff...
some stats that stood out. was how hot Tulsa was from 3...Tulsa got some clean looks and made some contested looks. We certainly did not close out on shooters like we did against Harvard. As someone else commented the "lazy turnovers" were killers as they led to easy hoops.. I am not sure Alston yet has learned a good shot from a bad shot. We had several players with more turnovers than assists. In the end the biggest discrepancy statistically was the free throws 22-14. Not sure what to think, a lot looked ticky-tacky. Good bball defenders get their steals after the passer releases the ball and not by reaching..or the pressure forces bad passes, we reach a lot.
So lots of little things, correctable things, effort and attitude seem to be there. But against games like Tulsa and most of the teams in the A-10 which have comparable talent it is going to come down to the little things. We have 4 games to clean stuff up..
Also I did not see Mwamba not just in the line-up but not on the bench either ?

I agree with Nate. This team played hard to the end. For perspective, there are likely 150 D1 programs competing for the same kids, and the easy mobility makes it a difficult situation for everyone. I think NIL and the P5 bias will only get tougher. So if we want to get kids to play for LUC, we need to show up be visible and vocal at games. Show some love here and give the committed players the court time to develop. That in turn means the staff has to know winning NOW is nice but not the goal of the program, and the coach needs to have the comfort of backing when things go south in the short term.
If anyone cannot see the difference in this team vs last year they aren’t watching very closely. Dawson and Quinn will be really good, but not every game right now. Ditto with Miles. Same for Ben.
I look at Tom Welsh who demonstrates the loyalty to LUC thru significant change. Isn’t that the attitude you would like to see with all of our commits? Let’s enjoy the season and calm down. We all want the same thing…
Go Ramblers
PS It amazes me that media broadcasters can be so ill prepared and repeatedly misstate facts and names etc. They get paid to be mediocre.. Maybe a good gig for one of us who do pay attention.

My only takeaway is we now find ourselves in the same spot as last year with Dolan (he's last years Golden). He simply should not play that much due to the fact that our team is building, and truthfully a one year player that isnt providing exemplary on court performance is not worth our time. We should be prioritizing developing every player who could conceivably contribute next year as we look at building a quality A10 program. Im sure Greg is a great guy, came here to compete for a title and sadly for all of that didnt work out the way we wanted it to. Time to acknowledge that and invest in the Loyola Basketball Program.

A few thoughts that aren't new, nor do they really differ from others' perspectives:

1. The players competed. While this was a painful loss, I don't feel like it was for a lack of effort or attitude.
2. I simply do not understand how the personnel choices are being made. The initial gameplan didn't work, adjustments were made and we were better off for it. To go back to what didn't work at the start of the second half, and watch the exact same outcome is the definition of insanity.
3. Far too often, players commit to a shot well before that decision should be made. Our success in the first half came from drives, kickouts, and good ball movement. A lot of contested shots at the beginning of the first half and throughout the second half. Run and gun is not the answer.
4. If you really wanted to play run and gun, Schweiger should probably be on the court. His defense was an issue, so I understand why his minutes have disappeared, but at least play the players who are suited for the way you want to play.
5. Rubin saw very little time in the second half. I don't get it. This has been a pattern lately, albeit sometimes it's sometimes due to foul trouble. It wasn't here.
6. Everything tends to flow better with Dawson on the floor. Aside from his hot shooting, Quinn looked a lot more comfortable with Dawson there, too. A couple of brainfarts, but our program is better off with him getting more time.

The only thing I ever truly want from the program is that there's a plan. I don't see it right now.

I agree that Quinn & Dawson should be getting more minutes than Greg. And that's starting to show--last night, Dolan had 19 to Dawson's 28 and Quinn's 17. However, Dolan hasn't been a huge issue. He had one very bad TO yesterday (his only of the game, Braden had 5 by comparison). But otherwise, was fairly steady out there. I think he is still good for 10-15 minutes a game, with Dawson & Quinn taking the remainder. I would like to see us try to get him more open looks from deep. He is shooting 39% from deep

My take on the portal/NIL era is different. I think your team has to have the expectation that they're making the tourney every year --at least plausibly in the hunt -- or else you're cooked. Long-term team building is a thing of the past. You just can't count on anyone to come back, so you've got to maximize what you've got year-to-year. If you're counting on trying to make the tournament every four years or so, good luck. At best you just become a team that successful teams poach from once we become good.

That's what makes Drew's failure as a game coach so frustrating -- he's done a good job of leveraging our recent success and brand recognition to do well in the portal, but without parlaying that into more tourney appearances, it's kind of dead-end. Kids have a short memory, and current recruits were in grade school for the 2018 run. We had the good fortune of becoming a national brand right before the portal/NIL, but I think that shine is just about ready to wear off.

Can't help thinking this year is kind of do-or-die in that regard. We're losing a lot of guys in this offseason, and given our dropoff in 2024 recruiting, I don't think we can count on landing good replacements in the portal for Braden and Phil, not mention all the depth pieces we lose. At this point we just have to hope the team comes together enough to compete well in conference play, and pray they get hot in the A-10 tourney. If things get truly bad and we lose Rubin or Dawson, might as well just fire Drew and start over.

A good example of how I think the new paradigm affects our current roster construction: at this point I would much rather try to get a good PG in the portal than give much more playing time to Jalen Quinn (who has been our worst player by a decent margin) and hoping he'll stick around. Because if the teams stinks, JQ staying put is a moot point, even if he improves drastically as a junior -- we'll have lost so much talent, and not brought any more in, to completely counteract any improvement he makes.

A few observations:

(1) Our best players make bad plays - lazy turnovers, poor shot selection, weak bail outs, etc.
(2) We rushed shots in transition.
(3) The officiating favored the home team. I thought we didn't get some calls.
(4) They shot well.

We can correct the first two things as the team grows together.
The upside is that we continued to work hard. We are improving - just not in a straight line.

Remember - we have a lot of new players and new coaches.

I am still hopeful.

Over last season and the 9 games this year (40 total) we have 17 more turnovers than assists and are -10 games under .500 at 15-25.

Those numbers coincide with the portal, the graduation of a great nucleus (except for Norris and Marquis) a new conference and most importantly a tempo change and offensive overhaul. I think it’s safe to say that with 40 games under this concept, it’s not quite working.

You just can’t win consistently turning the ball over at this rate and certainly not with an inverted Turnover/Assist ratio.