Tuesday, December 5, 2023 7:30 p.m.
Reynolds Center, Tulsa, Okla.


Loyola is back on the road for their first true road game of the year, a Tuesday night matchup with the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes out of the American Athletic Conference. The Ramblers are 0-1 against AAC teams this year, with a loss to AAC newcomer Florida Atlantic to open the season. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.

Tulsa beat Loyola last season 85-66 in the first game of the deep, dark bottomless pit Rambler fans recall as the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The 19-point loss to a team that went 5-25 last year was a shocker. It made Loyola 2-1 all time against Tulsa, with wins in 1948 at Alumni Gym and 1965 at Chicago Stadium. The Golden Hurricane were members of the Missouri Valley for 61 years from 1935 to 1996 before nearly a decade in the Western Athletic, a decade in C-USA, and the past 10 seasons in the American.

Second-year Head Coach Eric Konkol came over from Louisiana Tech to resurrect a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2019-20 and hasn’t been in the NCAA Tournament since 2015-16. Tulsa is known for being a cradle of really good coaches; Nolan Richardson, Bill Self, Tubby Smith, Buzz Peterson, Doug Wojcik, and Danny Manning have all cycled through the Tulsa head coaching gig over the past 40 years.

This season, the Golden Hurricane was picked to finish 10th in the pre-season poll of the 14-member AAC. The Almanac had Tulsa at 13th, given the huge turnover of 11 scholarship players. In real life this season, Tulsa is 4-2. They are 4-0 at home against teams that are all 260 or worse in KenPom, and they’re 0-2 on the road (their last two games) against Little Rock and Oral Roberts.

The likely Hurricane starters are 6’3” freshman guard PJ Haggerty, 6’0” senior guard Cobe Williams (a grad transfer following Coach Konkol from Louisiana Tech), Michigan transfer 6’7” sophomore guard Isaiah Barnes (a kid out of Simeon in Chicago), 6’8” junior forward Jared Garcia (Charlotte transfer), and 6’9” freshman forward Matt Reed. Haggerty is your leading scorer with 16.7 ppg, Williams is second with 14.8 per game, and Garcia is third with 10.2—but all three take a lot of shots to get there, all of them at 40% or below on field goal shooting.

Barnes averages 9.7 per game and shoots well inside; he will sometimes step behind the line and hit a three. Reed also finishes well inside, but averages only 5.7 ppg. Seven-foot freshman center Mohammed Keta comes off the bench and has played in every game, averaging 14 minutes, 2.2 points, and 3.0 rebounds.

Loyola played their best game of the season against Harvard last time out. Not coincidentally, it was the first game the Ramblers have had all season with every player available for a full game. And with all players available, almost all contributed both offensively and defensively. The Ramblers handed Harvard freshman phenom Malik Mack his lowest output of points, assists, and threes of his young college career. The game plan also limited Harvard’s second leading scorer. Significantly for the Loyola defense, tt was the 2nd game in a row where Loyola limited the opposition to 53 points. In all of last season Loyola kept opponents below 55 only once, at home against a not very good Green Bay team.

On paper the Ramblers should win this game somewhat easily, but as the first true road game of the year it could be more of a challenge. Loyola is 1-2 away from Gentile Arena this year, with the one win a come-from-behind near miracle against Boston College. Coming out strong at the beginning of the game and sustaining that energy throughout should help.

Tulsa sits at 214 in KenPom, with their defense ranked a respectable 134. The Ramblers are at 107 with their defensive ranking at 76. Bart Torvik’s T-Rank has Loyola rated even higher, at 82 overall (third in the A-10) with a defense in the top 50. A good win (10 points or more) in a true road game would be a big step up for the Loyola metrics.


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

Tulsa game notes: https://tulsahurricane.com/news/2023/12 ... ubleheader

TV/Streaming video: ESPN + https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... bucketId=1

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=159&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=488048

Vegas odds: Loyola by 1.5

JCT..quick turn around...thanks....I go back to being a kid growing up in Peoria when Tulsa was a member of the Valley along with Louisville, Cincinnati, St.Louis, Wichita St. I believe was ranked a top 5 Conference.

True road games are so hard to win in college basketball. Need to put up a Harvard-like performance to win this one.

Yep. It's a tough test regardless of perceived opponent quality. Play well and we'll be fine, win or lose. Good opportunity.

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Hope I am wrong but this could be a tough game, Vegas has Loyola at -1.5 and KenPom has us winning 72-69. Getting off to a good start and playing team basketball is what I am hoping for.

Giving up a lot of open threes...

Edit: Great adjustments on D to end the half. Some great ball movement, too.

Proud of the way they ended the half. No quit!

Terrible start to 2nd half. Why start the starters who us in a hole to start the game? Dolan and Norris can't play at same time vs athletic teams like Tulsa.

Why are we so aggressive on point. It worked against Harvard because they missed open shots. You needed to get off this defense and quit giving up open 3s.

The guys made Drew look good Saturday with the lights out shooting, and Harvard helped by not being able to throw the ball into Lake Michigan.

His unwillingness to try different things when the gameplan isn't working either stems from stubbornness or immaturity and either way it's bad for the program. I'm tired.

This sucks. Watching Loyola basketball shouldn't be such a chore.