Tuesday, December 19, 2023 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
Loyola plays the Charleston Southern Buccaneers for the first time ever Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in Gentile Arena. The Ramblers are coming off a dispiriting loss at South Florida, while CSU—ranked 340 in KenPom-- is adjusting to a surprise mid-season coaching change after 19 years with their former head coach.
Charleston Southern is playing their 50th season in Division I, and the Bucs have been a member of the Big South Conference since the early 1980s. The team began this season under Head Coach Barclay Radebaugh, but the veteran coach stepped down on Nov. 28 after a loss to The Citadel dropped Charleston Southern to 2-5 on the season. Assistant Coach Saah Nimley, a 30-year old Charleston Southern graduate, was elevated to Interim Head Coach. A native of Liberia, Nimley won the Big South Player of the Year Award in 2015 as a senior at CSU and briefly played professionally before starting a coaching career. The Buccaneers are 1-2 so far under Nimley's leadership, winning a game against South Carolina State, a loss to North Alabama, and giving South Carolina all they could handle in a nervous, hard-fought 73-69 Gamecocks win on Saturday.
Interim Coach Nimley's likely starters on Tuesday night are: R.J. Johnson, a 6'1" sophomore guard averaging 17.7 ppg and 2.6 apg to lead the team; Taje' Kelly, a 6'8" junior widebody forward leading the team in rebounds with 8.2 and adding 14.7 ppg; D.J.Patrick, a 6'6" junior forward averaging 10.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, and 2.3 assists; A'lahn Sumler, a 6'3" sophomore guard averages 10.0 ppg; and Reginald Duhart, a 6'9" senior forward who leads the team in blocks. The 253-pound Kelly had a great game Saturday at South Carolina, scoring 22 points on 11-of-17 shooting, and snagging seven rebounds.
Since taking over three games ago, Interim Coach Nimley has shortened the bench rotation to three players besides the starters. They are 6'0" freshman guard Jaiden Thompson, 6'9" grad transfer from Tulane Nobal Days, and 6'4" sophomore guard Gaddis Heath. Thompson plays the most minutes of these three (around 15-17 per game), with the other two playing around 10-12 minutes. As a result, the top three starters are now playing 35 minutes or more each game.
Charleston Southern runs a methodical offense that ranks 319th in D-I for length of offensive possessions (an average of 18.8 seconds), and they're also involved in lengthy defensive possessions (235th longest), which leads to slow pace of games. CSU's offense has the 2nd-fewest blocked shots per game of any team college hoops, and I'm anxious to see what that looks like against Miles Rubin, Tom Welch, and Dame Adelekun. Another trademark of their style is an excellent three-point defense-- CSU limits their opponents to the 12th fewest average three-point attempts (16.7 per game), and opponents shoot only 29.9% on the threes they do manage to shoot (70th best in D-I). Another anomaly of CSU's style is their lack of steals-- they curiously rank third from last in steal percentage.
The Ramblers have played two true road games this season, both against lower-level American Athletic Conference teams, and the results have been similar-- too much fouling, too many turnovers, far above average three-point shooting by the opposition, and not enough offense from players who should be contributors. I get that players have hot or cold shooting nights, but both true road games (at Tulsa, at South Florida) had one Loyola player with a career high in points and everybody else below their average. You can extend that pattern to the Creighton game as well.
Loyola needs to play hard from wire to wire against this Charleston Southern team that might be more dangerous than their rankings suggest (thanks to their recent coaching shakeup). There aren't going to be many students in the stands to keep the team hyped up, and an 11-day holiday layoff after this game might lull players into blurred focus. Win the game, do it emphatically, and let us all enjoy the holidays without lingering regrets.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... uthern.pdfCharleston Southern game notes: Pending
TV/Streaming video: ESPN +
https://www.espn.com/watch/catalog/ab49 ... e587dbfd77Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=162Live stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=482151Vegas odds: Loyola by 17.5
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