Tuesday, January 30, 2024 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Loyola welcomes the Saint Louis Billikens to Gentle Arena Tues. night for the home end of the home-road season series. The Ramblers beat SLU under the Arch to start the season, 80-73 on Jan. 3, and are looking to keep pace with the top tier of the league with a win.

Just 27 days ago, the Ramblers began the season at Saint Louis with deep questions about whether the team was ready to compete in the A-10. The Ramblers have gone 5-2 in conference in January, including three impressive road wins (Saint Louis, Saint Joseph’s and Fordham). The only two Loyola losses have come against league-leading Richmond by two points at home, and at VCU last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Billikens have had a rough go of it to start 2024. SLU enjoyed getting big man Bradley Ezewiro eligible for the past nine games (including 13 points and 10 rebounds against the Ramblers last time they met), and top scorer Sincere Parker has been back with the Bills for the past five games. Despite better health, SLU comes into Tuesday’s game at 1-6, the bottom of the A-10 standings. Billiken grumbling has been swirling all season, but the awful start to conference play blew it up. It came out that Coach Travis Ford’s son has been using faked social media accounts to defend his dad’s coaching this season, losses piled up, and then starting senior forward Tim Dalger left the team entirely to address personal family issues. To be fair, Saint Louis started the season with one of the toughest schedules up front—they’ve played games against five of the top six team in the standings, and Tuesday night’s game is yet another. But Coach Ford’s seat has never been hotter.

SLU will likely start 6’5” junior guard Gibson Jimerson, 6’2” senior point guard Michael Meadows, 6’5” senior forward Terrence Hargrove, 6’4” guard Larry Hughes, Jr., and 6’9” senior forward/center Bradley Ezewiro. Coming off the bench are 6’5” sophomore guard Kellen Thames, 6’3” junior guard Sincere Parker, 5’11” freshman point guard Cian Medley, and 7’0” freshman center Bruce Zhang.

Jimerson leads the team with 15.3 points per game. Hargrove is also a top scorer with 12.8 points on average. Parker is averaging 12.3 points and 4.1 rebounds coming off the bench. The really volatile scorers, the ones who can take over games and score in bunches, are Jimerson, Hargrove and Parker-- Ezewiro is more of a measured scorer who does hard hat duty around the rim. Hughes and Thames are the top defensive players, ranking 1-2 in steals. Thames is a long and quick player who can block shots from behind. Jimerson, Hughes, and Hargrove are the most prolific three-point threats in that order.

Last year SLU finished in a three-way tie for 2nd in the league, at 12-6. They had the 2nd best offense and 7th best defense in conference play. This year they’re 10th in offense and 14th in defense-- seven of SLU’s last eight opponents have scored 79 or more points, and four of the last five have scored 84 or more.

Last time against Saint Louis, the Ramblers got 24 points from Des Watson; Braden Norris and Dame Adelekun added 10 apiece. Loyola shot 50.9% for the game and 43.5% from three while SLU shot 42.4% from the field. But most important was the Ramblers won the turnover battle with only 9 miscues to SLU’s 16.

Having already defeated the Billikens on the road, it’s really important that Loyola gets a great showing from the offense in this game, and never lets up throughout. Since beating Saint Louis by 7 a month ago, Loyola has had a series of white knuckle ride games—wins or losses by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 points. The Ramblers need to make it a point of holding SLU to at or below their lowest point total of the season (61—which they had against two of their last three opponents), as Loyola has already done with Richmond, Central Michigan, and Harvard. Getting after it on defense is the way to beat these guys, and piling up a good double-digit win helps with the metrics.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/news/2024/1/ ... ntile.aspx

Saint Louis game notes: https://slubillikens.com/documents/2024 ... hicago.pdf

TV/Streaming video: NBC Chicago Sports + https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=171&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=482156

Vegas odds: Loyola by 9

Must-win game. No other way to put it.

Loyola by 9 is quite a stretch. It’s been pretty clear we can beat or lose to anybody depending on which Loyola shows up. I’d never take us as big favorites at this point

Jayden Dawson is not not dressed and is in a walking boot. Hopefully something minor.

3 quick dunks is fun. We should just always do that

I wish we used Alston more creatively than "chuck it to him in the post and hope for the best". Seems to end up in countless turnovers (including charges) and missed layups.

Also, the squealing yelling girls behind the broadcast crew are more insufferable than ever.

They should move that microphone.

Good thing I’m an idiot

Good fight from the boys tonight. The refs were piss poor and the flow of the game would've made Dr Naismith want to gouge his own eyes out. SLU fans are passionate and fun but not does their team stink. Just an absolute dog of a team they got down there in Saint Louis.

Did what was expected. Swept the last place team in conference. Not the prettiest game, but I thought Watson and Norris both looked really good. Welch had some good run out there too.

Hope Dawson is OK. Need to hold serve at home on Sunday. VCU dropped one today so we are back in sole possession of 3rd.