Hell of a win!

We stay focused and put up another game of scrappy D. Maybe a bit much with fouls but we won.

Sheldon did to GM tonight what he did to us when we played Valpo a couple years ago. Sheldon has found his place and we need that 3 ball of his.

Phil got some of his edge back tonight.

We were good with FTs- 76.9%.

Only 6 TOs. And we scored 19 off of GMs TOs.

We are also playing as a team, and a lot of thanks goes to Drew.

Let’s go get GWU.

^^^^ THIS ^^^^

Sometimes I roll my eyes when people talk about NIL and transfer portal and mid-major doom loops.

Take a look at Sheldon Edwards and Des Watson. Two guys who transferred to Loyola and developed something in themselves and as teammates that was priceless. Sheldon didn't get all the court time he thought he'd get at first, but he put his head down and became the best teammate he could be, and now he's a starter and Plus defensive player. Add them to a longer list that includes all the main players over the past 10-12 years, from Joe Crisman and CT to Milton Doyle, Richardson and Custer and Aundre Jackson. Krutwig was a better player because of the framework established by those others. This kind of experience is what most players really look for: Passion and Brotherhood, not NIL paychecks on a soulless, mercenary college team.

My favorite players will always be the ones that specifically sought out Loyola--- Donte Ingram, Sheldon Edwards, Milton Doyle's mom making brilliant suggestions, and... I think.... Des Watson coming to Chicago to play with Phil Alston and Braden Norris. Never seen any player at Loyola having as much fun winning as Des Watson.

Very likable group of players for sure. Love seeing them have success and fun.

WOW! What an effort! The Good, Bad, Ugly!

1. Ugly: Third game in a row where the officiating was HORRIBLE.

2. Bad: We did commit fouls. Some were bad calls but we did not adjust to how the game was called.

3. Good: The Boys showed their mental toughness tonight. When you win and the other guys have a crazy shooting night (floor 59.5% on 22-37; 52.9% - 9-17 from the arc; 78.8%-26-33), get out rebounded by 10 (28 to 18), that’s mental toughness. After a poor shooting 1st half we went off and shot 70% in the second half. I posted that possession would be valuable tonight and we only had 6 TOs! This helped us overcome the early FT discrepancy. In the box score it will look close, but those were fouls late when we were leading. The lack of TOs and our defense forcing GM into 17 TOs led us to getting 16 more shots up than GM. For the game we finished 50.9% (27-53 from the floor. We recovered from a bad first half shooting 3s and ended up at 42.3% (11-26) from the arc. FT shooting was good tonight as we shot 76.9% (20-26). Most of this was in the second half when we executed the offense. Sheldon Edwards HUGE tonight making 6-10 from the arc (two bigs ones late) and 7-12 from the floor and 7-8 from the line, including 4-4 in the last minute.. He finished with 27 pts. He also 5 steals and was good defensively. I was glad that the Drew stuck with Sheldon in the starting lineup. Jayden looked rusty and we need Sheldon to provide offense. He looked like the kid from VALPO tonight. We now have We have 4 legit shooters from 3 (Braden, Dawson, Edwards, and Dolan). Braden struggled and was in foul trouble all game but buried a dagger from the arc late. Our bigs were good too. They stayed out of foul trouble tonight we got a combined 21 points out of them. Miles had 12 points including two old fashioned 3 pt plays and was 2-2 from the line. He did not have a block tonight, but found other ways to effect the game. Drew another good job of juggling foul trouble and I don’t what he said at halftime, but the boys responded!

This team is tough, coming from a 12 deficit in the first half to win. Keep chasing, no let down and lets get GW Saturday and get back to the Joe 9-2!

It's the opposite of what I saw in GW's eyes last night. Let's pounce on them!

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MBB Scholarship Chart

You called it, Sheldon played amazing tonight. We all knew he had it in him.

According to Drew’s postgame interview, Dawson was “about 60%”, so not completely healthy but gave it a try. Expected to be closer to full go next game. A deep team just got deeper, late in the year.

Scott…you’re slipping! Where is the link to post-game interviews!

Really happy for Sheldon, just seems to be a great guy. Pumped for him.

Glad Miles could get involved scoring too. Just such an enjoyable team to watch right now.

That was quite a game. The game was really a demonstration of resiliency. Here are some things that made it an uphill climb:
1. Two one-on-none fast breaks blown. One resulted in a GMU bucket within 3 seconds of the miss by LU.
2. One blown three-on-one fast breaks that led to a quick three for GMU. Take all that away, and Loyola is about 6-10 points further ahead.
3. Fouls, fouls, fouls. It ended up not looking that lopsided in terms of total fouls. The problem was LU piled up fouls earlier than GMU giving the substantially more attempts and points from the line.
4. Dawson still not back to pre-injury self.
5. Played the majority of the second half without Braden.
6. Twice in the first half fighting back to from deficits and then having the comeback nullified by some great shooting or foul calls.

All the above items were overcome in a very determined performance. Loved it. Please, do not cough up a hairball against GWU. Ramblers are beating expectations and it's great.