Simone Law has returned to the lineup and we roll over another decent team. Taylor Johnson has been back for awhile also and with the addition of the Purdue transfer Taylor Manuel and the emergence of the freshman from ORegon Illinois. Lambrightsen......the Lady Ramblers have a winning streak

I tuned into the last game against Evansville, and could barely believe what I saw-- a really energized defense by the Ramblers that was totally different from the games I watched during the 15-game losing streak. It carried over to today, as Loyola had a 20-point lead in the final six minutes before putting in subs. Eleven players got into the game for Loyola, including Law-- who got 17 points in 22 minutes, playing her first game since November.

Nice to hand a surprising beating to Indiana State after what happened to the guys yesterday. It was the lowest point total on offense for the Sycamores this season.

Wow. 2 in a row. It's really nice to see the Rambler ladies win!

The really perplexing thing about Law's absence was I was always under the assumption that she was gone from the program. If somebody did something that was 18 game suspension worthy, you would think it would be easier to just kick them off the team rather than have the headache linger. If she is coming back from injury though, why not be up front about that in some kind of post game comments? It seems you could build up plenty of the same goodwill that PM built up during a prolonged losing streak due to a key injury.

It was injury. She had a leg fracture against Northern Kentucky. Salmon had a concussion in practice a few weeks back, Destiny Washington pulled a hamstring against Missouri, Manuel didn't play until game 8 against DePaul. So I believe this is the first game where Manuel, Law, and Washington have played in the same game this season.

Some of this lack of information is my fault, because I don't follow the team off the court/behind the scenes as closely as I probably should. I have to scrounge around for information from people I think might know. Part of it is the lack of information released by the official sources, part of it is the fact that there's no coverage of the women's team in any media. I follow people on Twitter who might have some information, but I think some of them are not given the full story, either. When there's a lack of information, people fill in the gap with speculation.

If there are injuries to major players, why not come out with it? Some of this happens on the men's side, too, but there are a few more places to get the story. We don't have a full-fledged beat writer on the men's team (which has become a new point of attack against us by fellow MVC folks, by the way), and the women's team is almost totally ignored. I guess Jesse Kramer is about the closest thing to a beat writer at this point, and his focus is divided between us and the rest of the local teams.

I understand the sensitivity on the part of the athletic department in giving out information about things like injuries, suspensions, transfers, etc., but the reluctance to reveal anything is very damaging when there's no credible or regular beat writer to report or moderate information from credible sources. The game notes (see here for an example: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/loy ... 207aaa.pdf ) don't even give hints on injury status, which seems overly cautious since coaches sometimes give out information in interviews.

A.) Given all the work you put in, especially the analysis on the men's b-ball side, you should not receive any blame for anything on or not on this board.

2.) Fractured leg? Why even rush her back this year? Why didn't we try to convince her to take a medical redshirt and enter a grad program? This season is already basically a lost cause. She's played in 4 games this year. If she plays in 6 more, she forfeits her redshirt because she would have played in more than a 1/3 of the games this year. We have 8 remaining on the schedule.

and D.) Lack of beat writers is a problem for just about every women's basketball program outside the top 10, and something that we quite frankly should be used to and adapt by putting out updates ourselves online and in the Phoenix. Wasn't it mentioned here that women's b-ball coverage on LU's youtube page was virtually non-existent during the losing streak? It wouldn't kill the AD to put up an 3 minute update with Swoopes and get in front of the news rather than having people on this board speculate as to what the hell is wrong with the program.

Totally agree on information and publicity. Hopefully this is something the new AD will take care of. Once a week the Northwest Herald publishes an on campus column. They cover all the area athletes who are doing well at college from the local area. Although we have several at LU from the area, including women's basketball last year, women's soccer and Track and Field this year......nary a mention. YEt I know a ton about the track program at Aurora U, Augustana,Marquette etc. There are so many areas that need polishing in the Ads office We can only hope that the new AD will get the job done. Early signs are encouraging.

That's crazy that Law had a broken leg and no one said a word about it??

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I watched the game when it happened and didn't know. I found out about it on a PM with somebody on Twitter, weeks after the fact. Maybe there was some mention, but I didn't hear or see it. When you find out about something that way, you feel reluctant to "report" it-- what if the information isn't correct?

I would have done the same thing as you. This isn't your fault at all.

Maybe I missed it too, but when a player is missing and there's no word of an injury you are left to assume that the coach has lost control of the team or the player is suspended. It makes people look bad for no reason.

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You could always report something like that as an unconfirmed rumor if you feel comfortable with such. Somehow stress that it's not 100% sure but is something that has been heard/reported by unofficial sources. A lot of gray area there I know.

Speculation can be an iffy thing, but in the absence of any news at all, I think careful consideration can be given.

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