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PostPosted: Mon Dec 08, 2014 9:54 am 
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Everyone knew that the women's non-con schedule was going to be a killer. But things are starting to get pretty ugly.

1. Simone Law, one of our best players talent-wise, has disappeared. She scored 16 points in the season opener and looked like one of the few players who could compete with the bigger, taller Georgia Tech team. In the second game at Marquette, she scored 8 points, but fouled out after only 11 minutes. In the third game at Northern Kentucky, she started, had 12 points and 7 rebounds, but got four fouls and only played 15 minutes. She hasn't played since.

2. Courtney Lindfors and Destiny Washington did not play in Sunday's drubbing at Northwestern. Granted, Northwestern is a really good team that's undefeated and bubbling just under the AP Top 25, but without Law, Lindfors, and Washington Loyola got smoked. The Ramblers shot only 19.8% from the field, and only 8 players saw time on the court.

3. Only Law and newcomer Courtney Williams are shooting over 40% from the field, and now Law is out with an injury (or possibly, and more troublesome, an attitude). The game at Missou was winnable. Loyola was tied late in the 1st half before Missou ran away, and Missouri lost their next game on the road at winless Bradley.

4. The next two games are at home against Michigan State and DePaul. If the eight player situation isn't temporary, those could be really demoralizing beat-downs. There has been no mention in any of the game stories as to why Law has not played since Northern Kentucky, or why Lindfors and Washington were out for Northwestern.

Here's hoping that the team gets some key players back, and starts to figure it out. The next four teams on the schedule have a combined record of 21-7, and two of them are ranked. The MVC appears to be a weaker conference this year, but if we're going to be playing with 8 players again this year, and our most talented and experienced player is out, the league being down won't help much.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 11:37 am 
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Ugly. I didn't even know about the Northwestern game until I happened upon the schedule yesterday and saw the result.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:31 pm 
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Is Sheryl Swoopes another Grace Calhoun setback?


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 10:06 am 
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90-38 pasting by MichiganState. Really what is going on?


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:00 pm 
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natetheskate wrote:
90-38 pasting by MichiganState. Really what is going on?


Two games vs. Michigan State, cumulative score: MSU by 87.

That's not the culture we want.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 7:51 am 
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Maybe Kelly and Malisch should give her another contract extension


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:21 am 
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Keep in mind that Michigan State is ranked #18. Michigan State has only lost at home to Notre Dame (one of the 3-5 elite women's hoops programs) by eight points, and Georgia on the road.

Keep in mind that out non-con schedule is VERY challenging. The schools on our non-con schedule have a cumulative record of 53-39, two have been ranked at some point this year, and a third is 8-0. Our next opponent, DePaul, is coached by a guy who's won 530 career games as a women's coach and has made the NCAA tournament for the past 11 consecutive years. DePaul has only lost to Notre Dame, Northwestern, and Texas A&M.

Also keep in mind that the MVC is not a great women's hoops conference. In fact, of the sports we play women's hoops is typically the only sport where the Horizon League might be marginally better than the MVC most years.

The women's RPI is currently 223, which is high enough that we have the possibility of recovering to be respectable when the conference season kicks in. If we can win at Dartmouth and/or UIC, that would boost us into the 100s. My concern is about our best player leaving (if she has). There has been no word on what happened. There were also a couple of missing players from the Northwestern game which gave me a lot of concern, but they're back and they played against Michigan State.

We keep TALKING about wanting to schedule better, and this is probably the most challenging schedule we've ever had. We probably should have won the UAB game at home-- that was a "tossup" game where we spotted the opposition 13 points to start the game, had a lead at halftime, and trailed by 1 with 10 minutes left. And if we won at Marquette (the beginning of Simone Law's erratic play), the gamble of the tough schedule would have really paid off. We shouldn't punish the coach after bellyaching about tougher scheduling, when only one (maybe two) of the losses were plausible wins.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 1:05 pm 
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I was very excited when I saw the schedule. I guess this is a continual problem at LU....lack of relevant information. Also on the website there have been no interviews with Coach Swoop or info on if players are hurt or have left. So it is hard to know what is happening with the team.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 2:20 pm 
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The lack of information is an easy question to answer. Malisch has direct orders from Kelly to protect Swoopes. They both admire her for past achievements. This however does nothing for the present. It has always been clear that Calhoun was out for herself. Her friendship with Malisch says everything about birds of a feather. Kelly is in charge and will cover his behind for giving her more money and a contract extension. Malisch will help him at every turn. These people don't care about Loyola or the athletes first. They care about themselves first. Can anyone doubt their motives after watching what has gone on for the past year. So I doubt you will ever get much out of Swoopes and you certainly won't get the real answers to the hard questions because nobody will be allowed to ask them. The big question is does anybody higher up the food chain give a rat's ass.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:03 am 
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JCT - At this point, I'm questioning whether this should be considered a good schedule. First, it's obviously too challenging. Maybe it will prepare us for the conference season? Who knows. I'm sure that the players were excited to be playing some bigger name teams, but by now they've been getting crushed for a month.

Second, the impact of bringing bigger names into Gentile, which we all want for the men's team, is much lower for the women's team. There were 500 people at the Michigan State game. If the men brought in Northwestern or DePaul -- much less Michigan State -- it would sell out. (And we wouldn't lose every game by 40 points.) What's the point of playing so many of these games when we aren't good enough?

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