Negron has looked solid tonight.

These announcers are seriously stroking BC now!!!

I feel really really mislead by the folks in here singing Ahers praises for the last 18 months. Id rather have Avery still on the team.

I have been very very surprised by Aher's play. You can tell he's super athletic... but he looks super rough around the edges. I was expecting a lot more out of him. LU really needed a player like Aher to step in and perform in order for us to come close to repeating what we did last year.

Aher could be a very good player for us. But I think he's miscast. He's currently stepping in for Donte Ingram, but he should be replacing a player like Aundre Jackson. His outside shooting stroke is good on form, but he shoots the ball with a hard touch on his jump shots and free throws. He's very good inside 10 feet from the basket because of his athleticism. Make him an inside the arc player, and he'll be fine for us giving us quality minutes. He's not a shooting guard, he'a a small forward. At least so far, he doesn't appear to avoid or shy away from contact. And he has a good touch on short range shots.

Fewer minutes, more inside play, no long jumpers or threes. That's his game. He's a plus rebounder and OK passer. He can finish very well on a dunk or a layup.

I think he has a lot of potential and could develop into a good player down the road. But he is not good, or anywhere near the player he was made out to be, at the moment.

We just can’t have a half where we shoot 10% (or less) from 3. Way too many open shots missed this year, and it feels like we aren’t taking a lot of mid range shots besides Custer. That’s something that Jackson provided that we haven’t figured out yet how to replace.

The four returning major players (Custer, Townes, Krutwig, and Williamson) all had double digit points. That's pretty good, even if it took a few too many shots to get there. But the defense was not up to snuff, and the bench scored only 7 points in a combined 45 minutes on the court. You can't allow the other team to shoot 62.5% in the second half and get to the free throw line 15 times. That's on the defense.

Our offense seems almost non existent. Everyone sort of just stands around waiting for something to happen. Skokna’s shooting has been god awful, he’s legit scared to shoot the open three then after he’s done second guessing himself he throws up a brick. Take the shot immediately or don’t at all. Uguak is definitely nothing he was talked up to be. The kid can’t shoot, he has zero confidence outside of the arc. He’s definitely an inside scorer for now, and his defense could use some aid. Lucas has has been playing great, I’ve got nothing but good words for him. Hopefully we can learn from this loss but, we’re not the same team we were last year. So we need to be playing differently, everyone sort of just passes the ball around because that’s the “Loyola thing to do”. It’s not working people are passing up on so many open shots it’s cringe worthy. It’s the beginning of the season so hopefully they all figure it out but, at this point I’m only focused on our conference record and winning the MVC. We can definitely turn it around but this shooting has been horrendous. Also Boston college was shooting really well they barely needed Bowman to beat us, pretty embarrassing.

This game needs to be our Boise State game, and Nevada needs to be our Florida game. It is vital that we put two good halfs together and not have an atrocious first half against Nevada. We will not be able to play behind against them.
The three-point shooting is unbelievably bad – but what makes it so hard to swallow is that we’ve seen Custer, Townes, Williamson, and Skokna consistently hist those wide-open threes in the past. The talent and the ability is there, it’s just not clicking this year for some reason, which is what is so frustrating.

I hate to pile on about Uguak because – it is what it is, we have who we have for this year, there’s not a whole lot we can do to upgrade that position at this point. It’s obvious that he’s not going to be the type of player that we thought. It isn’t a slump like I’d hoped. He is a raw project that Porter is going to have to work on, and hopefully by next year, he can be a quality player that we can consistently count on. What’s so unbelievable is that he makes this many mistakes when he had a whole season of practice with the team last year. I’m hoping Porter is able to figure out a way to utilize him in a smaller role and limits him taking shots from anywhere outside.

I’d like to see a starting lineup of Custer, Townes, Kaifus, Williamson and Krutwig next game. I understand Kaifus is a liability on defense, and this is a small lineup going against those twins, but with the way we are starting games, I’d like to see if we can go fast out-of-the-gate and try to get Kaifus a couple open looks early to get our shooting going. If it costs us on defense, so be it. At least we tried something … but the slow starts are an obvious pattern and something needs to be shaken up. Maybe it’s a dumb idea, but I do not want to see Uguak starting. At the very least, let him come off the bench like Jackson used to do.