As has been said, so weird (but amazing!) that LUC has that many more offensive boards than an ACC school!

I didn't expect it to be that nerve-wracking with Moses Wright being out. They punched us in the nose to start both halves-- probably got a really inspiring pre-game and halftime speech.

Was surprised that Kaifes got so much playing time. Hutson was too inexperienced to thrive in a game with upperclassmen from the ACC, but he'll do great against MVC opponents until he gets a lot more game experience. And they switched Kennedy and Hall on offensive/defensive switches.... that was a surprise. Aher got a lot of love from Nance/Raferty.... nice to see him get the recognition despite not scoring that much.

I would have thought a player like Aher was going to emerge if they successfully denied the ball to Krut, but it was Williamson. Seemed like Lucas was in for every second of a hard, physical game where he did a lot on both ends.

Bottom line is, this team knows how to win. We went in, I think, with a different game plan. We adjusted on the fly 2/3 through the first half and got on a roll. Same thing in the second-- Tech tried to switch up the defense and guard man to man for a while and gave up. Krutwig was quiet, but GT expended a LOT of player energy to deny him the ball. And then the fact that they only had 7 players was another factor, I think.

Next up is Illinois. I've heard they're pretty good.

In advance of JCT's excellent preview thread, do we have any idea in what time slot we will play on Sunday?

Loyola opens up +6.5

Don’t underestimate the difficulty of that game. We were the favorite before wright was out. We had to adjust to an unknown offense and deal with the complacency of having their best ACC offensive player of the year being out. If you have any experience coaching kids when they feel that they should dominate a team, it is impossible to convince that they need to play hard. Lucas showed up big time as well as Clemons and Norris. Credit to the coaches and the players. I could not be prouder.

Awesome day. Great performance.....total team effort. The state of our program is simply unreal right now. Unbelievable game for Lucas - So happy for him to grab the spotlight. Great adjustments by Porter - taking Cam off the floor for some long stretches....which led to a few more minutes for Coop. And Coop played pretty well. Which is great because we could really use a couple of 3s from Coop on Sunday.

Rough first half for Keith - but he showed up huge in the second half on both offense and defense.

As I type - the big 10 (Purdue) is about to lose their third game of the tourney. And it's only the first day. And Purdue will lose to a team that we beat. That should make us feel just a little better about the game on Sunday.

(and to think we almost had Javion Hamlet.....wow)

That was a great college basketball game....that is all I want a good hard nosed LU team playing another good hard nosed basketball team....and win our share...Hats off to GT...lost their top player and I though gave us everything we could ask for and we answered. And I thought they were really well coached. I have never seen a zone like that...it was far from your traditional 1-3-1...using the middle guy to leave the high post and pressure the ball..and everyone else rotates to the passing lanes......really gave us fits early.....and offensively they ran some form of a 5 out....cutting guys to the hoop and creating a lot of one on ones for them...THey shot 60% I think which has to be the best against us this year. But man we played hard, stayed with it and WIlliamson was super human.......PM did a great job of going small most of the time when he had to rest Krut...
All I want on Sunday is for us to go after them as hard as we can and not blink and not be afraid of the moment. My main concern as it was in the Valley TNMNT (and they proved me wrong) is that a lot of guys, especially Norris, who played all 40 minutes...will have their legs under them...dont know why but execting a great game from Kennedy.....I have two inches left on my Sister Jean prayer candle...figure thats enough for 5 more games ! Im pumped.

Of all I remember from when we were recruiting Javion Hamlet...I’m may be one of two people in my Central Illinois pool who picked North Texas and Loyola to get to the round of 32....who knows what will happen on Sunday, but one thing that can’t be denied is the eye for talent and winning that Porter’s staff has

WOW. I am 3-0 in attendance during these last 2 NCAA Appearances! Seriously, great win and we did exactly what we needed to do. We limited TOs, hit 3s and played defense down the stretch. Porter’s post game comments were correct. They played basically 5 guards and had a lot of mismatches by spreading us out. However, in the tournament it is very difficult to beat a team just scoring 2s. We won because even with a slower start from the arc, we stayed with it and got rolling. I personally think with Moses in the game we would have played better defense because it was going to a more conventional offense by GT. Pretty much everything GT did was one on one play.

My thoughts being there was the long layoff after the Arch Madness showed the first 10 minutes. We looked a step slow and rusty. Once we got our legs back under us we got rolling. Porter was excellent today using his time outs and rotating players in and out.

One thing we do have to do against Illinois is keep their guards in front of us and double Kofi. He is not a great passer or FT shooter. Illinois is an excellent team, but if we limit TOS, control tempo and shoot it...#WeAintGoing!

Illinois game is at 11:10, according to CBS

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