Wednesday, January 3, 2024 6:00 p.m.
Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis, Mo.
Loyola heads down I-55 to St. Lou to kick off the A-10 Conference season with the Saint Louis Billikens Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. Loyola takes an 8-5 record and KenPom ranking of 128 to the game, while the hosts are ranked 197 in the metric with their 7-6 record. This will be Loyola’s 49th game with Saint Louis in a series dating back to 1922, with the two teams perfectly balanced at 24-all.
With numbers like that (and especially if you watched the SLU lose 101-62 at SIU in early December) you might think the Ramblers have a great chance to beat Saint Louis for the first time since 1991 and get their first win against them on the road since 1987. But that would have been before a court ruling overrode the NCAA and allowed several multiple-time transfers like 6’9” junior center Bradley Ezewiro to play immediately. The California native who played high school at Oak Hill Academy started off at LSU as a freshman, got significant playing time at Georgetown last year, and
ballooned to 295 pounds while in the transfer portal. Now down around 260, it would be insufficient to say Ezewiro fills a gaping hole in the Saint Louis lineup and skills set—what was a void around the rim on defense and offense at the beginning of the season has turned to a strength. In his two games since the court decision, Ezewiro has averaged 17.5 points and 7 rebounds in just 21.5 minutes per game. He’s shooting 70.6% from the field, and 73.3% from the line while earning 7.5 trips to the line per game. His energy and aggressiveness in the paint has been a shot in the arm for the Billikens; they got a nice win against one of CUSA’s top teams in Louisiana Tech (KenPom 89), and then lost a competitive game at NC State last week since Ezewiro has been playing. That aggressiveness has also been a flaw, as he’s averaging 4.5 personal fouls in an average of 21.5 minues.
Besides Ezewiro, Coach Travis Ford is likely to start 6’5” senior guard Terrence Hargrove, 6’5” junior guard Gibson Jimerson, 6’7” senior forward Tim Dalger, and 5’11” freshman point guard Cian Medley. Hargrove averages 13.6 ppg and has been the top rebounder with 6.4 per game before Ezewiro started playing. Jimerson is one of the best three-point shooters in the A-10, and averages 16.1 ppg; he passes very well also, as evidenced by his 2.2 assists per game. Dalgar is a Tulsa transfer (scored 17 points against Loyola in Tulsa’s win last year at Myrtle Beach) and averages 11.3 points and 4.8 rebounds. Larry Hughes, Jr. started the season as the quasi-combo-point guard, but his facilitating was not what a team with SLU's personnel and skill set needed. Five-eleven freshman Cian Medley is now getting the nod as starting PG, and he's averaging 4.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 3.2 assists.
The top bench players are 6’’4” sophomore guard Larry Hughes, Jr., 6’2” senior guard Mike Meadows, 7’0” freshman center Bruce Zhang, and 6’5” sophomore guard Kellen Thames. Meadows is a grad transfer from Portland who’s a good passing guard—he’s also shooting 46% from behind the arc, averaging 6.4 ppg.
The Billikens are a great three-point shooting team with players like Jimerson (38%), Hargrove (40.5%), and Meadows (45.5%). As a team, they average 37.7% behind the arc, which is in the top 10% of all teams. They’re also great at getting to the line (54th most FT attempts) and shoot a high percentage there, 73.2%. Where they’re weak is in two-point shooting—a 48.7% success rate in two-point field goal attempts ranks 278th in college hoops. By comparison, Loyola shoots 54.5% on two-point shots, which ranks 86th. Most of that data comes from before Ezewiro joined the team, so perhaps they’re better at it now.
Saint Louis was going to be a pretty good team this year with Ezewiro available from day one and shooting guard Sincere Parker healthy. The injury to the dynamic, free-shooting Parker turned them from a fast-moving, high tempo team to one that needs to work for shots. Before Parker’s injury they played games with super-high pace, in the 73-80 range. Since Parker went down, they’re losing games with a pace above 67, and winning all but one of their games with pace below 66. Trying to speed them up might work as a strategy because they’re weaker in transition and at the point guard position.
The next three games are all tossups according to KenPom—all in the 48% to 52% range in win probability. If the Ramblers are going to have a positive A-10 season, they’d better resolve to win at least two out of three of these eminently winnable games—on the road at Saint Louis, and at home against Duquesne and Richmond. One thing that’s made even more important in leagues with uneven scheduling is road wins, and Loyola has a golden chance on Wednesday to do three historic things: get their first win against Saint Louis since 1991, get their first road win against Saint Louis since 1987, and get their first conference opener win in the A-10.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _-_SLU.pdfSaint Louis game notes: https://slubillikens.com/documents/2024 ... hicago.pdfTV/Streaming video: ESPN +
https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/ ... 3d9c4d1dc5Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=164&type=LiveLive stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=487607Vegas odds: Saint Louis by 1.5
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