La Salle Preview and Game Thread -- 03/04/2023

[JCT]

Saturday, March 4, 2023 1:00 p.m.
Tom Gola Arena, Philadelphia, Pa.


Loyola resumes its rivalry with La Salle when the Ramblers travel to Philly for the A-10 season finale on Saturday afternoon. Loyola is 0-5 against La Salle, with all five meetings coming during the three seasons when the Explorers were in the MCC (1992-95). The Ramblers are locked into the 15 seed for the A-10 Tournament, which begins 60-some hours after this game. The Explorers could finish the season 8-10 in league play with a win, which could earn them a seeding as high as 8 and as low as 12.

Legendary Philadelphia area coach Fran Dunphy—a La Salle alum from 1970-- was called in to right the ship for La Salle after they had only one season above .500 and a conference record of 60-99 since their Sweet 16 run in 2011. Dunphy took Penn to the NCAA Tournament nine times in 17 years with the Ivy League school, and after crossing town to Temple he went to the Dance six of his seven years with the team in the A-10, and twice more in the six years with Temple in the AAC.

The Explorers have been streaky this year. La Salle currently has a four-game losing streak, which came after a five-game win streak, which came after a five-game losing streak. Last time out, they lost 77-53 at Dayton on Tuesday. The Explorers do a really good job against the bottom part of the league—they’re 7-3 against teams 170 or below in KenPom, but 0-7 against teams with a KenPom better than 170. But give ‘em some credit—they win almost all the games they’re supposed to, and several home games punching above their weight.

The likely starting lineup for the Explorers is 5’11” junior Jhamir Brickus (8.7 ppg, 39.4% three point shooting), 6’1” sophomore Khalil Brantley (14.1 ppg, 4.1 assists), 6’7” senior Fousseyni Drame (9.0 ppg, team leading 5.8 rebounds per game), 6’7” senior Hassan Drame (6.6 ppg), and 6’9” senior Mamadou Doucoure (3.2 ppg). Doucoure starts at center, but 6’10” freshman Rokas Jocius gets most of the minutes near the rim.

Besides Jocious 6’4” senior Josh Nickelberry, and 6’5” sophomore Daeshon Shepherd (5.7 ppg) are the top guys off the bench. Nickelberry is a great three-point shooter (39.3%), and averages 11.4 points per game; the Louisville transfer has had seven games with 20+ points and four games with five or more threes. Junior guard Anwar Gill is one of their best bench players, but missed the last game against Dayton—he averages 8.0 points per game.

The Ramblers don’t know their opponent on Tuesday in Brooklyn, but St. Joe’s has the inside track on earning the 10 seed. The 10/15 seed game will be playing at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _Salle.pdf

La Salle game notes: https://goexplorers.com/news/2023/3/3/m ... r-day.aspx

TV/Streaming video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=bc ... 54a41e951f

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=148&type=Live

Live stats: https://goexplorers.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

Vegas odds: Pending

[natetheskate]

Nice preview as usual...thanks JCT.....It has been a tough season, a disappointing season. Add to that we are coming off an emotional loss, the 5th loss that has been a last possession loss or overtime. Add to that this one was taken away by a bum call. Last regular season game and then with the red L for last place now plastered on our chests how will we be motivated to play? To make that extra effort to play really good defense? or do we come out with " what the hell" attitude and just hit every shot we put up.

[Cruyff]

I looked at the last eleven Ramblers games and arguably, the team has been competitive in seven to nine of them depending on how one defines competitive (I'm defining it above as within striking distance the majority of the game or at the end). Hopefully today, Ramblers show well on the road like against Richmond, and we see that team that continues to compete well enough. to beat LaSalle.

[Rambler88]

Listening to the announcers, he substituted Wilson and Welch for Hutson without a timeout. Interesting. Almost close.

[Boooom!]

Powwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

[natetheskate]

are we getting a look at next year with Golden not playing and Wilson barely..with Edwards and Welch starting??

[goramblers2011]

Wonder if Golden not playing is due to injury/sickness or if coach's decision.

Either way, great to see Hutson and Edwards have great games. If only we had them the full season. Oh, wait, we did?

[Rambler88]

This is the Edwards I was expecting. Unfortunately, he has been ineffective most of the year. He is shooting 24.5% for 3s and 33.8% from the floor. Last year he was, 41.4% and 35.6%. Today's game he looks great. He looks confident. I love it.

I do wonder if the wrap on Norris's hand has impacted him during the year.

[01grad]

Our seed isn’t changing no matter what happens today, so My guess is minutes are being limited for some players to get them rest before the conference tournament. It’s a long shot, but it’s not impossible to think we could go on a run and win a few games in Brooklyn, so the fresher the legs going in the better.

That being said, Hutty and Edwards are giving Drew a reason to think about the lineups next week.

[Boooom!]

Powwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
These guys are worse than Connor Onion!
Thank goodness it ended with no Powwww!