Saturday, November 11, 2023 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.

Loyola faces the Eastern Illinois Panthers at Gentile Arena for the 2023-24 home opener on Saturday night. The Ramblers will be seeking to get into the win column after Wednesday night's 75-62 loss to #10 Florida Atlantic. EIU comes into the contest at 1-1, with an 80-52 loss at Illinois to open the season and a lop-sided 91-45 home win over Division III Monmouth (IL) on Wednesday night.

Former Evansville Coach Marty Simmons is in his third year at Eastern Illinois, and appears to be building a program in a similar style to his recruiting at Evansville. The Panthers were picked last in the OVC preseason poll after going 5-13 in the conference last year, but the team has a whole new look this season. There are five Chicago-area products on the roster, two 6'8" foreign players (remember Coach Simmons' success developing Lithuanian center Egidijus Mockevicius?), a couple of freshmen, and transfers from several D1 and juco programs.

The Panthers are likely to start 6'7" sophomore forward Kooper Jacobi, 5'10" senior guard Jordan Booker, 6'10" forward Jermaine Hamlin, 6'5" junior guard Dan Luers, and 6'8" sophomore forward Sincere Malone. Jacobi is a very active redshirt sophomore transfer from Toledo who had a double-double against Illinois on Monday and dropped in 16 points against Monmouth on Wednesday. He did not play at all last season as a redshirt at Toledo.

Booker is a transfer point guard from Tarleton State who is originally from Chicago Bogan; he averaged 6.6 ppg last year at Tarleton and is a great free throw shooter at 85%. Malone is a Simeon product who averaged 6.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals, and 1.4 assists last year as a freshman part-time starter. Luers hails from Lebanon, Ohio and is one of those guys who might be a better shooter from outside the arc than inside. Hamlin is the Illinois transfer originally from Lincoln, Ill. who played mop-up minutes in 24 games as a freshman and sophomore at Illinois before transferring to EIU. Hamlin is not a great shooter, but he’s a big body that can rebound and block some shots.

Coming off the bench are Nakyel Shelton, a 6’3” junior guard out of Chicago Schurz; 6’4” junior guard Corey Sawyer, Jr.; Jaylin Gibson, a 6’3” guard from Evanston who played two years at Mount St. Mary’s; and Kyndall Davis is a 6’5” junior guard out of Chicago Bogan who started his career at Long Island. Freshman guard Isaiah Griffin might also get a few minutes.

Only five players on the 15-man roster return from last year, and only three of them (Malone, Luers and Hamlin) appeared in more than 10 games, so this is a very different team from last season. Jacobi and Booker have already developed some leadership on the court. Expect a good showing of EIU fans to attend, between local family members of the team and area alumni.

Loyola will be looking to find some rhythm and rotations against a team that isn't nearly as imposing, experienced or unrelenting as FAU. Many of the slightly-fumbled, just-a-little-bit off passes went for points off turnovers against FAU, and Loyola’s younger players sometimes looked reluctant to even try a shot as FAU’s 7’1” center did a lot of work over the off-season. Returning to home and facing a team that is also trying to establish familiarity might be just what the Ramblers need to work out some bugs and establish a better game flow.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _-_EIU.pdf

Eastern Illinois game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... ago_G3.pdf

TV/Streaming video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... edcacfde7a

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=151&type=Live

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=482145

Vegas odds: Pending

I'm expecting a really strong response from the guys on Saturday. Also, love that this is a night game! I don't recall many of our non-con Saturday games the last 10 years being in the late evening, hopefully that leads to a rowdy student section.

Well that was a fun game! Watson looked great out there. Electric on both sides of the court. Excited to see and digest the final box score. Keep it rolling on to UIC.

Great game by Watson, Rubin and Mwamba. Liked what Welch and Edwards brought off the bench. So much more energy and communication this year.

Would like an update on Dawson... he's had a rough go with the injury bug.

Less than ideal update.

Good win tonight. We played a team we should have hammered and we did. Some thoughts:

1. Team looked much more confident in everything they did tonight. This teams need to believe that they can play like this every night regardless of the opponent. Once you marry the belief with your talent good things can happen. We have a couple of games (UIC and New Orleans) we should get before traveling to KC and a date with Creighton. We need to stack some wins and to get to KC with some momentum.

2. Offense: Much better flow tonight and we were ready to catch and shoot tonight. The 3’s came within the offense. We pushed tempo and had some penetration and kick outs. We did not turn the ball over like FAU as we cut it down to 10 and balanced scoring. Des Watson was on fire from the arc. Question is…can we play free and easy like this against Creighton or in the A-10?

3. Defense was good. 9 blocks and Miles had at least 4 of them. Guys were working hard, helping each other.

4. Miles Rubin is gonna be a problem. He’s young and still learning, but he has the ability to affect game. He looks like he has a high IQ for the game, and he does not seem to rattle. He will be fun to watch moving forward.

5. Minute distribution was good. Watson played 26, no one else over 24. Everyone playing hard while they are in the game.We are gonna wear some teams down this year and we should be fresh later in the year.

6. The Joe was packed! Great crowd for a game against a lesser opponent. The Saturday night 7 pm start probably helped. Student body was fantastic. Team put on a good show and should keep season ticket holders coming back for more.

7. Next UIC on Tuesday. They took our spot in the MVC. Let’s hammer them and keep it going!

OK, I'm going to nit pick just a little. It was an excellent performance by The Loyola University. And, they managed to have double-digit turnovers vs a team that one would charitably call mediocre.

A few early-season observations with a sample of size of two games are (1) The LU have a lot of guys who can contribute; (2) Dolan could be a real bonus; (3) was this a breakout Des Watson or a blip?; (3) Rubin might turn out to be a player; (4) what's the deal with Schweiger and Edwards? Not a lot of minutes; (5) If we shop the portal, then let's keep buying Ivy League; and, (5) I'm not sure yet who will be that guy when The Loyola University Ramblers need a bucket.

Wow!!! That was fun!! They were well prepared and aggressive on both ends on the court. Watson got hot - I hope he can be consistent as he is very athletic. Rubin was great especially since this is 2nd college game. You could see after a few blocks and rebounds that his confidence grew & EIU shots were being affected. Turnovers weren’t too bad but always something to watch. The whole team just seemed to have a different attitude. Keep it up boys!!

With respect to the 10 turnovers — the 23 assists more than offset. Basically 4x versus FAU.

Granted - much easier team. Need to see this Valentine squad share the ball and make shots. I think the assist to turnover stat will be the key all year for the Ramblers.

Few comments:

Of importance, $11 beers now. OOf.

Of greater importance, Miles Rubin. I'm liking his early season usage a lot - rim protector and rebounder. The game seems to come well to him. I didn't think I was crazy to wonder if he'd earn 15-20 mins of floor time this year. But to do so this early and as a starter has got to inject major confidence into the kid. Just hope he isn't getting overexposed, or put in bad situations if games ever do get out of hand. Next few games should be excellent acclimation and further tune-ups against inferior opponents.

Looking ahead at match-ups and centers, Kalkbrenner of Creighton (7'1, 250 / very very high FG%) is far superior than Goldin of FAU, so the big-man match-ups and how we plan for KC will be interesting for us to watch and follow in the coming week.

As Rubin's support, I like what Adelekun is capable of as first sub. Last game and this game, we could see what a positive presence he is down low and in the paint offensively and defensively. He did not appear to be moving well in FAU, but looked better Saturday. Back to the basket player, massive lower body strength, and he makes things happen. This guy's a senior? Eager to see what contributions come in the next few games.

Watson can shoot. Can this continue? Thank you Davidson.

At this point, I guess if Schwieger and Edwards are both competing for limited minutes, it just shows how much talent is on the roster right now. It appears the new guys have surpassed them on depth chart.

I was disappointed we didn't pound Eastern by 35 after 40.