Southern Illinois Preview and Game Thread -- 1-27-2022

[JCT]

Thursday, January 27, 2022 7:00 p.m.
Banterra Center, Carbondale, Illinois

Just 46 hours after a 59-47 win over SIU at Gentile Arena, the Ramblers travel 342 miles south to face Southern Illinois again on Thursday night. Loyola's win was much closer than the final score for most of the game, but the Ramblers closed out the final minutes of each half with precision. Thursday's Covid makeup game at SIU will be Loyola's final trip to play SIU as a regular season conference foe.

The Ramblers were held to their second-lowest scoring output of the season on Tuesday, but managed to pull out a 12-point win over SIU, who matched their lowest scoring output of the season. Loyola had long stretches without scoring a field goal, but stayed in the game by getting to the line. The Maroon and Gold connected on 14 of their 17 free throw attempts and closed out the two halves on stifling scoring runs. Overall, Loyola shot 42.2%, but the Ramblers held SIU's leading scorer to a season-low tie of only six points in 36 minutes.

Third-year Coach Bryan Mullins will likely start 6'8" junior forward/center J.D. Muila, 6'6" junior Marcus Domask, 6'1" junior guard Lance Jones, 6'4" junior guard Steven Verplanckien, and 6'7" grad transfer Ben Coupet Jr. at guard. Four players from the bench get some considerable time on the court: 6'2" sophomore guard Dalton Banks, 6'9" sophomore center Kyler Filewich, 6'7" freshman forward Troy D'Amico, and 6'2" junior guard Trent Brown.

Domask is back from missing most of last season, and he's one of the most prolific offensive players in the MVC, averaging 15.3 points per game. He's passing better than ever, but given his offensive responsibilities on this team (one of the Salukis' best inside offensive players) his shooting percentage has fallen off a bit. He's making up for it by getting to the free throw line a bit more. The other explosive offensive player for SIU is Lance Jones, the Evanston native who scores 13.8 per game. Domask, Jones, and Verplancken have each hit between 32 and 36 three pointers, with Verplancken one of the most efficient behind the arc in the league at 45.7%. The Salukis' inside presence-- mostly in the form of 6'8" Muila and 6'9" Filewich-- are primarily for defensive purposes, but if they find the ball in their hands under the basket they can finish with authority. Filewich averages 4.4 points off the bench, and Muila scores 3.0 on average.

SIU stays in games with their defense and controlling tempo. The Salukis rank 353 out of 358 teams in Division I in tempo according to KenPom; the Ramblers are at 330. The Salukis like to make their opponents work, and drive the clock down to single digits most possessions. They are also among the best in DI at limiting offensive rebounds by opponents.

Both Loyola and SIU have three games in a five-day swing, starting with Tuesday, then against each other again on Thursday in Carbondale (the December Covid make-up game), folllowed by Sundays games-- Loyola at Drake and SIU hosting Valpo.

The Ramblers lead the all-time series 12-9, but Loyola has lost three of their last four games in Carbondale.


Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _27_22.pdf

SIU game notes: https://siusalukis.com/documents/2022/1/26/Loyola.pdf

TV/Streaming video: NBC Sports Chicago, ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eve ... %3Aresults

Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=102&type=Live

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

Vegas odds: Loyola by 6.5

[brot4britu]

Nice report !! WE snap out of the funk we seem to be in--WE win say 77 to 59

[Dansen]

Odds have moved down to -5.5

I don’t just like that line, I love it. Hammering the Blers

[natetheskate]

any word on Marquis? Also if Hutson was going to make a comeback seems like he would have a good chance against Filewhich. no?

[bmh_twosix]

any word on Marquis? Also if Hutson was going to make a comeback seems like he would have a good chance against Filewhich. no?

Haven't seen anything on solid Marquise's status, but looks like he was practicing in today's hype video from practice/shootaround. Shooting at the 23 second mark.

Completely random gambling twitter account I have no reason to believe says he's "questionable", but only thing I'm seeing thus far.

[JCT]

Here's some more tidbits courtesy of this Southern Illinoisan article:

Williamson drew 7 fouls and committed zero in Tuesday's game. That's the kind of thing that gets missed in traditional box scores, but tells you how and why Williamson is so valuable.

We all know Valentine is the youngest coach in DI, but sometimes forget Mullins is still the 4th youngest of the 358 DI coaches....

[bmh_twosix]

[badsneakers]

Game is on NBC Sports Channel

[ahunte1]

Well, today's not the day Schwieger turns a corner.

[01grad]

Well, today's not the day Schwieger turns a corner.

It just never feels like good things are going to happen when they try to let him back his guy down towards the hoop.