I can agree that the refs were seeing a different game. That is still not an excuse for losing this game.
LU seems to have a pattern of a guaranteed prolonged scoring slump in every game, win or lose.
We also almost always never finish the half on a good sequence. Last night we had the ball and a chance to score and run out the clock.
No basket and didn't you just feel it that UNI would come down and make that last shot to cut the lead?
UNI, refs or not, was totally beatable last night.
Our lack of height issue will continue to be a problem until we do not have a lack of height.
Offensive rebounds and easy put backs by our opponents neutralizes the really good defense we do play.
Aside from that, the conference is pretty much wide open from three thru ten, so lets put a good spin on this as we have already played two games with Wichita and ISUr, as most of our competitors still face those games.
I still see a third or 4th spot by the time the conference ends. Its only a few plays and a few poor minutes that are costing us key "w"'s.
Go Ramblers....

Good post Ramblerguy!

This is the kind of loss that really hurts because of the initial Drake loss; while that loss doesn't look as bad now, we would be sitting st 4-3 instead of 3-4. That said going into the season I would have been happy to split with UNI. At least we got them early before they really get rolling. Our team will continue to grow, and it was nice to see Ingram hit another late 3.... He may be next years crunch time go to man.

I agree with Donte's development. He is very athletic and I hope he doesn't forget that you can also make a three point play by going to the basket and getting fouled.
Sometimes a missed three leaves you zero and a missed layup gets you two free throws.Plus it adds a team foul to the opponent and more free throws would have also helped yesterday. I occasionally get frustrated with players having no one in front of them never thinking to drive instead of popping the there point jumper. I guess I am just old school?

No i'm totally with you. The team does lack a confident slasher outside of Doyle. As a freshmen i remember Ingram frequently bringing inside (though he often struggled to finish). I think our team would definitely benefit from having him force the issue on the drive more often. Ingram is our best 3 point shooter this year but we also have other outside weapons like Richardon and Custer, so i'd love to see him take it to the rack.

Townes will bring that next year and I think Chastain would have had that in him this year. Jackson is also fast improving shooting the ball off the dribble drive as well, but he's a bit slower with it and needs more space at this point. I would be curious to know if it's more by design though, as Skokna has shown he can be successful taking it to the hoop but has had very little opportunity to do so, Satterwhites had a few nice takes in a small sample size as well.

WOW tough loss....would have been a great win. Officiating bad...dont expect to get good calls on the road.
Couple thoughts.....Our defense consistently is good ...our offense is inconsistent. Seems like we have two offenses....the Milton Doyle show offense and when Milton is good he is very, very good and when he is bad he is ..well not so good. Problem is that it requires him to handle the ball a ton and as we saw last year he makes a lot of turnovers. The other is when we run a regular drive and pitch kind of offense where Milton gets the ball within the offense and handles it less. Seems like recently Coach has decided that Milt doesnt get enough looks and we have been going to the Milt offense more. We have so many better ball handlers than Milt this year that it is curious to me that we take it out of their hands.I think Coach has trust /control issues!
Last night in regulation ... last possession, chance to win game and you put the ball in the hands of Donte one on one against the steal leader in the Valley?????? Oh well .woulda coulda on the Evansville. GO RAMBLERS>...last game was lould.....BE LOUD SATURDAY ON YOUR FEET

Since Doyle got to Loyola, I've always had the feeling that we're not far from getting a good, sustained winning streak going and challenging for the top 3 in the conference. His first year, he tried to take over too much and we had some players who were not ready or able to do what it takes to win. His second year, we got going pretty good (12-3 overall, 2-1 in conference, won the Vegas Tournament) before he got injured and had to miss all but a few minutes of 12 (I think) games, during which we were 4-8. When he got back, it was just before Arch Madness, and we had sunk to 6th place. Last year, he was good, but not the player he was at the beginning of his sophomore season before the injury.

This year Doyle has been excellent, his best season-- double digits in points every game, high efficiency on shooting, great go-to performances, a career high game in points and rebounds, top 10 in the conference in points, assists, and a variety of other categories-- up until last night. So you can't really complain one bit.

Still, as a team, we can't seem to accept any kind of sustained success. The loss to Drake-- coming when it did in the conference opener, playing a totally alien style and pace, all but neglecting defense in an attempt to outscore a conference rival on their own court-- was a massive setback for the season. The next game had a bit of a hangover from the Drake game, and we got embarrased on our own court by a better team. We get going against UNI at home, look very good against Bradley, put up a good fight on the road against WSU, and come back from a big deficit in a stoic first half against Missouri State. And then we blow 8 or 10 golden chances to win in regulation and two different overtimes on the road against UNI.

In the next two games we've got a chance, again, to atone for our crappy game against Drake, which would have been nearly forgotten with a win against UNI last night. It will take another game or two of encouraging performances after the next two to forget about the could-have-beens and but-fors from last night.

We expect losses to come, and especially on the road. It happens. I don't think anyone EXPECTED a win at Wichita State, or EXPECTS a win at Illinois State. I have hope, but I don't EXPECT a win in Springfield, Missouri. But how can you not have expectations of wins at the bottom conference teams with arguably our best player in two generations in his senior season, and the kind of supporting cast of upperclassmen (three juniors and a redshirt sophomore transfer from a Big 12 team) in the starting lineup? And what does it say about the attitude, leadership, or mental state of a team that they keep missing close-out opportunities against lousy teams just when they're at the doorway of breaking ahead of the .500 pack? The Iowa teams have 11 D1 wins COMBINED this year (two of them against us), and we've lost on the road to both of them. We can't do that with the stronger-than-average team we have this year and expect anything better than .500.