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#10 Loyola Chicago vs #7 tOSU, Fri 3/18, 12:15 ET on CBS

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Loyola has gone to the Sweet 16, or farther, in each of their last 3 appearances. We know what happened to the 2-seed Bucks last year.

They allow the fewest transition points of any tournament team, but the Bucks are one of the slowest tempo teams (yet top 20 in offensive efficiency) so not sure it matters.

Loyola plays at an even slower tempo than OSU, so this will probably be a first team to 60 wins game. Bucks being #131 in defensive efficiency is a concern here.
 
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Ramblers are coached by Drew Valentine - the older brother of MSU’s Denzel Valentine. Drew played at Oakland U in Michigan, before becoming an assistant coach there. He was the defensive coordinator for Loyola during their 2017 run and got promoted after Porter Moser left.

The Valentine family is really close with Izzo and I’d say Drew’s team takes on a lot of the toughness qualities from MSU (and Porter Moser). Loyola played MSU in an early season tourney and lost 63-61.

Youngest coach in D-1 (Age 30), I believe. I can’t believe it but I’m actually a couple years older than him. Ouch.
 
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RB07OSU said:
About what I expected, not thrilled about drawing Loyola but that horrendous final stretch means beggars can't be choosers. Fingers crossed we're relatively healthy, or have played possum in the last part of the season to fake everyone out. It's March, so we'll see how the cookie crumbles.
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Last year fans were confident, many were overlooking our first game entirely, and we saw how that turned out.

Now a lot have given up on the Bucks, and we're missing guys, but if we get them back who knows? It's March.
 
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Jake said:
Last year fans were confident, many were overlooking our first game entirely, and we saw how that turned out.

Now a lot have given up on the Bucks, and we're missing guys, but if we get them back who knows? It's March.
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That's all I can tell myself right now because yeah, last year I thought we were making a Final 4 run with the squad we had. I'll watch with fingers crossed, and hope something is in the air like a Phil Collins song.
 
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Nine of the 16 players on their roster are in at least their 4th year of eligibility, including 4 guards. Last year they had around 6 who were Sr+. Years experience is something I have thought about with these NCAA tourney matchups ever since that fateful 1st round game against Utah St (6 Sr's, 5 of them were starters) in the O'Brien era.

But Krutwig graduated last year, so at least we aren't dealing that guy.

25-7, they had 3 games canceled, including one against Davidson (that would have been a great game). They ended their season as MVC tourney champs on March 6, so even the Buckeyes will have had 5 less days off to regenerate.
 
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Loyola is perhaps best known for Sister Jean, the Ramblers’ 102-year-old team chaplain who rose to fame for her appearances at their games during their 2018 Final Four run. She’s still attending the team’s games and plans to be with the team at its NCAA Tournament games once again this year, according to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.

THEY’RE A SMALL-BALL TEAM
Like most mid-major teams, you won’t find a ton of size on Loyola’s roster. The Ramblers have only two players who are taller than 6-foot-7 – center Jacob Hutson (6-10) and forward Tom Welch (6-8) – and they’ve combined to play only 21.2 minutes per game.

Maybe this guy can come up big and have another "monster game":

200w.gif
 
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