Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series:
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 65
UNIV. of LOUISIANA MONROE 58
*****
GO RAMBLERS!
Showing posts with label College Basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College Basketball. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
College Basketball Invitational and Loyola University of Chicago
So most people have never heard of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament, which is going on right now and has its championship next week just like the NCAA tournament that gets (deservedly) all the attention. But if you're from Chicago, maybe you should have heard of it. Because there were only three men's teams from Illinois playing in the post-season, and two of them (NIT entries Illinois State and University of Illinois Champaign) are gone, gone gone (in the words of Phillip Phillips).
The third team, my own alma mater Loyola University, is still alive and will be competing with Louisiana-Monroe in the best-of-three championship of the CBI.
Yeah, I said CHAMPIONSHIP!
If you are not aware of the fact, only one team from Illinois has ever won the NCAA tournament. One guess who it was. Did you guess Loyola University of Chicago? If you didn't, you're wrong. LU won it in 1963.
I'm not 100% certain, but I think Loyola's last postseason appearance was in the 1985 NCAA tournament where they went to the Sweet 16 and lost to a really really really (that's three "really's") good Georgetown team.
Why should we care about this? Well, there's been a lot of talk these past two weeks about how bad the state of Chicago, and of Illinois college basketball has been recently. There's not much excitement around the usual teams, Illinos and DePaul. No one talks about the Redbirds of ISU, or the Salukis of SIU, or Western, Eastern, Northern, Chicago State, UIC, Northwestern, or Loyola.
Yet a bunch of NBA players and a bunch of players on the last few years' final four teams have been from Chicago. Anthony Davis. Derrick Rose. Jabari Parker. The Okafor kid from Duke this year. All Chicagoans. And there are plenty of others who are NOT superstars of their teams but instead are just good solid players.
They aren't playing for local schools.
It's a big change from when I was in school. The best college bound HS basketball players were often heading to Illinois. Or DePaul. Some even went to Loyola. A few went to Northwestern. A couple more ended up at ISU. Voise Winters? Efram Winters, Mitchell Anderson, Kenny Battle, Mark Aguirre, Ken Norman, Terry Cummings, Alfredrick Hughes, Andre Battle, David Thirdkill, Darius Clemons..those were Illinois kids who played for Illinois schools. They made Illinois college programs good.
They're all leaving now.
Seeing Loyola playing for a championship, talking about it, promoting one of our Chicago teams, is a first step in increasing the visibility of the local programs. Showcasing local talent, showcasing local coaching, those are good things. The local news and sports should be at least talking about LU's postseason run, which has included wins over Rider, Oral Roberts and Seattle so far. They don't have to make it the lead, or even higher than the upcoming Kentucky/Notre Dame matchup, but it should at the very least be news in the Chicago area market.
It hasn't been. No one, except for an occasional mention by WSCR's Mike Mulligan (a Loyola graduate), says anything about them. And that's why Chicago and Illinois basketball are not relevant these days. The big story is about major programs in other states. Not a word about Illinois programs, except to ridicule them and maybe talk about DePaul's search for a head coach.
Go Ramblers!!!
*****
The third team, my own alma mater Loyola University, is still alive and will be competing with Louisiana-Monroe in the best-of-three championship of the CBI.
Yeah, I said CHAMPIONSHIP!
If you are not aware of the fact, only one team from Illinois has ever won the NCAA tournament. One guess who it was. Did you guess Loyola University of Chicago? If you didn't, you're wrong. LU won it in 1963.
I'm not 100% certain, but I think Loyola's last postseason appearance was in the 1985 NCAA tournament where they went to the Sweet 16 and lost to a really really really (that's three "really's") good Georgetown team.
Why should we care about this? Well, there's been a lot of talk these past two weeks about how bad the state of Chicago, and of Illinois college basketball has been recently. There's not much excitement around the usual teams, Illinos and DePaul. No one talks about the Redbirds of ISU, or the Salukis of SIU, or Western, Eastern, Northern, Chicago State, UIC, Northwestern, or Loyola.
Yet a bunch of NBA players and a bunch of players on the last few years' final four teams have been from Chicago. Anthony Davis. Derrick Rose. Jabari Parker. The Okafor kid from Duke this year. All Chicagoans. And there are plenty of others who are NOT superstars of their teams but instead are just good solid players.
They aren't playing for local schools.
It's a big change from when I was in school. The best college bound HS basketball players were often heading to Illinois. Or DePaul. Some even went to Loyola. A few went to Northwestern. A couple more ended up at ISU. Voise Winters? Efram Winters, Mitchell Anderson, Kenny Battle, Mark Aguirre, Ken Norman, Terry Cummings, Alfredrick Hughes, Andre Battle, David Thirdkill, Darius Clemons..those were Illinois kids who played for Illinois schools. They made Illinois college programs good.
They're all leaving now.
Seeing Loyola playing for a championship, talking about it, promoting one of our Chicago teams, is a first step in increasing the visibility of the local programs. Showcasing local talent, showcasing local coaching, those are good things. The local news and sports should be at least talking about LU's postseason run, which has included wins over Rider, Oral Roberts and Seattle so far. They don't have to make it the lead, or even higher than the upcoming Kentucky/Notre Dame matchup, but it should at the very least be news in the Chicago area market.
It hasn't been. No one, except for an occasional mention by WSCR's Mike Mulligan (a Loyola graduate), says anything about them. And that's why Chicago and Illinois basketball are not relevant these days. The big story is about major programs in other states. Not a word about Illinois programs, except to ridicule them and maybe talk about DePaul's search for a head coach.
Go Ramblers!!!
*****
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Loyola jumps to a new conference...
...but not that all-Catholic school conference.
They are dropping out of the Horizon League and going to the Missouri Valley Conference.
I hope it helps with recruiting. At Loyola's level currently, upgrading the players/talent is all that's really going to help them.
*****
They are dropping out of the Horizon League and going to the Missouri Valley Conference.
I hope it helps with recruiting. At Loyola's level currently, upgrading the players/talent is all that's really going to help them.
*****
Thursday, March 14, 2013
New conference of Catholic schools...
Two posts in one day? Some kind of record for me recently...
I wanted to touch base on the report that several schools, including DePaul, St. John's, Marquette, and Notre Dame, are forming a new conference made up of all Catholic schools.
This is where Loyola should be. I know they're a founding member of the Horizon League. I was there when they formed it. It was then called the Midwestern City Conference, and included Butler, Oklahoma City, Oral Roberts, Detroit, Xavier, Evansville and Loyola, and maybe one or two more. That's right, Xavier. They were a founding member of this conference also. They didn't let that keep them from joining a better conference. Back then, they were often in the NCAA tourney as a representative from this conference when they went to that automatic bid system. They were good. They've gotten better because they're in a better conference. Of course, now Butler's gone too.
Loyola isn't good. But if they were playing ND and St. John's regularly, they might be. They might be able to recruit better players, and do better things.
Maybe there's going to be a requirement that the team play in a certain sized stadium, and the Gentile Center won't be big enough. But if they can, they should move to that conference.
Hey, a Jesuit is now pope, so why shouldn't LU embrace their religious background and play in this much better conference?
*****
I wanted to touch base on the report that several schools, including DePaul, St. John's, Marquette, and Notre Dame, are forming a new conference made up of all Catholic schools.
This is where Loyola should be. I know they're a founding member of the Horizon League. I was there when they formed it. It was then called the Midwestern City Conference, and included Butler, Oklahoma City, Oral Roberts, Detroit, Xavier, Evansville and Loyola, and maybe one or two more. That's right, Xavier. They were a founding member of this conference also. They didn't let that keep them from joining a better conference. Back then, they were often in the NCAA tourney as a representative from this conference when they went to that automatic bid system. They were good. They've gotten better because they're in a better conference. Of course, now Butler's gone too.
Loyola isn't good. But if they were playing ND and St. John's regularly, they might be. They might be able to recruit better players, and do better things.
Maybe there's going to be a requirement that the team play in a certain sized stadium, and the Gentile Center won't be big enough. But if they can, they should move to that conference.
Hey, a Jesuit is now pope, so why shouldn't LU embrace their religious background and play in this much better conference?
*****
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Loyola Ramblers' Basketball
It's been a long time since I updated this blog, but what the heck? Far as I can tell no one is reading it anyway.
There's plenty of Chicago sports news to write about, but the thing that I was thinking about today was how bad Loyola basketball has been for a number of years. Oh, there were a few years here and there where they were respectable in their division, but I don't think they've been to the NCAA tourney since the 1980's. They are in the Horizon League, which you would think would be a winnable league once in a while. Sure, there's Butler, which has been to the final four twice (I think) but the other teams range from up and down to usually consistent and respectable to more bad than good.
The last category (more bad than good) fits the Ramblers. I haven't really followed their recruiting or anything in a long time, but the last time I recall them being in the tourney they had guys like Alfredrick Hughes, Carl Golston, Andre Battle, Andre Moore, and Greg Williams among others. Tim Nolan and Gerry Mundt were on that team, as was Dan Burich (if I recall correctly).
Hughes was an anomoly - a star whose rise was unpredictable. Golston and Moore were transfers from bigger programs, and the others were solid role players. You can't go out recruiting looking for the next Hughes. You have to do it bit by bit.
If I were running Loyola's recruiting, I'd be looking for fundamentally sound players from smaller programs. I'd also be looking at the lesser lights on the big time high school programs. I'd build with strong shooters. Guys who seem to have a knack for rebounding and positioning. Guys who can shoot free throws. Ball handlers who aren't flashy but don't turn it over.
You get five or six guys like that and you're going to start winning games. Because now, from what I've seen when I have paid attention, they tend to beat themselves a lot with bad choices. Basketball skills aside, they need to find high basketball-IQ guys first.
The Alfredrick Hughes will come eventually, and will probably be as much of a surprise as Hughes himself was back in the 1980's.
*****
There's plenty of Chicago sports news to write about, but the thing that I was thinking about today was how bad Loyola basketball has been for a number of years. Oh, there were a few years here and there where they were respectable in their division, but I don't think they've been to the NCAA tourney since the 1980's. They are in the Horizon League, which you would think would be a winnable league once in a while. Sure, there's Butler, which has been to the final four twice (I think) but the other teams range from up and down to usually consistent and respectable to more bad than good.
The last category (more bad than good) fits the Ramblers. I haven't really followed their recruiting or anything in a long time, but the last time I recall them being in the tourney they had guys like Alfredrick Hughes, Carl Golston, Andre Battle, Andre Moore, and Greg Williams among others. Tim Nolan and Gerry Mundt were on that team, as was Dan Burich (if I recall correctly).
Hughes was an anomoly - a star whose rise was unpredictable. Golston and Moore were transfers from bigger programs, and the others were solid role players. You can't go out recruiting looking for the next Hughes. You have to do it bit by bit.
If I were running Loyola's recruiting, I'd be looking for fundamentally sound players from smaller programs. I'd also be looking at the lesser lights on the big time high school programs. I'd build with strong shooters. Guys who seem to have a knack for rebounding and positioning. Guys who can shoot free throws. Ball handlers who aren't flashy but don't turn it over.
You get five or six guys like that and you're going to start winning games. Because now, from what I've seen when I have paid attention, they tend to beat themselves a lot with bad choices. Basketball skills aside, they need to find high basketball-IQ guys first.
The Alfredrick Hughes will come eventually, and will probably be as much of a surprise as Hughes himself was back in the 1980's.
*****
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