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Big Joe's Commentary

2/2/06
by Joe Dlugosz

As I sit and stare at a 4-6 conference record I wonder how on Earth did this happen. After a 9-2 start to the season there was no way I could have even entertained the thought of Loyola standing at 4-6 in the Horizon League in sixth place. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that the Ramblers were winning games by margins in the teens and the fans couldn’t get enough of an undersized power-forward with crazy hair averaging nearly a double-double through his first ten college games.

Leon Young was a fan favorite even before he stepped on the court with his wild hair and willingness to give up six inches on any given night and win. After the first 40 minutes of the season every Ramblers fan knew him. He was the 6’4” kid who debuted with a double-double and then followed it up with a double-double. Through the first ten games of the season Young had four double-doubles and five games of ten or more rebounds. With his physical play he was also getting to the free-throw nearly five times a game. After the pre-conference season Young was averaging better than 12 points nine rebounds and hitting nearly 80% of his free-throws.

Then conference season started. In the conference opener against Cleveland State Young had, perhaps, the best game of his short college career scoring 17 points, nabbing eight rebounds and hitting 11-12 free throws to help the Ramblers to victory. All was well. In the setback to YSU, fans wondered what went wrong. It wasn’t Leon, he had 13 points, eight rebounds and hit 9-10 free throws.

Then came the three-game road trip that all Ramblers fans may have already blocked out of their memory. Playing three games in six days at Detroit, Wright State and Milwaukee the Ramblers dropped all three. Just as unnerving was that Young scored 18 points got 12 rebounds and hit 4-4 free throws…in all three games combined. He also racked up 14 personal fouls, fouling out twice in three games and being relegated to the bench because of foul trouble in another.

Since that three-game skid Young has not recorded a single double-double. In fact, he’s only scored in double digits once and grabbed ten rebounds just once in the last eight games. After putting up such gaudy numbers through 12 games Young is averaging just over six points and six rebounds per game. Even more disturbing, he’s not getting to the free throw line. Through 12 games Young was getting to the line nearly six times a game, hitting 83% of his freebies. Over the last eight games he’s gotten to the line just 19 times in total, after getting to the line 22 times in the first two conference games of the season.

What has happened? Maybe he hit the freshman wall that everybody talks about where one’s body just can’t take the beatings of college basketball in their first season. There have been whispers that he is battling through some injuries. Maybe the Horizon League has better frontcourt play than teams like Northern Iowa, Purdue, Bradley or Evansville. I don’t know.

Young hasn’t backed down any. I see him grappling every game, diving on the floor, throwing his body around or working for position. It just hasn’t gone his or the Ramblers way. When he works for position he’s been getting called for three-seconds. When he throws his body around he gets called for a charge and when he grapples for a loose ball he gets called for going over the back. The breaks just haven’t been falling the same, how else do you explain getting to the free-throw just 19 times over eight games.

With his bad breaks have come bad breaks for the Ramblers. With Young’s production nearly halved from the beginning of the season and injuries to J.R. Blount the Ramblers have struggled.

Young has shown some signs of snapping the funk. His last two games he’s averaging eight points and eight rebounds, snagging ten boards against Detroit and scoring 11 points against Milwaukee. And eight of those 19 trips to the line have been over the last two contests. If Blount returns from injury Saturday the Ramblers might just be back in time to try and make a run at the end of this season. Hopefully some breaks will fall the Ramblers way in the process.

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