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Horizon Connection

Big Joe's Commentary

11/28/05
by Joe Dlugosz

With the Ramblers sitting at 3-0 on the season and the rest of the Horizon League not looking particularly strong at the moment, spirits are very high among Ramblers fans. The emergence of Chris Logan as a steady scoring threat has helped alleviate the pressure on Blake Schilb to score and gives the Ramblers three viable scoring options in the backcourt along with Majak Kou. Logan’s strong start has already drawn comparisons to Dajuan Gouard and given Ramblers fans, who are already anxious with a 3-0 record, even more to be happy about looking forward.

Though the Ramblers are 3-0, they have yet to be really tested against an experienced team. IPFW has just 27 Division I victories since 2001. Evansville continued to show they can’t post a victory without the home cooking that’s brewed up in Roberts Stadium. And Luther was an expected victory (How long have Ramblers fans been waiting to say that?). The Ramblers shouldn’t be faulted for this. They were playing inferior competition and they went out and got the job done in convincing fashion each game. But what do we really know about this Ramblers squad just yet?

The next stretch of four games should really give Ramblerdom a solid peek into what to expect from the Ramblers this season. Though the stretch includes three home games the Ramblers have some tough opponents scheduled.

Up first on Wednesday is a Bradley team that returns five starters from a year ago. The Ramblers will catch a break with the suspension of Bradley center Patrick O’Bryant, but will still have their work out for them. Bradley out-muscled the Ramblers a season ago behind superstar forward Marcellus Sommerville’s 27 points and 12 rebounds. The Ramblers had no answer to the Brave’s big men and got out-rebounded 40-28. The Braves will post the biggest test to date for the Ramblers new crop of forwards. If players like Tom Levin, Leon Young and Kye Pattrick can keep the Ramblers from getting beat on the glass the Ramblers will have earned a tough victory and given the fans a clearer glimpse of the future.

Following Wednesday’s romp with the Braves, the Ramblers head to Northern Iowa for an extremely tough road match-up. The Panthers used a 19-rebound edge and nearly 45% three-point shooting to knock off the Ramblers last season at the Gentile Center. At home the Panthers are 26-5 over the previous two seasons. They are at 36th in the Associated Press basketball poll and they have all five starters returning to a team that won 21 games last season. While a win is certainly not expected in this contest it will be an eye opener for Loyola fans to see how the Ramblers handle playing an experienced team on their home court. A situation much like the Milwaukee Panthers team the Ramblers hope to be competing with for the Horizon League title.

After the tilt with Northern Iowa the Ramblers return home to take on the much less heralded Western Illinois Leathernecks. While Western certainly isn’t a pushover they are a young team that lost some key players. As the theme of these four games continues, they do have a solid frontcourt presence which will again test the Ramblers. Perhaps the biggest obstacle the Ramblers may have to overcome in this contest is not looking ahead to the fourth game of the stretch.

Later in the week the Big Ten comes to the Gentile Center when the Purdue Boilermakers visit the Ramblers. The Boilers are not expected to make much noise in the Big Ten and on a down year they might just be ripe for getting knocked off. For a school such as Loyola knocking off a name, any name like Purdue, whether it be a down year or not is a big deal. The gym will be packed, recruits will be on hand and the highlights will be on every news channel. The opportunity a game like this presents to a school such as Loyola is much, much more than another notch in the win column, if they’re fortunate enough to nab one.

Looking at the schedule with the hopes Ramblers fans have right now, riding a three-game winning streak, one could possibly conceive a scenario where the Ramblers go 4-0 in this stretch. Allow me to play devil’s advocate here for a moment. The Ramblers could very well go 0-4 in this same stretch, which would take a lot of wind out of a lot of sails. Realistically, 2-2 over the next four games would be a sign of improvement. It means the Ramblers probably nabbed two quality wins at the Gentile Center.

Here’s where it gets interesting, though. If the Ramblers can somehow manage to go 3-1 down this stretch that means one of two things happened. Either the Ramblers knocked off the Missouri Valley favorites on the road or they shocked Purdue at the Gentile Center.

So far in his season and three games at Loyola head coach Jim Whitesell and his staff have done a better job than any Ramblers fans could have possibly imagined. If Loyola goes 3-1 in these next four games Whitesell and company would again have done more than any sane Ramblers fan could possibly imagine.

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