Loyola Chicago (8) vs. Georgia Tech (9), Friday, 4pm ET, TBS

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I read the first page. Pretty reasonable for them to be frustrated at their seed. Ranked highly all year, top 10 in KenPom and NET, and they get a 2 seed - errr, sorry 8 seed...matched up with the only other team in Illinois in round 2 if they get there. The #1 seed. Having to play the conference champion in the 2 best conferences in the country in rounds 1 and 2. To me, they just got the equivalent pairings to our baseball team in the last post season regional we went to. We were the host #1 seed at our site, but the #2 seed in our region was basically another #1 seed, and the #3 seed was 2 years removed from being national champions...and we were deemed the visiting team in 2 of the 3 games. LOLOLOL
 

JDjacket

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I dunno about Illinois being a bad matchup for us. They look like FSU to me. They're good - big, imposing, good shooters, but not as quick and not as adept with the basketball as the Jackets. We'll just steal the ball from them and beat them. If we can get by Loyola.

I think a few people have pointed out that teams with a big imposing true center would be rough on us. Think about Brooks when we played Miami. That was rough on us until we adjusted in the 2nd half, but there was the added advantage of Miami not having the other pieces to make that a tough decision. With Illinois it wouldn't be that easy, although the minutes/experience we got out of Howard in that game may prove very important.

That being said, I don't want to think about Illinois right now as Loyola is a good team with a good defense. Kenpom himself has said the lack of OOC games has messed with some of his numbers so maybe they're aren't as good as it shows, but they're still good. They did have the rough loss to Wisconsin, but they were on fire from 3 which can destroy even the best defensive teams (see UVA vs UMBC).
 

CuseJacket

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They ( their fans at least ) have already moved on in their bracket.........:happy:
I stopped counting the number of posts we have about our match-up with Illinois.

We are an underdog. The good news is I guarantee it's only our fans looking past our game 1 match-up. I expect our guys are already locked in and focused on what's immediately in front of them. This is a fantastic opportunity on a national stage.

Lot of teams have beef with their seeds. Some were fortunate. Same thing happens every year and it sucks when you fall into the 8/9 seed line, whether "fortunate" or "unfortunate". Good news is every outcome is within our team's control moving forward.
 

WreckinGT

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Techster

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Exactly. Overlook/underestimate them because they are part of the MVC will be a mistake. If Krutwig gets Wright in foul trouble early.....uh oh:oops:

It's interesting. I would have thought the same thing a couple of weeks ago, but remember we played Miami with Moses in trouble. Miami has far better athletes than Loyola (though they played shorthanded) and Brooks basically took it to Moses all game. Howard actually defended the 5 a lot better than Moses did. Howard changed the game for us on the defensive end and neutralized Brooks for us.

Given Loyola's relatively undersized team, and the problem Krutwig could pose vs Moses, I wonder if we don't go with Howard and Moses in the post together. That would give us the size advantage against Loyola, and also a mismatch at the 4 with Moses, to go with a bigger body to defend and take fouls at the 5.

EDIT:

I'd also like to add, without diving too much into Loyola's season, from the outside looking in, GT is problem for Loyola at every other position. If we make Moses and Kurtwig a draw, I'm not sure to a man Loyola has answers for Alvarado/Devoe/Usher. Even Sturdivant will be a problem for Loyola.

Moses and Kurtwig is the main event, but our other guys are REALLY good players. I mean, Alvarado is 1st team All ACC and DPOY, Devoe is All ACC and ACCT MVP, and Usher is playing as well as anyone on our team. Usher is playing so well right now, and his skillset and athleticism presents so many problems.

Like I said, from a pure basketball standpoint, this will be a good game to watch.
 
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JDjacket

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Favorite comment from the Loyola board so far:
"Yes, they won the ACC Tourney (congrats to them) but they won two games. It's not like they beat Duke, UNC, and Virginia."
lmao. Only the UVA part of that is true. yea we didn't beat any of those teams in the tournament but we beat UNC and beat Duke leading up to the tournament... (not that those 2 teams are their usual selves this year).

Edit: Also the only winning 2 games... its not like we only won 2 vs 4 or 5 we only missed 1 game.
 

GTNavyNuke

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gtrower

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did anyone see my post on the last page that said loyola won 70-62? what is that ?

It’s WN “predicted results.” It lists what happened for previous games and what’s predicted to happen based on its model for future games. What else would it be?
 

MountainBuzzMan

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It’s WN “predicted results.” It lists what happened for previous games and what’s predicted to happen based on its model for future games. What else would it be?
Some fool accidently pushed the real results from one of their trips to the future. We are aggressivly warned to be careful about this kind of stuff when I travel.
 

Pointer

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So has anyone looked into what offense/defense Loyola runs now? I recall their last run (offensively) they did lots of sets, chin, and pick/roll. Are they doing the same this year?
 

lv20gt

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Given Loyola's relatively undersized team, and the problem Krutwig could pose vs Moses, I wonder if we don't go with Howard and Moses in the post together. That would give us the size advantage against Loyola, and also a mismatch at the 4 with Moses, to go with a bigger body to defend and take fouls at the 5.

I don't think we should go Howard and Moses. First off I don't think Krutwig is much of a threat to foul out Moses. They play at a very slow place and will often use him away from the basket to help facilitate. Also, while he uses his size well to get position, it seems like most of the time when he looks to score he isn't looking for contact. IMO putting in Howard alongside Moses would be a break for Krutwig taking pressure off of him defensively. And while playing them might get a better matchup, I think that they will gladly trade Uguak guarding Moses for having one more driver out of the game.

My prediction is Moore gets less burn this game than recent ones. I think the extra size and length won't be as needed on the wing compared to some of our other games, and we will benefit more for either or Bubba or, my prediction, Sturdivant. I think its very possible that if we play a lineup of Jose, Kyle, Mike, Ush, and Moses, we might often find ourselves in a position with Kyle being guarded by someone he can reliably get a step on.
 
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