Loyola-Chicago Postgame Report

#26
#26
1. Alexander not playing was a backbreaker.

7. Some of this was just purely bad luck. How many lose/batted/ricocheted balls went their way? How many shots did they hit that bounced around on the rim several times?

8. Free throw discrepancy is suspicious. 16-6 looks a little off to me.

9. Jordan Bowden has to become more aggressive over the off season. He had to develop a short memory and use his size to get to the basket instead of being a wallflower offensively. Grant needs to work on just playing ball, and develop a Wayne Chism-like jumper from the top of the key. Fulk, Alexander, and Kent just need to get stronger, meaner, and develop their post games. If A couple of those things happen, I like what we have coming back.

10. This season was, hands down, the most fun I've had watching Vol basketball since the early Pearl era. There is something satisfying about being picked near the end and blowing up the establishment. No loss can take away the enjoyment of the past 5 months. If you consider THIS SEASON a disappointment because of the final 3 games, then you are short-sighted and perpetually miserable. You don't deserve a team like this to cheer for.

Agreed.

8. The scouting report said that no one on their team had fouled out this year. So, that may explain the free throw situation. They know how to keep from fouling.
 
#27
#27
Those long scoring droughts killed us all year when in a challenging game...and always seems like turnovers come along with the dry spell.
 
#28
#28
Agreed.



8. The scouting report said that no one on their team had fouled out this year. So, that may explain the free throw situation. They know how to keep from fouling.


Really good players use their five fouls as an asset, not a crutch. You use them in the right situation to help your team. They seem to have that part of the game figured out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#32
#32
Grant could become a Draymond Green type player if he learns to develop an mid range & 3 pt game.
 
#33
#33
No. 1 is all you need to know. One blocked shot, one stick back, one alley oop and we win. He is too much to ignore and triple GW, that is the luxury they had in his absence.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#34
#34
Good stuff. I agree, great season and really proud of everyone involved. It does suck to look at the bracket today and see what type of path we could have had though. I hope everyone on the team let’s that fuel them all offseason, and I think they will.
 
#35
#35
Grant's true position should be a 3 or four, especially if he can learn to hit shots from 15 feet out. I don't know where he could be best on defense.

If Grant wants to play at the next level ( NBA), he better develop a jump shot. This year he looked like anything outside of 10 feet was out of his range.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#36
#36
Since BTO didn't do one, I'll step out of retirement for one last go at it now that I have emotionally let it sink in that we blew our best, and easiest path to the Final Four we may ever have.

1. Alexander not playing was a backbreaker. He would have provided so much better interior defensive presence, and if only 4 rebounds, it may have been the difference in two points.

2. Just like against Kentucky in the SECT Championship, when Admiral goes out for long periods, we are offensively challenged. He is the closest thing we have to a guy that can go get his own points. The foul trouble early on when we had them on the ropes down 9 hurt us. Up by 3, wheb he picked up his 2nd, we went dead silent offensively with him out of the game.

3. Uncharacteristic of us this season, but we stood around with little to no movement offensively in this game. On the other hand, Loyola put on a clinic in offensive movement against us. They got plenty of easy baskets, and we had to work for everything and settled for a lot of jumpers because we didn't move on offense.

4. Schofield played well, but his 3-pt shot at 1:04 to play was questionable shot selection. 14 seconds on the shot clock and he peels off a shoots a contested 3 slightly fading away. I can appreciate him owning that moment and not being scared, but I just feel a better shot was possible with the time on the clock.

5. When Turner and Bowden are your leading rebounder, your bigs didn't do their job.

6. Loyola-Chicago shot 50%. You don't win many NCAAT games allowing your opponent to hit half their shots.

7. Some of this was just purely bad luck. How many lose/batted/ricocheted balls went their way? How many shots did they hit that bounced around on the rim several times?

8. Free throw discrepancy is suspicious. 16-6 looks a little off to me. Our settling for jumpers helped to cement that number, but there were some very questionable calls that led to points for L-C, and others that took points away from us. That said, we didn't hit but 3 of 6 we took, and that's on our guys. At least one miss came on a 1 and 1, and that may as well be two misses.

9. Jordan Bowden has to become more aggressive over the off season. He had to develop a short memory and use his size to get to the basket instead of being a wallflower offensively. Grant needs to work on just playing ball, and develop a Wayne Chism-like jumper from the top of the key. Fulk, Alexander, and Kent just need to get stronger, meaner, and develop their post games. If A couple of those things happen, I like what we have coming back.

10. This season was, hands down, the most fun I've had watching Vol basketball since the early Pearl era. There is something satisfying about being picked near the end and blowing up the establishment. No loss can take away the enjoyment of the past 5 months. If you consider THIS SEASON a disappointment because of the final 3 games, then you are short-sighted and perpetually miserable. You don't deserve a team like this to cheer for.

Agree with everything you said. Loyola reminded me of Vandy, only better. Bowden is the X factor for next year. I'm sure he will work extremely hard this off season to get his shot back because we were tough to beat in Nov. and December when he was knocking down 3's. Hope Pons and Johnson take a step forward as I think their athleticism could be a huge bonus for this team.
 
#37
#37
It was quite a swing of emotions, to go from being angry we were going to lose, to the strong comeback and going up by 1, thinking we're going to pull it off, to immediately having all hope crushed.

This one will hurt a long time.
For sure. I thought we were a lock for the Sweet Sixteen.
 
#38
#38
I hear ya but they did that all season, maybe not to the same degree, but if they increased the intensity on Williams someone must be open? Just watching the games where they struggled, they had to run the offense a long time to get a shot. How did they defend them so easily while doubling down on Williams. I mean Schofield jacking 3's should not be the only answer. Have coaches figured them out?

We started hitting shots in the second half. But we couldn't get anything done when Schofield was out in the first half. Just no other offense with Walker, Pons, and Fulkerson.

It would have been nice to have Alexander to dump the ball to inside.
 
#39
#39
We didnt get to the FT line and we didn't hit when we did. One miss of a one and one.

Walker was awful on defense and he played 18 minutes
 
#40
#40
Random question, say we did win. Would Kyle Alexander play against Nevada or even Kentucky? I have a hard time believing we would win against either of those teams without his size.
 
#42
#42
Random question, say we did win. Would Kyle Alexander play against Nevada or even Kentucky? I have a hard time believing we would win against either of those teams without his size.

I would think so...he was close enough that he went through warmups for the most part before deciding he couldn’t play, so I would think a week off would be enough.
 
#43
#43
Grant could become a Draymond Green type player if he learns to develop an mid range & 3 pt game.

I don't see similarities in their game at all. Draymond is a point forward and averages over 7 assists per game and is a top 5 defender in the NBA with the versatility to defend multiple positions at an elite level.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#44
#44
I don't know why Admiral had to carry the load when we have the SEC POY. He was a go to guy even double teamed the first 75% of the season. Why the fade, some kind of injury?

Let's not go overboard with Grant as POY. That was a gift award because there was literally no one else that earned it. Every other Vol who has been MVP of the league had AA seasons and were clearly the best player in the league. Grant had several bad games in SEC play. He's a tough player, but the media and our fans have overrated him. He's not even our best player. He wouldn't come within sniffing distance of making the fifth team of all time Vols.
 
#45
#45
I don't see similarities in their game at all. Draymond is a point forward and averages over 7 assists per game and is a top 5 defender in the NBA with the versatility to defend multiple positions at an elite level.

How many assist did he average in college?

NBA stats are irrelevant
 
#46
#46
How many assist did he average in college?

NBA stats are irrelevant

He averaged 4 his last two years at MSU. Grant averaged 2 this year.

It's a good point though. The NBA is totally different, especially when you have Curry, Thompson, and Durant to throw the ball to.
 
#47
#47
He averaged 4 his last two years at MSU. Grant averaged 2 this year.

It's a good point though. The NBA is totally different, especially when you have Curry, Thompson, and Durant to throw the ball to.

I would like to see if williams assist numbers went up like I think they did at the end of the year. He started to get more out of the double team I know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#48
#48
I would like to see if williams assist numbers went up like I think they did at the end of the year. He started to get more out of the double team I know.

His high was 4 assists- 6 times. Two were early in the year (Mercer and NC State), 1 was against UK on 1/6, and 3 were late in the year, including against Loyola.
 
#49
#49
His high was 4 assists- 6 times. Two were early in the year (Mercer and NC State), 1 was against UK on 1/6, and 3 were late in the year, including against Loyola.

He's a good passer for sure. If he can make the 3 from the top of the key like he did his freshmen year he will get more chances for that next year
 
#50
#50
Let's not go overboard with Grant as POY. That was a gift award because there was literally no one else that earned it. Every other Vol who has been MVP of the league had AA seasons and were clearly the best player in the league. Grant had several bad games in SEC play. He's a tough player, but the media and our fans have overrated him. He's not even our best player. He wouldn't come within sniffing distance of making the fifth team of all time Vols.

Yante Maten didn't earn It? Hmmmm...
 

VN Store



Back
Top