Head Coach: Drew Valentine (58-39); 4th season
Theme song: Flashing Lights by Kanye West
Last Season: Loyola-Chicago’s journey was a testament to its resilience and growth. After a challenging first season in the Atlantic 10, it quickly fulfilled its top-four potential in year two. Head Coach Drew Valentine’s revamped roster, featuring A10-level players Desmond Watson, Braden Norris, and Philip Alston, proved a winning formula.
Freshman Miles Rubin also shone, earning all-freshman and all-defense honors as the starting center in Chicago. Loyola’s trademark hard-nosed, Chicago-style defense was back, with the team finishing 28th in the nation in adjusted defense (Kenpom) and clinching a share of the regular season title.
Once conference play began, the Ramblers became a mismatch nightmare. Despite their slightly below-average height, their versatility and athletic ability allowed them to exploit any mismatch they wanted. Watson and Alston led the charge in offensive scoring, but Drew Valentine’s well-balanced system was the best thing for this team.
This system allowed multiple players to contribute from any direction on offense. The team’s shooting percentages were outstanding, with 35% from three and 51% on their twos. They held other teams to just 44% from two-point land, ranking sixth best in the nation.
Unfortunately, the Ramblers had a mental lapse at the worst possible time—dropping their A10 tournament game to St. Bonaventure in double overtime. While Alston did his thing with 22 points and eight rebounds, Watson and Norris, critical players throughout the season, disappeared when it mattered the most, going a combined 3-22 from the field (yikes).
The freefall continued when the Ramblers were eviscerated in the NIT by Bradley—Alston and Watson were invisible, going a combined 5-19 from the field when they needed them most.
Although questionable, the postseason results should be taken with a grain of salt given Loyola’s successful season. Valentine took them from basement dwellers to perennial A10 contenders in their second season as a conference member. Year three presents a higher ceiling following seismic reloading via the transfer portal. The Ramblers will certainly make the top four with a roster that has, undoubtedly, been upgraded.
Arrivals: Jalen DeLoach (Georgia), Justin Moore (Drexel), Kymany Houinsou (Washington State), Francis Nwaokorie (UC-San Diego), Jack Turner (F), Danlil Glazkov (F), Seifeldin Hendaway (F), Brayden Young (F)
Departures: Braden Norris, Greg Dolan, Tom Welch, Dame Adelekun, Philip Alston, Trey Lewis (T)
Returnees: Desmond Watson, Sheldon Edwards*, Jalen Quinn, Jayden Dawson, Miles Rubin
Potential Strengths: Drew Valentine not only upgraded the roster with quality A10 talent, but this roster is also talent overload if you look at who was brought in. There is a good blend of veterans, athletes, shooters, and youth that can make for the perfect all-around attack that made Loyola so good last season.
Desmond Watson now goes from a support scoring option to the first option for this year’s group. Transferring from Davidson was perhaps the best move he could’ve made to showcase the kind of player he could be, earning second-team all-conference in a breakout campaign. His creativity with the ball is crucial for Loyola’s success, and perhaps another season where he shoots 38% from three will consider him for the first team.
The importance of guard play cannot be emphasized enough in this league. Loyola has three options that can provide several different looks: returnees Jalen Quinn, Jayden Dawson, and Drexel import Justin Moore. Replacing Alston’s production is simple: moving Dawson to the off-guard role to focus on scoring more. Sheldon Edwards is a graduate student who was one of Loyola’s best defenders last season. He saw his three-point shooting skyrocket to 40% last year after sub-30% shooting the year before.
Moore’s numbers took significant leaps last season at Drexel, emerging as a go-to scoring option and leading the Dragons in assists with 3.5 per game. Moore was quietly one of the better passes in the nation, finishing 179th in assist rate last year. He’ll be the obvious starter for the Ramblers this season at point guard and, hopefully, long-term. Anticipate Quinn playing backup to Moore, another luxury for Valentine’s ridiculously deep Rambler team.
Shot-blocking extraordinaire Miles Rubin was the nation’s best by percentage at 14.1%, earning him all-defense honors with his all-freshman nod. The Chicago native should likely retain his title this season as he enters his sophomore year. Valentine’s strategy of letting him play through mistakes paid serious dividends last year. Now, with supreme confidence, Rubin will anchor one of the best defenses in the league.
His frontcourt mate is a familiar A10 name; former VCU Ram and Georgia Bulldog Jalen DeLoach is back after a year with Mike White. Despite his modest percentages on his shooting splits, he will still be one of the best athletes in the league. He’s got tremendous reach at 6’9” with exceptional lateral quickness. DeLoach will draw some of the more challenging assignments in the league as Loyola’s go-to defender.
My freshman-of-the-year pick, Daniil Glazkov, will play a significant role for the Ramblers this season. The Russian import spent last season at IMG, putting up 16.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists, making him one of the more sought-after prospects in the country. I can envision Glazkov starting at some point this season, though a significant bench role seems more realistic as the season begins.
The other freshman who could see significant time is Seifelden Hendway, another NBA Academy product, this time hailing from Egypt. Hendway is polished around the rim and finishes with both hands at the basket. The tape proves he’s been taught the fundamentals. His jumper is very clean, and he gets passes over the defense and maintains a tight handle on the open floor.
It goes without saying that Loyola has competition for minutes between excellent vets and wildly talented freshmen. At some point in the season, these two freshmen, in particular, will make someone lose their job. They are too talented to sit for a year when they can impact winning immediately.
Francis Nwaokorie can undoubtedly play a role within this team. Nwaokorie, a 1,000-career point scorer at UC San Diego, won 21 games last season. He’ll likely take a reduced role on this team, but a career 37% shooter from three will have a place within this team.
There are more freshmen, such as Braden Young and Jack Turner. Young will likely see limited time as a backup big, and Turner could be another shooter—he shot 44% from three as a senior in high school.
Loyola has a very, very deep team this season. They’ve got outstanding guards, pure snipers from three, and defensive-minded big men who can hold down the frontline. This team has very few weaknesses, if any, that could deter them from missing out on the A10 tournament title.
Potential Weaknesses: The singular weakness that could hurt this group is the spacing, mainly if Rubin and DeLoach play together. Playing two non-shooters simultaneously isn’t the best idea in today’s game.
The interesting problem is that while Rubin will start at center for this team without question, I don’t think DeLoach came here to come off the bench. This can go one of two ways for the spacing not to be a complete mess: someone needs to learn to shoot threes, or someone has to come off the bench.
Rubin did attempt four threes last season, which could be a sign of things to come, but I would call on DeLoach to try and shoot threes, given he’s a more perimeter-oriented player. Either way, if they share the floor, one of these two needs to expand their range for a free-flowing offense to continue.
DeLoach at the five is not an idea to rule out; we could see that a lot with this team. Valentine can “go small” without sacrificing too much size on defense and still get decent spacing when Rubin is sitting. It will come down to whether one of them sits or both play and are fine.
The other issue this team could have, which isn’t a lousy weakness, is the minutes distribution. Valentine brought in a very talented freshman class and very talented transfers. Some freshmen I touched on earlier, particularly Hendway and Glazkov, will immediately see the floor. Four-star recruits don’t sit on the bench in the A10; these two are no exceptions.
A veteran is going to lose minutes to these two freshmen. Here are a few guesses that I was formulating as said victims when writing this preview:
-Jalen DeLoach simply because of his inability to space the floor.
-Sheldon Edwards: his low usage last season might become no usage this year with all the additions.
-One of Quinn and Dawson will lose some minutes, not all, but some.
Again, it’s possible that minutes distribution changes as the season progresses. If Loyola is not performing to expectations, a rotation shakeup could occur, with the freshmen boosting this team.
X-Factor: Washington State transfer Kymany Houinsou is an exciting transfer to bring in with all that is happening with this roster. Houinsou was a bench guard for a 24-win Washington State team that went to the second round of the NCAA tournament. I have gathered that he’s a physically hard-nosed player on the perimeter. The offense is still catching up to his defense, though that could be unlocked in the A10. Loyola’s off-guard/wing rotation is crowded, as alluded to earlier; finding his exact placement from an outsider’s perspective is hard, but a power five transfer who played in the tournament has some sort of use—just ask Khalid Moore.
Outlook: Loyola-Chicago is going for it now. Last season’s success pushed this “rebuild” from patience to now. They’ve got everything they need to win the league; it just comes down to who will be a part of the rotation. Loyola has talented players on this team who would see larger roles if they were elsewhere, just not here. Defensively, this team will be an absolute menace; they can switch on every ball screen and not get beat. Rubin will be sending shots into outer space, and paired with DeLoach’s defensive abilities, Loyola could hold some teams to under 60 points most nights. If this team can figure out the DeLoach & Rubin predicament and get their shooters hot, they will win the A10 with their eyes closed.
Posted In: General Discussion