Goshen College Preview and Game Thread -- 12/9/2023

[JCT]

Saturday, December 9, 2023 5:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.


The Ramblers return home Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. to face Goshen College, an NAIA team from a liberal arts school in Elkhart, Ind. Goshen is 0-9 on the year against non-D1 opponents, 0-3 in conference, and 0-5 at home. They also lost their exhibition against Ball State University (257 in KenPom) by the score of 101-40.

Loyola dropped a road game to Tulsa on Tuesday, 88-77, with alarmingly careless ball control. There were 20 turnovers by Loyola, including 11 Tulsa steals (8 in the second half), many of them coming on lazy, half-assed passes. If not for Jaden Dawson scoring 26 points on 8 of 11 three-point shooting (plus seven rebounds, two assists and two steals), it might have been a 30-point loss to a team that entered the game with a big, fat 214 in KenPom. It’s the second year in a row that Loyola lost by double-digits to a terrible (or at least this year, not too good) Tulsa team. The Golden Hurricanes have won only 10 games in the past two seasons, and 20% of their wins have been against Loyola—a team who’s only played them four times in last 75 years.

Goshen is helmed by Kyle Capps, a Goshen alum and former player who rose to the top job two years ago. Karson Jenkins, a 6’3” sophomore guard is the leading scorer overall with 14.8 ppg. Six-one sophomore guard Judah Simfukwe and 6’3” sophomore guard/forward Isaac Miller also average in double figures with 12.2 and 11.8 respectively.

When Goshen College scored only 40 points against Ball State, 6’7” guard Jared Bonds was the leader with seven. Two other players, 6’0” freshman guard Kahmi Bracey and 6’6” freshman Kevin Cota had six each.


Loyola Game Notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... Goshen.pdf

Goshen Game Notes: https://goleafs.net/sports/mens-basketball

TV/Streaming Video: ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/ ... f7fbf1e308

Radio/Streaming Audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/showcase?Live=160

Live stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=482149

Vegas odds: N/A

[luke]

I have a lot of feelings about a potential Rubin injury with 4 minutes left with a 50 point lead.

[RamblerPup63]

I have a lot of feelings about a potential Rubin injury with 4 minutes left with a 50 point lead.

SAME. I mean, I hope the guys were able to have some fun with this game, but between Ben’s missed alleyoop and Rubin’s limp, I just don’t get it.

[ahunte1]

I have a lot of feelings about a potential Rubin injury with 4 minutes left with a 50 point lead.

Luckily, he's fine. Cramps.

[natetheskate]

Watson was injured...left knee, or calf...they had some of heated wrap on it...I also asked around about Patrick Mwamba as he was not on the bench for the second game in a row. I was told he has a really bad cold...I was not able to confirm it but it came from someone in the athletic department.

[sudikoff]

Watson was injured...left knee, or calf...they had some of heated wrap on it...I also asked around about Patrick Mwamba as he was not on the bench for the second game in a row. I was told he has a really bad cold...I was not able to confirm it but it came from someone in the athletic department.

It hasn’t been a secret. He was out with an illness and didn’t travel to Tulsa. Reported it multiple times on the air

[sudikoff]

Watson has been “banged up” and the plan today was for him to only play about 15 minutes. Wanted him to stay loose with a week between games. Source: our postgame interview with Drew.

Edit to add interview now posted: https://on.soundcloud.com/tnuVX

[natetheskate]

Going into this I expected nothing less than the blowout we got..It was always good to see everyone play and the walk ons to get some extended time. Caleb Reese certainly took advantage of his time on the court. Bob Schwieger really worked hard in his minutes. At one point we had all underclassman, Rubin,Dawson, Quinn, Schwieger and Norris, the exception, in the game. Dawson continued his hot shot work from 3. Rubin continues to be a smart rim protector although picking us some silly fouls.
Two things stood out to me. 1. Goshen although not a talented team physically played good basketball hitting us with some nice backdoor cuts and open 3s(shot 37% from 3 even though we were much taller). Which brings me to point 2. I just think we are not a super quick defensive team. Like the game at Tulsa we picked up a lot of fouls on the opponents drives to the basket. We play such an aggressive man to man I hope the foul trouble situation is not a year long thing. Pleasantly surprised for a pretty good turnout for a christmas season Saturday against an NAIA opponent with finals looming.

[Rambling On]

Two Questions:

1) Who decided Goshen would be a good game to schedule?

2) Why?

[sudikoff]

I don’t know this for a fact and I say this with no inside knowledge of this particular situation, but usually it’s this:

1) Can’t find anyone else to play. Especially on their home floor.

2) Find someone willing to play.

3) Play the game instead of having 10 days off between games.

Happens a lot of places. Harvard used to open the season vs MIT every year when I worked there. Ball State also played Goshen. Look at what North Dakota State did today.

I’m sure if Northwestern or another team was willing to come to Gentile, they’d play that game instead.