March Madness Betting -- What Loyola-Chicago Has to Do to Beat Michigan

  • In Charles Jay
  • Fri, Mar 30th, 2018 11:23:21 pm
  • By Charles Jay - Exclusive to OSGA


We outline what the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers have to do to beat the Michigan Wolverines at the Final Four and go to the national title game.


The Loyola Chicago Ramblers have obviously done a great job to get to the Final Four, and they have brought along some great additional storylines, not the least of which is their 98-year-old chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt. But this team is not through yet; they can get to the championship game if they can beat the Michigan Wolverines in a game scheduled for 6:09 PM ET on Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Right now Michigan is a five-point favorite at BetAnySports, with a total of 129.5 points posted, so what does Loyola have to do to make it through one more step on the road to immortality, something their brethren from 55 years ago did with an overtime win in the finals against Cincinnati?

GET GOOD LOOKS AT SHOTS -- And that means being very deliberate in their approach. Loyola has done a pretty good job of doing this all season long, as they are very patient and take up a lot of the shot clock (18.4 seconds on average, as a matter of fact). Their coach, Porter Moser, a disciple of Rick Majerus and therefore a proponent of very patient basketball, talks of the concept of "hockey assists," which basically means that it's not just one pass that leads to a basket, but a progression of passes, as this team plays chess, not checkers, in the half-court. This is a really good shooting team, and that does not happen by taking their shots indiscriminately.

Loyola Chicago Free NCAA Tournament pick.THEY'LL HAVE TO GET SOME OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS -- The way this model is set up, it doesn't appear likely that Loyola will get a lot of second chances, because they are only 332nd in the country in Offensive Rebounding Percentage. And Michigan has been a pretty good defensive rebounding team. So what they will have to do is perform above the level they have been in that area. Thus far in this tournament, they had 23 offensive rebounds in four games. It would greatly help if they could improve on that a little.

MUSCLE ON THE INSIDE WITH CAMERON KRUTWIG – This might also hope with the offensive rebounding initiative, because Krutwig, a freshman, can impose some size on somebody like Moe Wagner, for example, as he's 6-9 and 260 pounds. As BetAnySports customers probably know, he is really the only person with any real size in this Loyola lineup.

SHOOT MORE THREES – Loyola is ranked 11th in the country with the three-point percentage of 40.2%. But only 36% of their field-goal attempts have come from downtown (ranking 217th in the nation). Remember that at any given time, they'll have a few guys hovering around 40%, at least, on the floor, and Clayton Custer, the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, is a 46.5%. So he'll have to get free for some open looks.

PERHAPS USE THE BENCH A LITTLE MORE, AND FOUL – That's right, we said FOUL the opponent. It actually may be to their advantage along the way to put Michigan on the line; the Wolverines shoot just 66% from the charity stripe, and that ranks 326th in the nation. So Michigan is in the bottom 7% of all Division I basketball teams when it comes to making their free throws. Certainly when we get to the end game, and it might be relatively close, that bodes well for Loyola's chances to stay within striking distance. But why not employ this strategy early, especially when Michigan gets the ball inside? Yes, that might entail having to use reserves a little more, but it might be worth it if Michigan's weaker free-throw shooters, like Charles Matthews or Zavier Simpson, "brick" at the line.

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(The preceding information has been furnished for news matter only)


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