NCAA Tournament March Madness

#309 Loyola-Chicago

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Loyola-Chicago’s profile shows a team that can win at home against mid-major opposition — victories over Cleveland State, Central Michigan and Princeton stand out as the résumé’s brightest moments — but those are undercut by damaging results away from home and at neutral sites, most notably a heavy road loss at Wichita State and neutral setbacks to North Texas, Northern Iowa and San Jose State that leave serious questions about the team’s ability to beat quality opponents outside its own gym. The nonconference slate did not produce a signature scalp, and early conference play has featured too many true road shortcomings to inspire confidence, yet the remaining Atlantic Ten schedule provides concrete chances to alter the narrative, with games at Rhode Island, George Washington and Davidson and a tough trip to VCU offering resume-building opportunities while home dates against St Louis and La Salle and winnable matchups such as Duquesne and Saint Joseph’s present safer spots to rack up quality results. How the Ramblers handle those road and neutral tests will define whether the résumé can survive its earlier damage, because strong performances away from home are the only reliable way to erase the bad losses and make the wins matter.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Cleveland St320W91-88
11/6Mercyhurst331L73-65
11/9(N)North Texas136L64-62
11/13@Wichita St96L95-74
11/16Colorado St61L80-67
11/21N Illinois317L76-59
11/25(N)Northern Iowa92L72-51
11/26(N)San Jose St188L63-51
12/2C Michigan321W83-72
12/6Princeton269W73-68
12/14Chicago St349L84-75
12/17(N)San Francisco9410%
12/20(N)Santa Clara655%
12/31@Rhode Island1037%
1/3Dayton598%
1/7Davidson12021%
1/10@G Washington794%
1/13George Mason6710%
1/16@Dayton593%
1/20@St Bonaventure1148%
1/24Duquesne14126%
1/27St Joseph's PA17935%
1/30@VCU452%
2/3La Salle26349%
2/6@Davidson1208%
2/13St Louis415%
2/18@Fordham20420%
2/21@St Joseph's PA17917%
2/28Richmond9716%
3/4@St Louis412%
3/7G Washington7912%