by Blers » February 27th, 2019, 11:44 am
I think Loyola is primed for a special year in 2020-2021 for Williamson/Krutwigs senior seasons. So much talent coming in that'll have time to develop. Next year however will be interesting. This year Townes, Custer, and Krutwig really masked the fact (even to myself) that this team had no one who was battle tested with the exception of Williamson who’s been hurt for most of the year. Thus outside those 3 everyone has been playing their first major minutes of their careers, which has hurt us from time to time, but should help in the future. I think next year’s team will hover somewhere in the 3-6 range. If I had to guess 5th seems reasonable. They’ll still be young with only one true senior in Skokna, but Kaifes, Bujdoso, and Agunanne, all have flashed enough to be excited about, Kaifes in particularly looks to be a real player. I’m bullish on Williamsons development, he looked outstanding when healthy this year, and was flashing the ability to score at all 3 levels before injury.
I think what will really help this team next year however is the influx of shooters. With Williamson injured and Custers shot lost in the twilight zone at times, Kaifes has been the only real consistent threat, but he’s still a freshman who is up and down on the defensive end. Next season the team adds transfer Tate Hall and freshman Paxson Wojcik, who are both outstanding shooters. Our other two freshman also both have the ability to step out and hit a 3 point shot; so HOPEFULLY the offense can be run much more effectively. Moser best teams at LU have been the teams with no clear cut go-to guy. The ball just tends to move a bit better. Currently I think the supporting cast defers too much to our seniors throughout games, and they can only do so much. Especially when opponents always know where the balls going. The young guys will just need to learn how to close out close games, which will probably take a year.
All in all though I couldn’t agree more about the conference, so much talent coming and growing. I’m curious to see how Evansville plays with their new additions, and what MSU does offensively. Does Ford go back to his original plan on offense or does he run what’s worked this season? It’ll be interesting! On top of this Valpo’s roster (in theory) could be stacked with seniors as well as two quality young guards in Sackey and Freeman. The ISU’s are a bit of a mystery to me, what do the redbirds look like next year? And how does Barnes go out in his senior year; does he return to form or have teams figured him out? UNI and Bradley should stay mostly consistent consistent, UNI will improve some, and while I could maybe see Bradley being a bit shakier without that glue of DLO and mismatch guy in Van Bree? I really don’t know enough about how that team runs to say for sure though. I love what Drakes doing. SIU is going to be a reclamation project no matter who coaches them with all they lose.
Maybe Anthony Beane makes a return to ILST to replace the departed Brendan and brings along Darius, to make up for taking Anthony Jr. with him in 2012? That'll be a fun story to follow from the outside.
