CHICAGO (December 9, 2021) - Loyola is riding a four-game win streak into Friday's showdown at Vanderbilt and the Ramblers have won eight of their last nine true road games, with the lone setback being a 51-50 overtime decision at Drake last February. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, the Ramblers are 9-8 versus Power 5 conference opponents and a win Friday would give them their first true road victory against a Power 5 foe since a 65-59 decision at No. 5 Florida on December 6, 2017. 

With a victory over Arizona State under its belt already this season, Loyola is aiming to win multiple regular season (postseason excluded) games from Power 5 opponents for the first time since topping Northwestern and Purdue in 1991-92.

Loyola has prevailed in five of its last seven outings versus current members of the Southeastern Conference, boasting victories over Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi State and Georgia.

Head coach Drew Valentine has led the Ramblers to an 8-2 start to the season and that record is the best by any Loyola first-year head coach through his first 10 games since Tom Haggerty won eight of his first 10 contests in 1945-46.

Loyola – Vanderbilt – The Series

Friday's game will be the fifth meeting between the Ramblers and Commodores and Loyola has captured each of the first four matchups.

This will be Loyola's first trip to Memorial Gymnasium after the first three games of the series were played in Chicago and the last meeting, on December 18, 2019, was played in Phoenix as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase.

In that contest two years ago in Phoenix, Cameron Krutwig went for 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the first triple-double in Loyola history, and Tate Hall provided 16 points, to lead the Ramblers to a 78-70 decision.

Loyola is 16-17 (.485) against current members of the SEC.

Scouting Vanderbilt

The Commodores, who are coached by former North Carolina and NBA standout Jerry Stackhouse, have tumbled in their last two games, dropping contests to SMU (84-72) and Temple (72-68 in OT), after winning five of their first six outings of 2021-22.

Vanderbilt has played six of its first eight games of the season at Memorial Gymnasium, where it is 4-2 this year.

Scotty Pippen Jr., the son of the former Chicago Bulls star, is providing a team-best 16.8 points per game, while Jordan Wright contributes 14.9 ppg and 7.0 rpg for a Vanderbilt team that is shooting just 40.4 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three-point territory this season.

Despite the struggles on offense, the Commodores are one of the better defensive teams in the nation and they permit just 60.9 ppg, while holding opponents to 37.5 percent accuracy from the field, a figure that ranks 21st nationally. 

Up Next

The Ramblers are off from competition for a week and are back in action December 19 when they welcome Norfolk State to Gentile Arena.