Under the Radar Game of the Day, Wednesday, January 7, 2015: Loyola (Chicago) at Evansville

Loyola (Chicago) at Evansville, 8:00 PM Eastern, FSN-Regional, Fox College Sports Central and espn3

The UTR Game of the Day heads to Evansville, Indiana tonight as the Purple Aces welcomes the Loyola (Chicago) Ramblers in for a Missouri Valley Conference game.  Loyola has been one of the most surprising teams in the MVC so far this season.  Despite being picked to finish near the bottom of the standings, the Ramblers put together a 10-2 non-conference record which included wins over Texas Tech and Boise State.  They have gone 1-1 in MVC play so far as well, with a win over Bradley followed by a loss at Northern Iowa.  While the Ramblers would have to come up with several more solid wins without slipping up at all in order to even sniff an at-large bid (and that may not even be enough), they are definitely going to  be tough to beat, especially at home, and will be a very difficult out in the MVC tournament in March.

Evansville was a team that we picked to finish near the top of the MVC standings this year and so far they have, more or less, performed as we predicted.  Despite losing 19 times last season, the Aces are already 11-3 including wins over Fresno State, Belmont and Northern Iowa in their MVC opener.  The bad news for Evansville is that they pretty much gave back all the credit they earned for defeating UNI by losing an overtime game last time out at Indiana State.  While the game against the Sycamores was their big MVC in-state rivalry, it was not the type of game a team with tournament hopes can afford to lose.  The Purple Aces will have several chances to score key wins, including at least two games with Wichita State, before the season ends, but for now they need to rebound from the Indiana State loss and score a solid home win over a good Ramblers team tonight.