Embrace a Mid-Major: Loyola-Chicago Ramblers

The Basics:

Name: Loyola-Chicago Ramblers
Conference: Horizon
Mascot: The lovable Lou Wolf
Last year's record: 19-11, (8-8)
This year's record: 8-4 (1-0)
This year's current RPI: 33

Player You Should Know: Blake Schilb. He's a 6'7" guard, which NBA scouts like. But he goes about 220 lbs., which limits his foot speed. His quicks aren't quite what you'd like from an NBA two-guard, and his 3.5 to 3.0 assist to turnover ratio might not quite be what you'd like from a point guard.

But that's getting ahead of ourselves ... his job right now is to score in the Horizon League, and that, he can do in a variety of ways. He's got a nice shooting stroke from outside, he can take it to the rack, and he can bully smaller guards (and there are lots of those in the Horizon League) with his size.

Schilb was named the 2006-07 Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year, and is on the Preseason Wooden Award watch list. Through 12 games, though, his scoring average is down about 4 points a game from last year.

Outlook: They could, and in fact, were expected in the preseason, to win the Horizon League. The mighty Butler Bulldogs may have something to say about that, but ... certainly, the Ramblers are right there in the mix. If the conference was going to be decided by a fight to the death between Schilb and Butler's A.J. Graves, go with Schilb and the Ramblers.

Their biggest win of the year just came against Northern Iowa, a team that's been to the dance three straight years and should go back this year. Of course, they followed that up with a loss on the road at Bradley, another MVC team. They also lost by 12 to the pre-Oden Ohio State Buckeyes, and by 16 to Purdue on the road.

But the Ramblers have the experience on the floor with three senior starters, and the skill with legit NBA-prospect Blake Schilb. Twenty wins and major headaches for whoever draws them in the NCAA tournament is a reasonable expectation from this team.