The Loyola men?s basketball team was tied for first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for just a matter of minutes before Coach Jimmy Patsos was already talking about being a hunted team.
“It?s a great league and on any night any one can win,” he said. “I?m glad we are in first, but I want to end in first. When you are at the top, you better be ready.”
The Greyhounds (16-12, 11-5) joined three other teams in a tie for first place with a 73-68 win over Rider (18-9, 11-5) on Monday night. Siena (16-10, 11-5) and Niagara (17-8, 11-5) are the other teams atop the league standings and vying for the conference?s regular season title. Finishing in first place guarantees a team ? at worst ? an automatic bid in the National Invitation Tournament, regardless of how they finish in next month?s conference tournament at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.
Loyola has three games remaining, hosting UC-Davis (8-17) in a non-conference game at 1 p.m. on Saturday as part of ESPN?s Bracketbuster Weekend. The Greyhounds then wrap up their regular season with league games against Canisius (4-22, 2-14) on Feb. 28 and at Marist (15-12, 9-7) on March 2.
Against UC-Davis, Loyola is hoping not to suffer from a letdown in the rare late-season, non-conference game. The Aggies come into the game losers of 10 of their past 11 and eight straight overall. On offense, they rely on guards Vince Oliver (12.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg) and Shane Hanson (10.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg).
But regardless of the opponent, senior guard Gerald Brown knows what he needs to do for the team to succeed.
“Jimmy was preaching to me about leaders going hard,” Brown said. “If you do that, the rest of the team will follow.”
The Greyhounds? surge down the stretch comes after they started conference play slow, splitting its first six games and stumbling to record of 7-10 and 3-3 in the league after an 81-67 loss to Rider Jan. 13 in Lawrenceville, N.J. Since then, Loyola has won nine of its past 11 games and put itself firmly in the middle of postseason discussion, a place it hasn?t been since making its lone NCAA Tournament appearance in 1994.
Patsos credits his seniors with the team?s turnaround, especially captains Michael Tuck and Brown. He was quick to praise Tuck?s play against Rider as he finished with a team-high 20 points and eight rebounds. However, he was even quicker to credit Brown for making a spectacular steal and assist that led to a fast-break layup that tied the game midway through the second half.
“Michael Tuck continues to refuse to lose,” Patsos said. “But there was no bigger play than when Gerald Brown dove on the floor for that loose ball and gave it up for the basket.”
