Loyola?s men?s basketball team enters the season poised to contend for its first conference title in 13 years and just its second berth in the NCAA tournament in school history ? not bad for a squad that won just one game three years ago.
“If you would have told me [we?d be picked that high] four years ago, I would have been surprised,” Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos, who has improved the Greyhounds? record three successive seasons, said. “But when you have good players, you should be ranked that high.”
In a preseason poll of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference?s coaches, Patsos? squad was picked to finish second, just two points behind Siena, with each school receiving five first place votes. Defending conference champion Niagara was predicted to finish third. The preseason ranking was the Greyhound?s highest in their 19-year history in the league. Loyola finished 18-13 last season and in third place in the MAAC with a record of 12-6. The 18 wins were the most since the Greyhounds finished 19-7 during the 1970-71 season.
But if Loyola wants to earn its first NCAA tournament berth since 1994 when the late Skip Prosser led the Greyhounds to the “Big Dance,” it will need to continue its mastery of Siena, a team it defeated twice last year by a combined eight points.
“They are excellent and are the best team,” Patsos said. “But I have always thought you first have to defeat the defending champs, Niagara, first.”
Loyola will be led by 6-foot-4, 195-pound senior guard Gerald Brown, a preseason All-MAAC selection. Brown, a graduate of Baltimore?s Frederick Douglass High School, averaged a conference-high 22.2 points per game. which ranked eighth nationally. But just as important to Loyola?s success will be the health of senior forward Michael Tuck, who was named the Sixth Man of the Year last season by the MAAC coaches, despite enduring nagging ankle injuries. Tuck averaged 9.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
“We had a good team last year, but we are deeper this year,” Patsos said. “We will be able to pressure more.”
To prepare for a run at the NCAA tournament, Patsos has assembled a challenging schedule which includes trips to Kansas, Illinois and Seton Hall, in addition to home games against Penn and Vermont ? two schools that have each qualified for the NCAA tournament in the past few seasons. But the players may be looking forward to no game more than the season opener Nov. 9 at Towson, when the Greyhounds will try to avenge last year?s 70-62 loss to their rival.
“As far as teams [on our level] like Penn and Vermont go, the fans want to see it, and to be the best you have to beat the best,” Patsos said. “With Towson, it?s a good game, and last year we were able to build up that Baltimore thing when we also played Navy and UMBC.”
