Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball plays a two-game weekend set January 30-31 against the U.S. Naval Academy.
- The Greyhounds first head to Annapolis, Maryland, for a 12 noon contest on Saturday at Alumni Hall, and the Midshipmen then visit Reitz Arena on Sunday at 6 p.m.
- Both games will stream live on the Patriot League on ESPN+.
- Due to Patriot League and State of Maryland restrictions, fans will not be permitted to attend the game.
- Loyola has shot .470 in its first three games to its opponents .448.
- Santi Aldama was named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team after being one of three Greyhounds to earn conference All-Rookie recognition last year. In just 10 games last year – Aldama missed the first 22 due to an injury – he averaged 15.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game as the Greyhounds went 6-4.
- Tavaras Hardy is in his third season on the Loyola sidelines after he was named the 21st head coach in Loyola men's basketball history on March 28, 2018.
- In Hardy's first three seasons, Loyola improved its field-goal percentage from .438 in 2017-18 to .470 in 2020-21, rising from 218th in NCAA Division I in the category to 55th.
Series History Versus Navy
- With campuses located 26 miles apart (as the crow flies), Loyola and Navy will meet for the 38th time on the hardwood when the teams play Wednesday evening.
- The Midshipmen lead the series 28-9 after winning the teams split the 2020-2021 season series, each winning on its own home court.
- When the teams met on February 1, 2020, in Reitz Arena, Loyola led for the final 31 minutes as four players scored 11 or more points, led by Andrew Kostecka's 21.
- Kostecka's 21 game as he went 13 of 14 from the free-throw line, and he also had a game-high seven rebounds. Jaylin Andrews added 16 points, while Isaiah Hart had 14. Santi Aldama made his collegiate debut against the Midshipmen and he finished with 11 points, three assists and a blocked shot in just 17 minutes of action.
- The teams met again in Annapolis 25 days later, and the Midshipmen took a 62-57 decision. Kostecka was injured early in that game and did not score; Aldama had 18 for the Greyhounds.
Two Points Or Less
- Loyola's four games this year have been decided by a total of five points with a pair of two-point losses to Lafayette and a one-point and a two-point setback to American.
- It had been 93 years since the Greyhounds have played three-straight games with margins of two or less. Between January 27-February 4, 1928, the Loyola lost three games, each by two points: American (L, 27-25), Western Maryland (L, 27-25), Blue Ridge College (L, 31-29).
- The four-straight games separated by two or fewer points mark the first time in program history that the Greyhounds have played that many games of that nature, regardless of outcome.
Career Days
- Two Greyhounds had career-high scoring outputs on Saturday at American last Saturday with Santi Aldama tallying 25 and Luke Johnson had 10.
- Aldama's 25 bested his 23 last March at Lehigh, while Johnson's 10 improved on the eight he scored in December 2017, his freshman season, at Florida State.
Dueling Double-Doubles
- Santi Aldama (25 points, 10 rebounds) and Jaylin Andrews (13 points, 10 rebounds) each had double-doubles Saturday at American, marking the second time in as many seasons that two Greyhounds have done so in the same game.
- Andrews was involved in both affairs as he had 15 points and 10 boards at the U.S. Military Academy on January 18, 2020, in the same game KaVaughn Scott had 12 points and 10 boards.
Triple The Fun
- Loyola's triple-overtime game on Sunday against American is tied for the longest in the school's documented history. It matches games in 1991 (loss to Saint Peter's), 2002 (loss to Siena) and 2015 (win versus Colgate). All four of the documented games took place in Reitz Arena.
Patriot League On ESPN+
- A new season means a new home for streaming video of Patriot League contests. Last summer, the conference announced a multi-year agreement that made ESPN+ the exclusive digital home for live Patriot League events.
- Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for great Patriot League games, as well as much more. Information is available at http://loyo.la/espnplus20.
- Additionally, international fans can subscribe to watch games via SIDEARM Sports. Information for that can also be found at LoyolaGreyhounds.com.
Preseason Prognostications
- Loyola was picked to finish third in the Patriot League's preseason poll by conference coaches and communications personnel, the highest the Greyhounds have ever been slated in a preseason poll since joining the conference in 2013-2014. Boston University was picked as the conference favorite, followed by Colgate University and the Greyhounds. The U.S. Naval Academy and Lafayette College rounded out the top-five.
- Santi Aldama was one of five players who were named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team. He was joined by Colgate's Jordan Burns (preseason POY), Boston University's Walter Whyte, Lafayette's Justin Jaworski and Navy's Cam Davis.
Glass Ceiling Shattered
- When Corin 'Tiny' Adams assumed her seat on the Loyola bench Saturday in its game at Lafayette, she became the first female assistant coach of a Patriot League men's basketball team.
- Adams joined the Loyola staff in October 2020, and she is one of two female assistant coaches on a Division I bench this year, along with the University of Maine's Edniesha Curry. Adams is the sixth woman to serve as an assistant coach in NCAA Division I history.
As Advertised
- Santi Aldama was heralded as one of the Class of 2019's Top 100 players by national recruiting analysts prior to his arrival, and he has lived up to the strong billing since making a late debut for the Greyhounds.
- The Most Valuable Player of the 2019 FIBA U-18 European Championships was ranked as high as the No. 65 recruit in the nation prior to his freshman season, but he missed the first 22 games of 2019-2020 before debuting on February 1, 2020, against the U.S. Naval Academy. He came off the bench in that game to score 11 points, and he followed that with two more 11-point outings while his minutes were built up.
- He had a nine-point game on February 12, 2020, at American, but since then, Aldama has put together a streak of nine-straight games scoring in double-figures with five games of 20 or more intermixed.
- In the last nine games, spanning the end of last season and the start of this, Aldama has nearly averaged a double-double with 19.8 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He also has averaged 3.1 assists and 2.0 blocks per game during that stretch.
- This year, Aldama has shot 54.4 percent from the field – up from 45.9 last year – while averaging 19.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.8 blocks per game.
Stepping Into Leading Role
- Jaylin Andrews shook off a slow start to the 2019-20 season, averaging just 5.2 points in Loyola's 13 non-conference games, shooting 31.9 percent from the field and 20.9 from 3-point range. In Patriot League games, though, Andrews averaged 9.9 points.
- He opened 2020-2021 slowly with just three points in the first half of the opener at Lafayette, but he shook that off quickly by tallying 10 in the second half to finish with 13 points, seven rebounds and a pair of assists.
- Andrews posted his second career double-double at American, putting up 13 points and a career-high tying 10 rebounds, and he followed that with a 22-point, 6-rebound, 4-steal game against the Eagles at home the next day.
- This year, Andrews has shot 51.2 percent from the field and is second on the team in both points (13.5) and rebounds (6.5) per game.
Big Amongst His Class Peers
- Golden Dike put together a solid freshman season in 2019-2020, averaging 7.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while seeing action in all 32 outings.
- He finished second amongst qualified Patriot League freshmen in rebounding, and he is first amongst those in that category who return this year. Dike shot 58.9 percent from the field, a team-best, in 2019-2020. He was sixth overall in the Patriot League in field-goal percentage, tops amongst freshmen.
- In the 2020-2021 season-opener, Dike nearly had his third career double-double, coming up two rebounds shy with 15 points and eight boards at Lafayette. Dike later scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half or overtime on Sunday against American, and he enters the Navy series averaging 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game this year.
Cool Hand Luke
- With Loyola's top three returning guards (by scoring average and minutes played) sidelined due to injury, senior guard Luke Johnson has brought experience to an otherwise green backcourt for the Greyhounds.
- Johnson has seen the most extended playing time of his career through four games, averaging 26.5 per game while making his first career start on Sunday against American.
- The Lexington, Kentucky native was sidelined for nearly all of the 2019-2020 Patriot League season with a broken foot, and he entered this year with 310 minutes played over the last three seasons. Through the first four, however, he has shot 50 percent from the field while averaging 5.8 points per game.
Hitting The Boards
- Loyola has outreboudned its opponents in three of four games this season, posting an average of five more rebounds per game.
- Three Greyhounds – Santi Aldama (8.5), Jaylin Andrews (6.5) and Golden Dike (5.8) – are all averaging more than five rebounds per game.
Bradsher Goes Big
- Making the first start of his collegiate career in the season-opener at Lafayette, senior guard Brandon Bradsher entered 2019-2020 with 14 total points in 17 career games.
- The walk-on shattered that total with a team-high 21 points, going 6 of 9 from the field, 5 of 7 from 3-point range and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line against the Leopards in 25 minutes of action.
- Bradsher, who started his time at Loyola as a manager with the program in 2017-18, had played just 28 total minutes before the game last Saturday. He banked in his first 3-point attempt in the opening two minutes, the first of five he'd hit in the game.
- He followed that performance with a 12-point outing against Lafayette last Sunday, and he was named to the Patriot League Weekly Honor Roll.
Ochiaka's Back
- Casmir Ochiaka missed the entire 2019-2020 season after knee surgery following his freshman campaign, but the Nigerian forward has returned to the lineup this season.
- Ochiaka had three points and three boards in the first game of the year, followed by four and four in the second.
- In his first year with the program – 2018-2019 – Ochiaka had a strong finish to the season. After playing just 33 minutes during non-conference action, he averaged 5.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in 18 Patriot League contests, tallying double-doubles in two of those games.
Follow-Up Act
- Loyola's Class of 2023 will have a tough act to follow up on after its performance last year. Now sophomores, forwards Santi Aldama and Golden Dike and guard Cam Spencer were all three named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team after excellent freshman seasons.
- It was just the second time in conference history that three players from the same school were named to the All-Rookie Team as Aldama, Dike and Spencer joined Bucknell University's Bryson Johnson, Mike Muscala and Joe Willman in 2009-10.
Graduation Success
- Loyola University Maryland tied for the fifth-highest overall Graduate Success Rate (GSR) in the NCAA report released in November, highlighting the Greyhounds success in the classroom. Loyola had a 95 percent GSR, and it has ranked in the top-25 of the GSR in all 16 years since the report's inception.
- Loyola's men's basketball program was the only one in the State of Maryland that had a NCAA Graduation Success Rate of 100 percent for the most-recent report.
Not A Coincidence
- The Greyhounds went 7-3 in Patriot League games last year in which Cam Spencer and/or Santi Aldama were on the court.
- Spencer played in the opening win over Holy Cross, and Aldama came back on February 1 when Loyola started a stretch of six wins in its last seven games. Spencer played in the last six of those games, and the Greyhounds were 14-9 in the games he has played.
Saying Good By To A Top Performer
- Andrew Kostecka had his 34th career game with 20 or more points on February 12, 2020, at American with his 28 total also providing him with a couple of milestones.
- He jumped three players on the school's all-time scoring list to finish the night in third. Only Jim Lacy (2,199, 1943-44 and 1946-49) and Kevin Green (2,154, 1988-92) scored more career points than Kostecka who had 1,751.
- Kostecka also became the 16th player in Patriot League history to score 1,700 career points, and he is 14th in conference history in scoring.
- He also finished second all-time at Loyola with 222 steals, a mark that's seventh in conference history.
Spencer Sparks Offense
- Cam Spencer was Loyola's second-leading scorer after the first 14 games of the year, and he led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio by a wide margin following the Patriot League opener on January 2.
- That game, however, was Spencer's last until February 5 when he returned to action after an injury. He missed nine-straight games, a stretch in which the Greyhounds went 1-8.
- He saved his best for last as he scored a game-high 24 points to go with six assists in the Patriot League Championships at Lehigh.
Up Next
- Loyola will play Bucknell in a pair of games on Saturday, February 6 (in Baltimore) and Monday, February 8 (in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania).
