Quick Hits About The Hounds
- For the second weekend in a row, Loyola University Maryland men's basketball will play a two-game set with Lafayette College.
- This time, the Leopards will host the Greyhounds in the opening game at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 13.
- On Sunday, Lafayette will travel to Baltimore to Reitz Arena where it will face Loyola at 5 p.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.
- Due to Patriot League restrictions, fans will not be permitted to attend the game.
- Loyola has shot .456 in its first six games to its opponents .433.
- 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 Lafayette
- Loyola and Lafayette will meet for the 23rd time in series history on Saturday afternoon with the Leopards holding a 12-10 lead in the all-time series, winning three of the four meetings this season.
- The Leopards squeezed out a 77-75 victory in the Greyhounds' first game of the season, January 16, in Easton, Pennsylvania. The following day, Lafayette left Reitz Arena with a 72-70 win.
- The Greyhounds won the third game of the year on February 7, posting a 75-62 win in Baltimore before the Leopards won 80-76 the following night in Easton. (see Loyola stats from games on next-to-last page)
Let's Do This Again... And Again
- Loyola and Lafayette will play for the fifth time this season on Saturday afternoon, marking the first time in program history the Greyhounds have played a team more than four times in a campaign.
- During the 1934-35 season, Loyola played Mount St. Mary's twice during the regular-season, and the squads met three times in the postseason during a best-of-three series for the Maryland Intercollegiate Conference Championship. Mount St. Mary's is the Greyhounds most-played opponent. The 2019 meeting was the 175th all-time between the programs, making it the rivalry with the most games played in State of Maryland history.
One And Only Aldama
- Santi Aldama is the only player in NCAA Division I this season to average more than 17 points, eight rebound and three assists per game (per SportsReference.com).
- The sophomore from the Canary Islands has posted 19.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game through seven. With his average of 1.6 blocks, he is also the only player in the nation to average 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and one block per game.
- If his stats hold average out for the remainder of the season, he would be the only player in Patriot League history with those numbers in a season.
Two Points Or Less
- Four of Loyola's seven games this year have been decided by a total of seven 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.
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.
Glass Ceiling Shattered
- When Corin 'Tiny' Adams assumed her seat on the Loyola bench January 16 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 his last 13 games, spanning the end of last season and the start of this, Aldama has nearly averaged a double-double with 19.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He also has averaged 2.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game during that stretch.
- This year, Aldama has shot 50 percent from the field – up from 45.9 last year – while averaging 19.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 blocks per game.
- Aldama has posted double-doubles in four of the Greyhounds' last five games to give him six in his 17 game collegiate career.
- He had a career-high 30 points in the Greyhounds' February 8 game at Lafayette, grabbing 10 rebounds while tallying four assists and a pair of blocked shots, too. A day after the game, he was named Patriot League Player of the Week for the first time in his career.
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.
- After scoring all 15 of his points in the second half at Lafayette on February 8, Andrews is second on the team in points (11.6) and fourth in rebounds (4.0) per game.
Hart Makes Season Debut
- Senior guard Isaiah Hart made his 2020-2021 season debut last Saturday at Navy after missing the first four games of the year. Hart was in the starting five – his stretch of 66-straight starts was snapped earlier this season – and finished with eight points, two assists and a steal.
- Hart is the Greyhounds' active leader in nearly every statistical category, including games played (97), started (92), minutes (2,724) and points (957). He has averaged 9.9 points per game in his three-plus years.
Build Off The Performance
- One Loyola player who did show positives on January 30 in the Greyhounds' loss at Navy was freshman post Alonso Faure who saw a then-season-high 20 minutes of action.
- Faure tallied six points and six rebounds, both modest career-highs. He also had three assists, a blocked shot and a pair of steals.
- He built off that in a big way Sunday against the Leopards when he had his first collegiate double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
- This season, despite averaging only 14.0 minutes per game, Faure is third on the team with 4.6 rebounds per game.
Triple The Fun
- Loyola's triple-overtime game on January 24 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.
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 January 24 against American, and he enters the first game of this Lafayette series averaging 9.0 points and 5.4 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 brought experience to an otherwise green backcourt for the Greyhounds early in the year.
- His steady hand has continued through the season as he has received the most extended playing time of his career, averaging 27 minutes per game. He made his first career start on January 24 against American, the first of four-straight starts.
- 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.
- Johnson made his second-straight start, and the second of his career, January 30 at Navy, and finished with a steal and two blocked shots. The swats were the first two of his 54-game career.
- Through seven games, Johnson leads Loyola with 12 steals, and he is fourth in the Patriot League with 1.6 steals per game.
- Johnson's 12 steals have tripled his previous career total of four, all which came during his freshman season of 2017-2018.
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.
- In his third appearance against the Leopards, February 7, Bradsher scored all nine of his points in the second half of the win. He also had two steals that both led to others' fast-break baskets.
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.
Up Next
- After its fifth and sixth games this year against Lafayette, Loyola will play Lehigh on February 20-21 and the host American on February 24. The Greyhounds are scheduled to close the year against Navy February 27-28.
