Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball plays a midweek game against American University on Wednesday, February 24.
- The 7 p.m. game will be the third against American this season after the programs played a set January 23-24.
- Wednesday's game will stream on ESPN+.
- Due to Patriot League restrictions, fans may not attend the game.
- The Greyhounds have scored more points in the paint than their opponents in all 11 games this year.
- Loyola has shot .462 in its first 11 games to its opponents .422.
- 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 .462 in 2020-21, rising from 218th in NCAA Division I in the category to 65th.
Series History Versus American
- Loyola and American will meet for the 99th time in series history when the teams take the court on Wednesday night. American holds a two-game advantage in the series, 51-48, having won four-straight in the series.
- The Eagles, who are Loyola's seventh most-played opponent in program history, and Greyhounds were former Mason-Dixon Conference opponents prior to each joining NCAA Division I.
- Since Loyola joined the Patriot League for the 2013-2014 season, the teams had split the regular-season meetings each year until 2019-2020 when the Eagles swept both games. American had a 93-91 overtime win on January 22, 2020, in Baltimore before it's 81-76 win at home.
- The programs first met on January 27, 1928, when the Eagles pulled out a 27-25 victory in Baltimore.
This Year Versus American
- Loyola and American have played twice this season with the Eagles winning both by a combined three points. They notched a 71-70 win on January 23 in Washington, D.C., before come up with an 81-79 triple-overtime victory the following day in Reitz Arena.
- Santi Aldama averaged a double-double in the games with 22.5 points and 11.0 rebounds. Jaylin Andrews posted averages of 17.5 points and 8.0 rebounds, while Golden Dike averaged 12 and six.
- Loyola guards Isaiah Hart and Kenneth Jones, who are averaging a combined 15.7 points per game this season, missed both contests due to injuries. (see Loyola's stats versus American at back of notes)
Difference Makers
- The biggest differences for Loyola in its three wins versus its seven losses have come defensively and ball-handling.
- Loyola has held its opponents to 36.8 percent from the field in its three wins, while the eight losses have come while opponents have shot 43.9 percent. The Greyhounds defended the three to the tune of 31.5 percent compared to 37.0 percent, too.
- Loyola has, meanwhile, shot 48.7 percent from the field in the wins as opposed to 45.2 in the losses.
- Buoyed by only seven turnovers on Valentine's Day in a win, the Greyhounds have averaged only 10 giveaways in the two games as opposed to 15.3 in the other eight.
One And Only Aldama
- Santi Aldama is the only player in NCAA Division I this season to average more than 17 points, eight rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game (per SportsReference.com).
- The sophomore from the Canary Islands has posted 21.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.7 blocks per game through 10.
- 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.
Aldama's Last Six
- Santi Aldama has put up his best basketball over the last six games. He has five games with 20 or more points, and the sixth was a 19-point outing.
- Four of the games have come as double-doubles, while he has nine and seven rebounds in the other two.
- Over the stretch, Aldama has averaged 25.2 points and 12.7 rebounds.
Not The First
- Rare as games where an individual has 18 or more rebounds are, Santi Aldama is not the first player in school history to do it twice in one season.
- His 22 rebounds on February 22 at Lafayette and his 18 February 21 at home against Lehigh mark the second time at Loyola that a player has posted 18 or more in a year. Mike Krawczyk did it in consecutive games, posting 19 on February 3 and 6, 1971, against Western Maryland (now McDaniel) and Towson. The four combined games by Krawczyk and Aldama are two of the eight instances of players grabbing 18 or more rebounds in a game at Loyola.
Context To Aldama's 30-20 Game
- Santi Aldama broke the school's single-game rebounding that had stood for nearly 45 years. Jimmy "Jumpshot" Smith set the previous best on February 23, 1976 – before any member of the Loyola coaching staff was born – when he had 21 in a game against American.
- Aldama matched the 22 rebounds by Colgate's Adonal Foyle – a player who went on to a 13-year NBA career – for most in a Patriot League game. Foyle had 22 in a 1995 game against Army West Point.
- Aldama is the first player in Loyola history to amass a game with 20 or more points and rebounds, and obviously the first to have a 30-20 game.
- Foyle is the only other Patriot League player to have a 30-20 game, something he did twice. He had 32 points and 20 rebounds in February 1995 against Army.
- Per SportsReference.com, Aldama is one of three NCAA Division I players to have 30-20 games this season, joining Long Island's Eral Penn, who had 33 points and 20 rebounds against Fairleigh Dickinson earlier this month, and The Citadel's Hayden Brown, who in December had 31 points and 21 boards against NAIA foe Columbia International.
- In the last 10 years, Aldama's accomplishment marks the 26th time a NCAA Division I player has had 30-20.
Another Rebounding Record
- The Greyhounds set a team rebounding record, as well, on Feb. 13, grabbing 57 total boards. That number eclipsed the 53 they had last year against Elizabethtown (December 21, 2019).
30 Back-To-Back
- Santi Aldama scored 30 points for the second-straight game on February 13, matching the career-high he set five days earlier in the same venue when he had 30 at Lafayette on Monday night.
- He is the second Loyola player to score 30 in back-to-back games in the last 10 years, joining his former teammate Andrew Kostecka who did so last year when he had 30 at VCU (December 29, 2019) and 37 against Holy Cross (January 2, 2020). Dylon Cormier did it to start the 2013-2014 season when he had 31 at Binghamton (November 8, 2013) and 34 two days later at Cornell.
Two Points Or Less
- Loyola's first four games of the season were 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 marked the first time in program history that the Greyhounds have played that many games of that nature, regardless of outcome.
- In all, seven of the Greyhounds' eight losses this year have come by four or fewer points.
Double-Doubles
- February 14 in a win over the Leopards, Santi Aldama had a streak of three-straight games with double-doubles snapped, but he still has five in seven and seven overall in his 18-game collegiate career.
- He was one of three Greyhounds with double-doubles on February 13, joining Golden Dike (12 points, 12 rebounds) and Jaylin Andrews (12 points, 10 rebounds).
- That game marked the first time in at least 10 years that three Greyhounds have had double-doubles in the same game. They have had six instances of two players posting 10 or more in two categories, three happening already this year.
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 17-straight games scoring in double-figures with five games of 20 or more intermixed.
- In his last 17 games, spanning the end of last season and the start of this, Aldama has averaged a double-double with 19.9 points and 10 rebounds per game.
- This year, Aldama has shot 49.2 percent from the field – up from 45.9 last year – while averaging 21.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.7 blocks per game.
- Aldama has posted double-doubles in six of the Greyhounds' last eight games to give him eight in his 21 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.
- Aldama followed that on February 13 with a 30-point, 22-rebound game at Lafayette. He then had 19 points and nine boards the following day, picking up his second-straight Patriot League Player of the Week nod.
- He then had 27 points on February 20 at Lehigh, followed by a 24-point, 18-rebound game the next night.
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.
- Andrews has averaged 12.6 points and 4.0 rebounds over Loyola's last four games, raising his season averages to 11.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.
Hart Makes Big Plays Late
- On Sunday, February 21, Isaiah Hart became the 40th player in Loyola men's basketball history to score 1,000 career points, dropping his two in with a layup midway through the second half.
- Hart is the Greyhounds' active leader in nearly every statistical category, including games played (102), started (95), minutes (2,857) and points (1,001). He has averaged 9.9 points per game in his three-plus years.
Triple The Fun
- Loyola's triple-overtime game on February 13 at Lafayette is tied for the longest in the school's documented history, and it comes only 20 days after the Greyhounds played a three-overtime game on February 24 against American. The games match contests in 1991 (loss to Saint Peter's), 2002 (loss to Siena) and 2015 (win versus Colgate). All four of the documented games prior to February 13 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. He had his first double-double of the year on February 13 at Lafayette, and he enters Wednesday's game averaging 8.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and a team-best 2.9 assists per game. He also has 19 assists in the last four.
Cool Hand Luke
- With Loyola's top three returning guards (by scoring average and minutes played) sidelined due to injury to start the year, 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 27.7 minutes per game. He made his first career start on January 24 against American, the first of eight-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.
- Through 11 games, Johnson leads Loyola with 22 steals, and he is second in the Patriot League with 2.0 steals per game.
- Johnson has averaged 8.3 points over Loyola's last four games, raising his season average to 6.0 points.
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
- The Greyhounds are scheduled to close the year against Navy February 27-28.
