Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball will play a two-game set this weekend with Lafayette College.
- The Greyhounds will host the Leopards on Sunday, February 7, at 12 p.m.. in Reitz Arena. The game will air live on CBS Sports Network.
- On Monday, Loyola will travel to Easton, Pennsylvania, to the Kirby Sports Center where it will face Lafayette at 7 p.m. in a game streamed on ESPN+.
- Due to Patriot League restrictions, fans will not be permitted to attend the game.
- Loyola has shot .452 in its first six games to its opponents .434.
- 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 22nd time in series history on Monday night with the Leopards holding an 11-10 lead in the all-time series, winning two of the three meetings this season. Monday will mark the first time these teams have met four times during a campaign.
- 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. (see Loyola stats from games on next-to-last page)
Let's Do This Again
- Loyola and Lafayette will play for the fourth time this season on Monday night, marking just the second time in Loyola program history that the Greyhounds have played a team more than three times in a single season.
- 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.
Two Points Or Less
- Four of Loyola's six 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.
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 13.5 minutes per game, Faure is fourth on the team with 4.8 rebounds per game.
Dueling Double-Doubles
- Santi Aldama (25 points, 10 rebounds) and Jaylin Andrews (13 points, 10 rebounds) each had double-doubles January 23 at American, and the Greyhounds then had another game with two players posting double-doubles. Aldama (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Alonso Faure (13 points, 12 rebounds) turned the feat on February 7 against Lafayette, marking the third time in as many seasons that two Greyhounds have done so in the same 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.
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 12 games, spanning the end of last season and the start of this, Aldama has nearly averaged a double-double with 18.3 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 48.8 percent from the field – up from 45.9 last year – while averaging 18.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 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 45.3 percent from the field and is second on the team in points (11.0) and fourth in rebounds (4.7) 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 January 24 against American, and he enters the second game of this Lafayette series averaging 9.0 points and 5.0 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 26.0 per game while making his first career start on January 24 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.
- 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 six games, Johnson leads Loyola with 11 steals, and he is third in the Patriot League with 1.8 steals per game.
- Johnson's 11 steals have nearly 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.
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.
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.
