Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball opens the Emerald Coast Classic on Friday, November 25, against Southern University at 11 a.m. (CST)/12 p.m. (EST).
- The game will be played in Niceville, Florida, at Raider Arena on the campus of Northwest Florida State College. It will be streamed lived on FloHoops.
- The Greyhounds return 13 players from a year ago, including three fifth-year players who are pursuing their graduate degrees at Loyola: Jaylin Andrews, Kenneth Jones and Markese Redding.
- Andrews and Jones are the team's top two returning scorers after posting 13.9 and 8.7 points per game, respectively, last season.
- Jones led the Patriot League in assists (139) and assists per game (4.6), while Andrews was ninth in the conference in points per game. The duo ranked third and fourth in the Patriot League in steals per game, averaging 1.6 and 1.5.
- Jones finished the year ranked No. 58 in NCAA Division I in assists per game, while the Greyhounds were 51st as a team, averaging 15.0.
- Tavaras Hardy is in his fifth season on the Loyola sidelines after he was named the 21st head coach in Loyola men's basketball history on March 28, 2018.
Watch The Action
- The Emerald Coast Classic will stream live on FloHoops.
Series History Versus Southern
- The Greyhounds and Tigers will meet for the first time when they play on Friday morning.
- Friday's neutral-site game will also be Loyola's first against a team currently a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Last Time Out
- Clemson used a 16-2 run in the first half to take control of a non-conference game at Littlejohn Coliseum on Monday, and the Tigers pulled away for a 72-41 victory over Loyola.
- The Greyhounds trailed 9-6 at the game's first media timeout, but Hunter Tyson and Ian Scheffelin each had five points during the run that gave the Tigers a 25-8 lead with 10 minutes to play in the opening half.
- Kenneth Jones made back-to-back threes for Loyola, and the Greyhounds held Clemson scoreless for over three minutes, but the Tigers then went on a 16-0 run to close the half and lead 43-14 at the break.
- Alonso Faure scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the second half, making 5 of 6 shots from the field after the break. He also led the Greyhounds with six rebounds.
- Deon Perry added 11 points and a career-best four steals. Jones had four assists and three steals.
Putting Up Numbers
- Kenneth Jones opened his fifth season with the Greyhounds in impressive fashion, tying his collegiate high with 20 points in the opener at DePaul. He made 4 of 7 from 3-point range and 8 of 13 from the field.
- The total matched his previous high of 20 points set on February 23, 2022, at the U.S. Naval Academy where he made 7 of 10 shots and 4 of 5 from behind the arc.
- Jaylin Andrews then had the second game with 20 or more points this year for Loyola, tallying 23 in the second contest at Penn State. He went 9 of 16 from the field and logged his 10th career game with 20 or more points.
- Andrews and Jones tied for team- and game-high honors in Loyola's third game, scoring 18 points each.
Faure Rounding Into Form
- Alonso Faure did not play in the Greyhounds' preseason scrimmage or exhibition due to an injury, and he played just nine minutes in the opener against DePaul before a hand injury forced him out for the second half and the following game at Penn State.
- He has come back strong, however, averaging 13.7 points in the Greyhounds' last three games.
- The native of Alicante, Spain, scored eight in 19 minutes versus Brown and then had a career-best 18 points – making 8 of 11 shots – and three steals in 20 minutes versus Washington College.
- He then saw 26 minutes of action against Clemson and went 6 of 9 from the field to score a game-high 15 points while leading Loyola with six rebounds.
- Faure is shooting a team-best 59.3 percent from the field in his first four games this year, making 16 of 27 shots. Entering this season, he was shooting 50.7 percent in his career after putting up nearly identical numbers of 34 of 67 (.5074) in 2020-2021 and 35 of 69 (.5072) last year.
Big On The Boards
- Golden Dike finished the DePaul leading all players with 11 rebounds, six coming on the offensive glass. The game was the seventh of his career with 10 or more rebounds, and he finished a point shy of his fifth career double-double.
- Dike is now in 26th place all-time at the school with 474 in his career.
First Start
- Isaiah Alexander got the first start of his collegiate career on November 17 against Washington College, and he made good with 12 points and eight rebounds in a team-high 23 minutes.
- Alexander has averaged 17.7 minutes through four games and is scoring 6.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
Rotation Minutes
- Several other players got significant playing time November 17 against the Division III Shoremen.
- Tyson Commander got the most-extended playing time of his young career, making three 3-pointers and 8 of 10 free throws en route to 17 points. Markese Redding had career-highs of six points and five rebounds in 13 minutes, and Garrett Brennan saw his first collegiate playing time, after missing the first three games, and scored nine. Samuel Gibbs had three points and two assists in 14 minutes, and Daraun Gray played a career-high nine minutes.
- No Loyola player saw more than 23 minutes of action in the game, and 12 played at least nine.
Taking Advantage Of Time
- Chris Kuzemka missed two-thirds of his freshman season with an ankle injury suffered during the preseason, but he came back to average 7.8 minutes in 11 outings late in the year.
- Monday night at DePaul, he had his most productive game, statistically speaking, scoring seven to go with four rebounds in nearly 13 minutes of action. The 2021 Virginia Class 6A State Player of the Year set a career-high in both points and rebounds against the Blue Demons.
- He followed that with six points and four boards at Penn State. Against Washington College, he had four assists and three steals. In five games this year, Kuzemka has a 3.5:1 assist:turnover ratio.
Chart Climbers
- Jaylin Andrews and Kenneth Jones both took advantage of their fifth years of eligibility, and they are continuing to climb the Loyola career-record charts.
- Andrews is now 34th in points (1,096), tied for 14th in 3-pointers made (114) and ninth in steals (144).
- Jones is eighth in 3-pointers made (150), 12th in assists (312) and 16th in steals (115).
Looking Back
- Loyola finished the 2021-2022 season with a 14-16 record, finishing sixth in the Patriot League standings with an 8-10 record. The sixth-place finish was the Greyhounds' highest since joining the conference for the 2013-14 season.
- The Greyhounds opened the year with a 1-4 record through November 17, but they then won four in a row and 10 of 12 games through the middle of January to get to 11-6 after a 69-57 win at Lehigh.
- Cam Spencer led Loyola and the Patriot League with an 18.9 points per game scoring average, while Jaylin Andrews joined him to form the Patriot League's top-scoring duo by averaging 13.7.
- Kenneth Jones led the conference in assists (139) and assists per game (4.6), posting eight games of seven or more assists during the season.
- Loyola was second in the conference in scoring defense, holding opponents to 65.7 points per game during the year. It led the Patriot League in steals per game with 7.9 as three of the top four players in the conference were Greyhounds (Cam Spencer, 2.1; Jaylin Andrews, 1.4; Kenneth Jones, 1.3).
Business Suits Required
- Three Greyhounds – Jaylin Andrews, Kenneth Jones and Markese Redding – returned to the Loyola roster this season as graduate students. All three are completing classes in the fall and spring semesters to earn their M.B.A. degrees.
Scorers Under Hardy
- Loyola has had the total points scored leader in the Patriot League fourth year in a row since Head Coach Tavaras Hardy came to the Evergreen campus for the 2018-19 season.
- Andrew Kostecka led the conference in points scored during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, as did Santi Aldama during 2019-20.
- Last year, Cam Spencer leads all Patriot League players with 566 points.
Guardian of the Game
- Tavaras Hardy was named the recipient of the 2022 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Guardian of the Game Award for Inclusion, honoring Hardy and the Greyhounds' commitment to building a program that embodies all cultures and backgrounds.
- Hardy formed a coaching staff that includes the only female assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level, a female director of operations and previously a former European coach.
- The Greyhounds have also recruited student-athletes from diverse backgrounds, including from four other countries.
Dishing
- Kenneth Jones led the Patriot League with 4.6 assists per game, and last season, he had eight games with seven or more assists, the first eight of his career. Loyola was third in the conference with 15.0 assists per game. Its 449 assists last season ranked sixth most in school history.
- As a team, the Greyhounds recorded 20 or more assists five times last season (24 versus Elizabethtown, 22 against Chicago State, 21 at St. Bonaventure, 20 at Army West Point and 21 versus Holy Cross). Loyola was 51st nationally in assists per game.
- Per KenPom.com, the Greyhounds dished out assists on 59.5 percent of their made baskets, the 24th-highest percentage in NCAA Division I last year.
- In Tavaras Hardy's four-plus years as Loyola's head coach, the Greyhounds have 17 games with 20 or more assists. In the prior eight years, they had just three such games.
Stepping Into A Leading Role
- Jaylin Andrews was the Greyhounds' top returning scorer last year, after averaging 11.6 points per game as a junior in the shortened 2020-2021 season, and he showed his ability to step into a leading role during Loyola's 2021-2022 opener at North Carolina. Andrews started his senior year with a team-high 17 points, knocking down 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range.
- Andrews then blew up for a career-high 30 points on November 12 against South Carolina State, going 11 of 15 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The 30 points exceeded his previous career-best of 25 points from January 2020 against American.
- He finished the 2021-22 season ranked ninth in the Patriot League in points per game at 13.7, while he also averaged 1.4 steals and 4.1 rebounds per game.
- Andrews became the 39th player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career when on February 16, 2022, at Lafayette, his 104th career game.
- Andrews continued his climb as a consistent scorer and rebounder for the Greyhounds during the 2020-2021 season. He went for 13 points twice during the first two games of the year before breaking out for 22 on January 24 against American.
- He averaged 14.3 points during that year's Patriot League Championships, scoring 17 in the quarterfinal at Navy and 20 in the title game at Colgate. Overall, Andrews wrapped up his junior campaign by averaging 11.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the 17 contests.
- Through 113 career games, of which he has started 90, Andrews is averaging 9.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
On The Right Track
- Kenneth Jones was a consistent member of the Greyhounds' rotation throughout the first three years of his career, averaging 20.8 minutes over 76 games heading into his senior season. In 2021-22, however, Jones stepped into the role of a full-time starter and saw his minutes, and production, soar.
- He averaged 33.3 minutes per game, while producing 8.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists per contest, all career-highs. He had a 2.21:1 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks third in the Patriot League and is a career-high, as well. His 4.6 assists were 58th in NCAA Division I.
- His 139 assists were 10th in school single-season history.
- Jones averaged 4.6 assists in 18 Patriot League regular-season games last year, and his total of 83 dimes were 14 more than any other player in conference play.
- This season, Jones started with a 20-point outing at DePaul, matching his career-high set late in 2021-2022.
- Over his career, Jones has played in 111 games, starting 45, and averages 7.0 points and 2.8 assists per game.
Glass Ceiling Shattered
- When Corin 'Tiny' Adams is in her third year on the Loyola bench as an assistant coach after joining the Greyhounds staff in October 2020.
- The all-time leading scorer in Morgan State women's basketball history is the sixth woman to serve as an assistant coach in NCAA Division I history, and she is currently the only woman in the position.
At The Next Level
- Former Loyola standout Santi Aldama has made a considerable impact in his second NBA season. Aldama, who played for the Greyhounds from 2018-2020, earning 2019 Patriot League All-Rookie honors and then 2020 All-Patriot League First Team recognition, was a first-round pick of the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2021 NBA Draft.
- After seeing action in 32 games a rookie, Aldama stepped into Memphis' starting lineup early this year at the four spot and is averaging 9.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.0 blocked shots per game for the Grizzlies through 18 games.
Up Next
- The winner of the Loyola-Southern game will face the winner of Louisiana Monroe and Omaha at 12:30 p.m. (CST) on Saturday, November 26, while the two games' losers will square off that morning at 10 a.m. (CST).
