Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland will open its 112th season of men's basketball on Monday, November 7, 2022 when the Greyhounds play at DePaul University.
- Game time is set for 6:45 p.m. (CST) from WinTrust Arena in Chicago.
- 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.
- Loyola finished 2021-2022 ranked first in the conference and 68th nationally in turnover margin at +1.9.
- Tavaras Hardy is in his fourth 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
- Monday's game will stream in its entirety on the Fox Sports website and app, which is available to fans with a cable subscription or other streaming access.
- Live look-ins to the game will be shown throughout the night on FS1.
Series History Versus DePaul
- Loyola and DePaul will meet for the first time when the teams take the floor on Monday.
- DePaul is the only team of the 11 currently in the Big East Conference that Loyola has not played. The Greyhounds have are 22-109 all-time against the other 10 members of the conference with the vast majority of those games coming against three schools: Georgetown (46, 10-36), Seton Hall (36, 5-31) and Villanova (23, 4-19). Loyola's last game against a Big East team was in the 2019 season-opener when it lost 88-53 at Marquette.
Windy City Return
- The trip to Chicago marks a homecoming for Loyola Head Coach Tavaras Hardy.
- The fifth-year Greyhounds boss grew up in nearby Joliet, Illinois, where he graduated from Providence Catholic High School before commencing an All-Big Ten career at Northwestern University.
- After playing professionally in Europe and beginning a career in finance at JP Morgan Chase and Company, Hardy joined the Wildcats' coaching staff where he worked on the sidelines form 2007-14.
Exhibition Win
- Loyola finished with 14 steals and held NCAA Division III team Stevenson to 23.1 percent from the field on November 1, en route to a 75-38 exhibition win over the Mustangs.
- Deon Perry led the Greyhounds with 16 points, while David Brown III had 15, and Kenneth Jones added 12. That trio also combined for 12 of the 14 steals the Greyhounds had, each coming away with four.Jaylin Andrews scored nine, and Isaiah Alexander added six off the bench. Jones and Markese Redding led all players with eight rebounds.
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.
Crossing The Plateau
- Jaylin Andrews became the 39th player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career when on February 16, 2022, at Lafayette. The senior did so in his 104th career game and he enters the 2022-23 season averaging 9.6 points over his career.
Dishing
- Kenneth Jones led the Patriot League with 4.6 assists per game, and last season, Jones 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 this year.
- In Tavaras Hardy's four-plus years as Loyola's head coach, the Greyhounds have 16 games with 20 or more assists. In the prior eight years, they had just three such games.
- Cam Spencer and Jones both had seven assists December 1 in the Greyhounds' win over Chicago State, the first time two Loyola players have reached that total in the same game in at least a decade.
- Jones tallied a career-best nine assists in the Patriot League opener at Army West Point, finishing one away from his first career double-double. He then had the same total on January 13 against Lafayette.
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 int he Patriot League in points per game at 13.7, while he also averaged 1.4 steals and 4.1 rebounds per 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 the 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 108 career games, of which he has started 85, Andrews is averaging 9.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
Shooting The Difference
- Shooting success played a pivotal role in Loyola's wins and losses last season, bared out by statistics.
- The Greyhounds shot 48.8 percent from the field in their 14 victories, 37.5 percent from 3-point range. Meanwhile, they shot 40.0 percent, overall, in 16 losses, while their 3-point average dips to 28.1 percent.
- Individually, Loyola had better balance in its scoring during the wins where Cam Spencer and Jaylin Andrews ere averaging 19.3 and 16.6 points per game, respectively, in the victories, while Kenneth Jones was at 9.9 points. In the 17 losses, Spencer averaged 17.8 points, Andrews 10.9 and no other player more than 7.8 per game.
Don't Forget The Defense
- The Greyhounds' defense put in the work, too, during the wins. Loyola limited opponents to 40.6 percent from the field in its 14 wins, 32.3 percent from 3-point range. Meanwhile, teams have shot 46.3 percent in the 16 Loyola losses, 35.2 percent from behind the arc.
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.
- Over his career, Jones has played in 106 games, starting 40, and averages 6.8 points and 2.8 assists per game. His 296 career assists are 13th in school history.
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 has stepped into Memphis' starting lineup this year at the four spot and is averaging 9.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots per game for the Grizzlies through eight games.
Up Next
- Loyola opens the regular-season with two games on the road, traveling first to the Windy City to play at DePaul on Monday, November 7. They then head to Penn State for a Thursday, November 10 game.
