Quick Hits About The Hounds
- The Loyola University Maryland men's basketball continues its three-game swing away from home on Saturday, November 16, with a 7 p.m. game in Richmond at VCU.
- Loyola has seven players who are averaging seven or more points per game through the year's first three contests. Three are above 10 points per game.
- The Greyhounds have thus far had more rebounds and a higher shooting percentage than their opponents in each of their three games, averaging 30.7 rebounds to 28.7 and outshooting foes, .440 to .402.
- Josh Loeffler is on the bench as the Greyhounds' head coach after taking the position as Loyola's 22nd all-time head coach in March 2024.
- He is joined on the bench by four assistant coaches: Matt Blue, Kevin Farrell, Ricky Hernandez and Khyle Diaz.
- The Greyhounds will be a new-look team in more ways than just its head coach for the 2024-25 season. Of the 6,475 total minutes played by Loyola players last year, only 53 percent of those return on the roster.
- The game is the fourth of 11 non-conference contests for the Greyhounds this season before they start their 18-game non-conference slate.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-VCU game will stream live on ESPN+, and it will be simulcast on television in the Mid-Atlantic region on MASN.
Series History Versus VCU
- Loyola and VCU will meet for the second time in five years and the second time in series history when the teams take the floor on Saturday.
- The Greyhounds first played at the Siegel Center on December 29, 2019, a game that VCU won, 85-51.
- Loyola's Andrew Kostecka scored a game-high 30 points in that contest, but the Rams outscored the Greyhounds by 25 in the second half.
About The Rams
- VCU is undefeated in its first three games this season with wins over Bellarmine, Boston College and Merrimack.
- The Rams have outscored opponents 75.7 to 54.0 (+21.7) in the three games, shooting 44.8 percent while holding opponents to 35.0 from the field.
- A pair of VCU players – Joe Bamisile (18.7) and Phillip Russell (18.0) – are averaging 18 or more points per game with both players shooting north of 55 percent from the field. Max Shulga gives the Rams a third player averaging in double figures with 10.7 per outing. Jack Clark leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per game, while Shugla checks in with 6.7.
Last Time Out
- Loyola held host NJIT to just 24 second-half points on Tuesday, and the Greyhounds won their first road game of the season, 68-50, over the Highlanders.
- Jordan Stiemke scored a season-high 15 points, and Milos Ilic had 11 of his 13 points in the second half for Loyola.
- NJIT cut Loyola's 29-26 halftime lead to one with a Tim Moore dunk 23 seconds into the second half, but Ilic came back with a three just 11 ticks of the clock later. Ilic then had the next four Loyola points, wrapped around four from NJIT, and the lead was four, 36-32, with 17:00 left in regulation.
- His twin brother, Veljko Ilic grabbed an offensive board and scored at 15:33 to make it 40-34, Loyola, , and then Stiemke knocked down threes on consecutive possessions, the second off a Jacob Theodosiou transition assist with 13:55 on the clock, and Loyola was up 12, 46-34.
- After a NJIT timeout, Tariq Francis made a three for the Highlanders at 12:29, but Chris Kuzemka answered in kind for Loyola, and Braeden Speed had a transition layup to push the lead to 14, 51-37, with 11:37 left.
- Less than six minutes later, Loyola pushed the advantage to 21 points with a Milos Ilic layup from a David Brown III assist to drive the score to 61-40 at 5:44. The Greyhounds were up by 20 or more for the rest of the game.
- Theodosiou grabbed a career-high eight rebounds to lead all players and help Loyola to a 39-31 lead on the glass.
Spreading The Scoring
Rookie Honors
- Braeden Speed earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors after averaging 12.0 points, 3.0 steals and 2.5 assists in two games during the season's first week.
- His 24 points are the most by a Loyola player in their first two games with the program since Andre Walker scored 17 at Texas Tech and 11 versus Cornell in the first two games of his career in November 2014. Walker would go on to earn All-Patriot League honors three times.
- Speed scored 13 in the opener against Columbia, tallying his first points five seconds into his collegiate career after grabbing the loose ball off the tip and getting to the rim for two.
- He followed that performance with 11 points and five steals in less than 17 minutes Saturday versus Lancaster Bible.
Five Above Ten
- Five Loyola players scored in double figures in the season opener against Columbia, marking the first time in 117 games.
- The last time the Greyhounds did so was in a February 19, 2020, game against Army West Point which was an 81-77 victory at home. In that game, Andrew Kostecka scored 17, Isaiah Hart had 16, Santi Aldama scored 13, KaVaughn Scott added 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Cam Spencer scored 11.
Twenty-Seven From Two Debuts
- Jacob Theodosiou and Braeden Speed made their Loyola debuts on opening night, and the backcourt pair combined to score 27 points.
- Theodosiou, a sophomore transfer from Wyoming, and Speed, a freshman from Phoenix, Arizona, opened in the starting five for the Greyhounds. Speed led the Greyhounds at halftime with 11 points and finished with 13, while Theodosiou split his 14 points evenly over the two halves.
- The two combined to shoot 11 of 21 from the field and 3 of 7 from 3-point range.
Efficient With More Shots
- Tuesday's game against NJIT was the second time this season, and the sixth time in his career, that Milos Ilic has taken more than 10 shots from the field.
- The senior from Serbia went 7 of 10 from the field against Columbia in the season opener, and he was then 6 of 12 versus NJIT on November 12. In the six games he has taken 10 or more shots, Ilic is 35 of 65 (.538).
- In only one of those games, a December 2023 contest at La Salle, did Ilic not shoot 50 percent or better from the field; he was 4 of 10 shooting in that game.
- Ilic also had the second double-double of his career with 18 points and 11 rebounds in the opener against the Lions. He had his first with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the aforementioned game against La Salle. It was Ilic's fifth career game with 10 or more rebounds, the other four coming last season.
Continuing To Board
- By outrebounding Columbia (34-31), Lancaster Bible (48-24) and NJIT (39-31) in the year's first three games, Loyola continued a strength from the 2023-24 season.
- During the 2023-24 season, Loyola pulled down 34.3 rebounds to its opponents 32.8.
Addition From Injury
- While the Greyhounds lost a significant number of minutes played from last year's roster, they do return a considerable group that was out last season due to injury.
- Chris Kuzemka was averaging 6.7 points and shooting 36.7 percent from 3-point range through nine games when a broken hand in the December 6 contest at La Salle forced him to miss the rest of the year.
- A guard, Kuzemka averaged 21.6 minutes per game before his injury and had made one start. His season-high of 15 points came at Columbia, a week before his injury.
- Veljko Ilic missed all of last season and the last chunk of the 2022-23 season with an injury, but his return bolsters the Greyhounds' post play.
- Ilic averaged 13.7 minutes of action in 44 games from 2021-23, scoring 5.2 points and grabbing 3.3 rebounds per game.
- Samuel Gibbs was a rotation player for Loyola in the first five games of the year, averaging 6.6 minutes per, before missing the remainder of the season with an injury. A pair of freshmen, Troy Cicero Jr. and Matt Gray were limited to four games and one game, respectively, last year.
Twins Back Together
- Twins Milos and Veljko Ilic are rarely apart off the court, but they have been separated in playing time since the 2021-22 season.
- They played together in 26 games that year before a knee injury cut Milos Ilic's season short during the second half of Patriot League play.
- He would miss the entirety of the 2022-23 season while rehabilitating the leg, and Veljko Ilic missed the first 13 games of that year with an off-season injury. He came back to the lineup to play in 14 games during 2022-23 before injuring his knee and missing the remainder of the year and all of 2023-24.
- Milos Ilic was on the court last year, save for two games, but the November 4 season-opener was the first time they played in a regular-season game together in 993 days since February 16, 2022, the date of Milos' injury.
Milos In The Middle
- A solid player his first two seasons on the court for the Greyhounds, Milos Ilic is expected to take an elevated role in the offense this season as the team's top returning scorer.
- Last year, Ilic averaged 7.6 points per game on just under seven shots per game. He shot 48.1 percent from the field in the process, a number that was identical in non-conference play versus Patriot League games.
- Ilic had his first career double-double in December 2023 at La Salle and finished the year third on the team with 5.1 rebounds per game.
- Through three games, he is averaging 12.3 points and 8.3 rebounds. He is shooting 53.3 percent from the field, 60 percent from 2-point land.
Stiemke Spark
- Jordan Stiemke drew his first starting assignment for Loyola on February 3, 2024, against Holy Cross and scored five points in 17 minutes of action. He then upped his playing time to 25 minutes on February 7 at American, converting a layup and free throw for the game-winning points while finishing with six points and six rebounds.
- He then saw 32 minutes of action against Colgate on February 10, scoring 12 points for career highs in both categories. The freshman from Bel Air, Maryland, came up with another career-high four days later at Lafayette, going for 18 points in 38 minutes of action.
- Stiemke had his best statistical game on February 25 at Boston University, scoring 23 points on 8 of 18 shooting and 5 of 10 from the floor.
- The native of Bel Air, Maryland, was Loyola's second-leading scorer after moving into the starting rotation for the last 10 games of 2023-24, averaging 10.3 points. Prior to that, he had scored just 34 points in 15 games.
- This season, Stiemke has continued to be one of the Greyhounds' best scorers. Through three contests, he is tied for the team lead with 12.3 points per game and is the only player to score in double figures in all three. He has a team-best seven 3-pointers made.
New Faces
- Five new players dot the roster for the Greyhounds, four freshmen and a sophomore transfer.
- Jacob Theodosiou joined the program after spending his first collegiate season at Wyoming where he played in 10 games for the Cowboys. Theodosiou is a native of Ontario, Canada, but he played in high school at Western Reserve Academy in Ohio and helped his school win the Ohio Prep Conference Championship as a senior when he averaged 18 points and six rebounds in 2022-23.
- Braeden Speed comes to Loyola from Brophy Prep in Phoenix, Arizona, he earned All-State Second Team honors and helped the Broncos to the Class 6A (largest group) State Championship Game in 2022-23.
- Greg Guidinger led Central York High School to the 2024 Pennsylvania 6A (largest group) State Championship and was named Mr. PA Basketball a year ago.
- Goap Kodi joins the Greyhounds out of the DMV area where he was a starting post player for Georgetown Prep's 2023-24 team that went 22-6 overall.
- Ben Menker joined the team as a walk-on from Mason, Ohio, where he earned All-GMC honors at Mason High School.
At The Next Level
- As a school of less than 4,000 undergraduate students, Loyola University Maryland boasted three former student-athletes on NBA rosters as players and one as a head coach last month on opening night. Two members of the men's basketball incoming class of 2019, Santi Aldama (SAHN-tee ALL-dah-muh) and Cam Spencer are on the Memphis Grizzlies' roster, and four-time men's lacrosse All-American is a member of the Golden State Warriors.
- Michael Malone, a 1994 graduate of Loyola, was a four-year letterwinner as a point guard for the Greyhounds. He is now the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.
- Aldama was a first-round draft pick in the 2021 NBA Draft after leading the Patriot League in scoring and rebounding in 2020-21, and Cam Spencer led the conference in scoring the following season.
- Aldama has played in 176 NBA games through November 1 and is averaging 13.8 points and 7.0 rebounds through six outings this season.
- He starred for his native Spain this summer, earning TISSOT Most Outstanding Player honors at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament before averaging 17.7 points and 9.3 rebounds in three games during the Olympics.
- Cam Spencer, who was a three-year starter for the Greyhounds from 2019-22, and won an NCAA Championship at Connecticut in 2023-24, has not yet played in an NBA game this season.
- Pat Spencer holds the Loyola men's lacrosse records for career assists and points and was the 2019 NCAA Division I Player of the Year for the Greyhounds. He switched to basketball after graduating from Loyola and has seen action in six career games with the Warriors.
- Malone had 282 assists in 108 career games with the Greyhounds from 1989-93. He is in his 12th season as an NBA head coach and guided the Nuggets to the 2023 NBA Championship.
Up Next
- Loyola wraps up its three-game road swing on Tuesday, November 19, with a 6 p.m. game at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
- The Greyhounds return to Reitz Arena on Tuesday, November 26, for a home game against VMI at 7 p.m.
