Quick Hits About The Hounds
- Loyola University Maryland men's basketball returns to Reitz Arena on Tuesday, November 26, after a three-game swing away from home.
- The Greyhounds will host Virginia Military Institute in a 7 p.m. tipoff.
- Loyola has eight players averaging five or more points per game through the year's first five contests. Five are at 7.0 or higher.
- The Greyhounds have thus far had more rebounds than their opponents in three of their five games, averaging 36.8 rebounds to 35.4. Milos Ilic leads the team with 9.3 rebounds per game.
- 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 are 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 sixth of 11 non-conference contests for the Greyhounds this season before they start their 18-game non-conference slate.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-VMI game will stream live on ESPN+.
Series History Versus VMI
- Loyola and VMI will meet for the fourth time in series history on Tuesday night in the first game of a current home-and-home series that will see the Greyhounds return to Lexington, Virginia, next season.
- The Greyhounds have won the previous three meetings, the last coming during the 2005-06 season when Loyola scored an 87-79 victory at VMI on December 29, 2005. Andre Collins made 15 of 27 shots from the field and scored 34 points, while Hassan Fofana added 21 and seven rebounds.
- That game was the second time in a calendar year the teams played after they met during the 2004-05 season on January 5, 2005, in Baltimore. Brad Farrell scored 21 points and blocked four shots for the Greyhounds, and Josko Alujevic tipped in a rebound for the game-winning basket with six seconds left in a 70-69 Loyola win.
- The teams first played on January 19, 1974, in Lexington, a game the Greyhounds won, 71-69.
Switching Sides
- One member of the Loyola basketball program has been a part of two previous Greyhounds-Keydets games but on the other sideline.
- John Hoffman, the Greyhounds' assistant athletic director for sports performance and head men's basketball athletic trainer for the last nine-plus years, was the VMI athletic trainer for both of the games played in 2005.
About The Keydets
- VMI enters Tuesday night's game with a 4-3 record after opening the season 3-0 following wins against Washington College (Maryland), Bellarmine and Christendom College. The Keydets are 1-3 in their last four, beating Charleston Southern but falling to Tennessee Tech, Pittsburgh and Davidson.
- Augustinas Kiudulas leads VMI in scoring (16.5) and rebounding (7.0). TJ Johnson is second on the team with a 15.4 points per game average.
Last Time Out
- A 7-2 Loyola run trimmed Boston College's lead to five with less than 13 minutes to play in regulation on Tuesday night, but the Eagles outscored the Greyhounds 30-14 over the remainder of the game for an 82-61 non-conference victory in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
- Jordan Stiemke started the Greyhounds' run with a 3-pointer at 14:02, and Milos Ilic converted in the paint less than a minute later after an Eagles basket. Jacob Theodosiou got the Greyhounds within five, 52-47, on a drive to the basket with 12:48 left in the game.
- Boston College, however, responded with the next seven points, and a Roger McFarlane three at 10:27 put the Eagles up 12.
- Tyson Commander had a three on the offensive end for Loyola (2-3) on the possession after McFarlane's, but Chad Vennins scored with 9:38 to go, and Boston College led by 10 or more the rest of the way.
- Theodosiou made two free throws at 4:22, and Loyola's deficit was 12 points, 71-59, but Venning scored in the paint, Chas Kelley III hit a three, and the Eagles advantage was 17.
- Ilic logged his second double-double of the season, scoring 12 points and grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds; he also had a team-high four assists and two blocked shots. He was matched for team-high honors in scoring by Commander and Stiemke who both scored 12, too. Theodosiou gave Loyola four players in double figures with 11.
Spreading The Scoring
D Against Threes
- Loyola enters the game at Boston College leading the Patriot League in 3-point percentage defense. Opponents have made just 30 of 102 (.294) from behind the arc through five games.
- Only one Loyola opponent has shot better than 31 percent in a game this year. Boston College made 11 of 21 3-pointers (.524), but the previous best by a Loyola opponent was VCU which shot 8 of 26 (.308).
Pounding The Boards
- Milos Ilic leads the Patriot League in rebounding through games of November 24 with 9.4 per game. His rebounding average is also 38th in NCAA Division I, and he ranks in the top 75 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounds. He ranks 59th in offensive boards per game (3.2) and 71st in defensive rebounds (6.2.).
Contributions In Many Areas
- Jacob Theodosiou has led Loyola in minutes played through four games as the only player on the roster averaging more than 24 minutes per contest.
- He is fourth on the team in scoring with 7.5 points per game, but he has found many ways to contribute other than just scoring.
- Theodosiou is second on the team in rebounding with 20 total and an average of 5.0 per game, while he is second with 1.2 steals per game.
Efficient With More Shots
- Milos Ilic has taken 10 or more shots from the field four times this year and eight times in his career.
- 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 and at Boston College. In the eight games he has taken 10 or more shots, Ilic is 44 of 90 (.489).
- In only two of those games – a December 2023 contest at La Salle and this year's VCU game – did Ilic not shoot 50 percent or better from the field; he was 7 of 23 shooting in those games.
- Ilic recorded his third career double-double on November 19 at Boston College, scoring 12 points while grabbing a career-best 14 rebounds.
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.
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. They also saw time together against Lancaster Bible and NJIT, but Veljko missed the VCU and Boston College games with an injury.
Milos In The Middle
- A solid player his first two seasons on the court for the Greyhounds, Milos Ilic has taken 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 five games, he is averaging 11.8 points and 9.4 rebounds. He is shooting 56.8 percent from 2-point range this year.
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' top scorers. Through five contests, he is second on the team with 11.0 points per game; he has a team-best eight 3-pointers made.
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.
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 were 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.
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.
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, made his NBA debut on November 20 in a Grizzlies game against Philadelphia with two assists, a block and a rebound in nine minutes. He scored his first NBA basket on November 23... off an Aldama assist.
- 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 will break from competition for the Thanksgiving holiday before its next game. The Greyhounds will play at Coppin State on December 2 at 7 p.m.
