Quick Hits About The Hounds
- The Loyola University Maryland men's basketball team wraps up the 2024-25 regular-season on Saturday, March 1, with a 4 p.m. game at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, at Alumni Hall.
- With a win against the Midshipmen, or a Bucknell victory Saturday at Holy Cross, the Greyhounds will be the No. 8 seed in the Patriot League Championships and host a first-round game Tuesday, March 4, at 7 p.m.
- Milos Ilic is one of 40 players nationally (who qualify for the national rankings) and average 14.0 or more points and 7.5 or more rebounds per game this season. Ilic enters the final conference game with marks of 14.3 and 7.5.
- Jacob Theodosiou leads the Patriot League in steals per game at 1.8 and total steals with 50.
- Loyola is third in the League in rebounding margin at +0.5 per game. Milos Ilic leads the Greyhounds with 7.5 rebounds per game and four other players – Jordan Stiemke, Veljko Ilic, Braeden Speed and Jacob Theodosiou – average 3.4 or more 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.
Watch The Action
- The Loyola-Navy game will stream live on ESPN+.
Progress Being Made
- Loyola picked up its seventh win of the season in its 15th game, matching the Greyhounds' win total from the 2023-24 season (32 total games). Loyola then eclipsed last year's total in its 17th game this season. Through 28 games, the Greyhounds have made a four-win improvement since last year.
- In Josh Loeffler's first year as Loyola's head coach, the Greyhounds have seen improvements in just about every statistical category from last season, notably: field-goal percentage (.433 from .417), scoring offense (68.9, 64.0) and scoring margin (-1.7, -7.9).
Magic Numbers
- Scoring defense has been a staple of the Greyhounds 11 wins this season, games in which they have yielded just 62.1 points per game compared to a 24-game average of 70.5.
- Loyola has gone 9-2 in games when it has held its opponents to 69 or fewer points with the outliers being Army West Point's 64-60 win on February 12 and Boston University's win on February 19.
Tops In Swipes
- Loyola leads the Patriot League in steals per game (7.5) and Jacob Theodosiou is tied for first individually (1.8).
- Theodosiou has averaged 2. steals per game in conference contests after averaging 1.36 in non-conference outings.
- He leads the Patriot League in games with two or more steals with 16 this season, per stathead.com.
Playing Them Close
- Nine of the Greyhounds' 17 Patriot League games this season have been decided by six or fewer points, and Loyola has gone 3-6 in those outings.
Stiemke Of Swats
- Jordan Stiemke had a modest eight blocked shots through the season's first 16 games, but he's been one of the Patriot League's top shot blockers since then.
- Over the last 12 games, Stiemke has 20 blocked shots. He has six games with multiple blocks during the stretch and has moved into fifth place during conference play with 1.5 blocks per game.
- Stiemke is fifth in the League with 1.0 overall this season (28 in 28 games).
- The Maryland native is tied for ninth in NCAA Division I in total blocks (28) by players 6-foot-5 or shorter. He tops the Patriot League with that filter.
Series History Versus Navy
- Loyola and Navy will meet for the 50th time in series history, and the 26th time since the Greyhounds joined the Patriot League in 2013-14, when the teams take the floor on Saturday.
- Navy holds a 36-13 lead in the all-time series after winning two of three meetings a year ago, but the Greyhounds picked up a victory in the first meeting of this year.
- Braeden Speed grabbed an offensive rebound and scored in the paint with 3.1 seconds left on January 11, 2025, in Reitz Arena to lift the Loyola team to a 75-74 victory.
- Jacob Theodosiou scored what was at the time a career-high 27 points, making 6 of 11 from 3-point range. Veljko Ilic added 18 points, making 7 of 9 from the field.
- The teams first met during the 1910-11 season making Navy the first-ever current Patriot League team that Loyola faced.
Last Time Out
- Bucknell made two free throws with 18 seconds left Wednesday night, and the Bison held off two Loyola 3-point attempts to take a 70-67 Patriot League win in Reitz Arena. Achile Spadone made the free throws to give Bucknell a three-point lead, and Loyola had one more possession to tie and force overtime.
- The first of two threes went off the rim and out of bounds, last touched by Bucknell. The Greyhounds had six seconds to shoot a final shot, but it was blocked by Noah Williamson to seal the Bison win.
- Loyola built a 24-9 lead 8:36 into the game when Veljko Ilic grabbed an offensive rebound and dished to David Brown III for a layup that gave the Greyhounds a 15-point lead.
- Bucknell went on a 10-0 run after that, drawing within five with 8:00 to go in the first half on an Elvin Edmonds IV layup, but Loyola stretched the lead back to 15, 38-23, at 4:09 on a Jordan Stiemke three that followed his steal on the defensive end. Loyola scored just two more in the first half, and Bucknell was within three, 40-37, at halftime.
- The second half then featured seven lead changes and five tie scores as neither team led by more than four points. Milos Ilic, who had a game-high 21 points on 9 of 15 from the field, scored with 3:02 remaining in regulation, and it was a tie game at 64-64.
- Edmonds gave Bucknell the lead on the next Bison possession, and a minute later, Williamson scored off the glass to push the Bison advantage to three, 68-65, with 1:59 on the clock.
- Jacob Theodosiou drove the left side and finished at the rim to pull Loyola within a point, 68-67, at 1:38. Both teams had a pair of empty possessions after that before Spadone's two free throws were the final points.
- Theodosiou scored 17 points, and Stiemke added 10 for Loyola. All five Bucknell starters scored in double figures, led by Williamson's 15.
Theodosiou Has Turned It Up
- Jacob Theodosiou finished Loyola's 11-game non-conference schedule with 128 points, an average of 11.6 per game, but his scoring average is now more than a point higher (13.0) thanks to averaging 13.8 per game in Patriot League contests.
- He is shooting 3-pointers at a better clip, .352 to 318, and his non-scoring numbers have risen, too. Theodosiou is averaging 4.8 rebounds per game in Patriot League games (3.1 non-conference).
- He likes seeing the maroon of Colgate, in particular. The Waterloo, Ontario, native scored 32 and 22 points in two games against the Raiders, making six threes in both outings. Prior to his game with 32 at Colgate, his career-high game January 11 against Navy when he scored 27. In the two games against the Raiders and the one versus Navy, he averaged 27.0 points per game and made six 3-pointers in each contest.
Fewer Turnovers
- The Greyhounds' increase in assists per game during conference play (13.9 from 13.1) has also come with a better assist-to-turnover ratio in League contests with a plus 1.2 -to-1.0 rate
- Loyola has reduced its turnovers per game to 10.7 in its 17 conference outings compared to 13.7 out of the league.
Scoring Twins
- Milos and Veljko Ilic are one of 10 sets of twins playing for the same team in NCAA Division I Men's Basketball this year, and they rank third among twins in scoring. They lead the country's twins in rebounding with a combined 12.3 per game.
- Elon's TJ and TK Simpkins lead the group with a combined 30.6 points per game, while Utah's Gabe and Mason Madsen have combined for 23.2.
- The Ilic brothers are averaging a combined 22.4 points per game.
Focal Point
- Milos Ilic has become the focal point of the Greyhounds' offense this year, and the 6-foot-10 post from Gornji Milanovic, Serbia has responded with his best start to a season in four years at Loyola. Ilic has led the Greyhounds with 14.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
- Ilic's 14.3 points per game are more than six higher than the 7.6 points per game last year.
- Per Ken Pom, Ilic is taking 29.3 percent of Loyola's shots when he's on the court this season, up from 17.2 percent a year ago and 16.9 as a freshman in 2021-22. His Ken Pom usage rate is 30.12percent this year, a rate that ranks in the top-50 nationally. In Patriot League games, he is third in the conference in percentage of shots taken when he's on the floor (30.6), and he is third in usage rate (31.0).
Shooting On Point
- Milos Ilic's rise to the top of the Greyhounds' production has been fueled by many things. This year, Ilic has shot 52.1 percent from the field, up from 48.1 in 2023-24 and 40.1 as a freshman in 2021-22.
- That percentage is in large part to the fact he has played more than 85 percent of his minutes at the five position for the Greyhounds this year after spending almost all of his time on the court as a four in his first two seasons.
- As a result, Ilic has taken 82.5 percent of his shots this year as two-pointers, and he has made those at a clip of 55.2 percent (145 of 260) through 28 games, a 3-percent improvement over his first two years.
- He has attempted only 55 shots from 3-point range this year (17.5 percent of his shots attempted). As a freshman in 2021-22, he took 71 3-pointers before his season-ending injury which comprised 51.8 percent of his 137 attempts. Last year, he took threes 23.4 percent of the time on 183 shots.
- Ilic has been taking threes at a slightly higher rate during Patriot League contests, averaging 2.25 per game compared to 1.5 out of conference. He has made 38.5 percent of his shots from behind the arc in the 17 League games.
Dishing, Too
- In addition to leading the team in scoring and rebounding, Milos Ilic leads the Greyhounds in assists with 81, an average of 2.9 per game. He is the only Patriot League player to lead his team in all three categories.
- He ranks 10th in the nation in assists per game for players 6-foot-10 or taller (per stathead.com), and he is one of three players nationally of that height category to lead his team in rebounds, assists and points per game, joining College of Charleston's Ante Brzovic and Davidson's Reed Bailey.
Veljko In Victories
- Veljko Ilic has been key in Loyola's wins this year, and his statistics reflect it. The senior post player has averaged 10.5 points in the 10 wins he has played in – he missed the VMI game with an injury – a more than five-point increase over the 6.5 he's averaged in 16 losses.
- Ilic has shot 65.6 percent from the field in the wins (42 of 64). He ranks sixth in the Patriot League at 53.6 percent.
Bench Scorer
- Jordan Stiemke has been the top scorer off the bench in the Patriot League this season, averaging 12.0 points per game through 28 Loyola contests to lead conference players who have started 10 or fewer games.
- Nationally, he is ranked 32nd in points per game among NCAA Division I players who have played in 24 or more games and have 10 or fewer starts per stathead.com.
- The native of Bel Air, Maryland, was Loyola's second-leading scorer in the last 10 games of his freshman season (2023-24), averaging 10.3 points. Prior to that, he had scored just 34 points in 15 games.
- Spanning the last two seasons, Stiemke is averaging 11.9 points over the Greyhounds' last 38 games.
Contributions In Many Areas
- Jacob Theodosiou leads the team in minutes played (30.6) through 28 games as a first-year player on the Greyhounds' roster.
- The sophomore transfer scored a then-career-high 23 points at Coppin State, making 4 of 8 3-pointers with three in the final 11 minutes of the comeback win. He had another 20-plus point game at DePaul when he made 9 of 10 shots to score 22. The native of Waterloo, Ontario, then put up a new high of 27 points in a one-point win over Navy, going 6 of 11 from 3-point range and 7 of 8 at the free-throw line. His 22-point game at Bucknell marked his fourth with 20 or more this year, and he set a new career-best with 32 on February 8 at Colgate.
- He is second on the team in scoring (13.0), first in steals (1.8) and third in rebounds (4.1) and assists (2.4). Theodosiou is first in the conference in steals per game and 11th in points.
- Theodosiou opened his Loyola career with 14 points against Columbia, but then he was averaging just 8.2 through six games.
- Since then, he leads the team with 13.9 points (292 total) in the last 21 games dating to his 23-point effort on December 2 against Coppin State. During the 20 games, a big difference has been his ability to get to the free-throw line. He has averaged 5.3 attempts from the stripe per game in those contests, up from 1.7 in the year's first six games.
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. He has played in 220 NBA games through February 24 and is averaging 12.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in 50 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 for the Grizzlies
- 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 19 games this year for Golden State.
- 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.
