Loyola (MD) Basketball

One year after winning the MAAC tournament and going to the NCAA tournament, Loyola-MD is choosing to move to the Patriot League, according to the Patriot League's official website.

The Greyhounds had their first 20-win season as a Division I school last year, going 24-9, 13-5 in the MAAC. They finished No. 2 in the MAAC and then defeated Niagara, Siena and Fairfield on their way to a championship before losing as a No. 15 seed to Ohio State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Jimmy Patsos, Loyola's head coach, built this program up from nothing. When he arrived, the Greyhounds had been to one NCAA tournament in their history and were the worst team in the MAAC.

They won only six games in his first season, but since then Patsos has had four winning seasons.

Loyola is a clear favorite in the MAAC this season, along with Manhattan and Iona. The Greyhounds return their top three scorers and four starters, including All-MAAC First Team selection Erik Etherly, who averaged 13.7 points and 7.5 rebounds.

Unlike Old Dominion and Georgia State in the CAA, which were ruled ineligible for their conference's tournament because of their moves to the Sun Belt next season, the Greyhounds will be eligible for the MAAC tournament and the MAAC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, according to a tweet by Jon Rothstein.

The Patriot League has been an eight-team league since the 2001-02 season, and the members had not changed since American joined that year.

Now, the conference adds a pair of teams for next in Loyola and Boston University, which announced its move back in June, bumping the number of competitors up to 10.

The MAAC has traditionally been a better conference than the Patriot League. Last year, even with the MAAC having a very mediocre year and the Patriot League having a pair of top mid-majors in Lehigh and Bucknell, the MAAC finished four spots ahead of the Patriot League in conference RPI. The last time the Patriot League had the better RPI was in the 2006-07 season.

Loyola's move leaves the MAAC in an unexpected situation.

There has already been speculation that Siena and Fairfield are thinking of moving to a new conference, most likely either the CAA or the Atlantic 10. But so far there is no official news on whether such a move is in either team's near future.

The MAAC has been a 10-team conference since the 1997-98 season, and that number is cut to nine starting next season.

The MAAC should start looking quickly for a team that could replace Loyola. Possible teams to look at are Fordham, which was an inaugural member of the conference and then moved to the Atlantic 10, and Wagner, Quinnipiac and LIU-Brooklyn, all from the NEC.

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It’s been over 24 hours, and I’m still in a state of disbelief. The Loyola Greyhounds—my Loyola Greyhounds—are going to the NCAA Tournament.

This is something I never thought I would ever see. Jimmy Patsos had the unenviable task of inheriting a program in disarray. Patsos arrived on the scene in 2004, one season after the Greyhound program finished an embarrassing 1-27.

The basketball team had been so bad that from 1999 to 2005 they only managed to win 29 game, which is only five more than this year’s club has won so far.

As fate would have it, 2004 was my freshman year at Loyola University Maryland College, and I had heard all the horror stories about the basketball team and overall lack of enthusiasm for the program. Believe me when I tell you, there was something lacking in those early days.

Patsos would try mightily to instill enthusiasm in a stagnant fan base that was apathetic at best. Hell, most time any of us went to a game during that 2004 season was because we had some time to kill on a Saturday afternoon.

Perhaps the biggest attempt was when Patsos had former Notre Dame head coach and current ESPN college basketball analyst Digger Phelps address the fan base early in his first season as head coach. Phelps did his best to get a rise out of us, going so far as to proclaim Loyola as the future “Gonzaga of the East.” Sure, we were all excited—we were freshman, we didn’t know any better.

The first season was tough, no doubt, but there was a certain grittiness about the team under Patsos. The team only won six games that first season, but Charlie Bell lead a much more spirited and focused group on the court.

The program took a gigantic step forward during the 2005 – 2006 season thanks to the diminutive sparkplug, Andre Collins. Collins was a Maryland transfer and immediately became one of the most successful players in school history. He finished his one year at Loyola as the nation’s third leading scorer as well as leading Loyola to its first winning record in years.

Gerald Brown would become another high-profile transfer to become the man for the Greyhounds. Easily one of the most well rounded players on the team, Brown teamed with Mo Sullivan and led the team to two hugely successful seasons, including a dramatic and heartbreaking run in the MAAC Tournament in 2008, which ended with a loss to eventual champ and NCAA Tournament darling Sienna.

Many thought that the 2007-2008 season would be a building block for future Loyola teams, yet it never happened. Three ho-hum seasons with early exits in the MAAC Tournament lead to speculation that Patsos might be on the hot seat.

Fortunately, the team got off to a quick start and never looked back this season. Shane Howard, Erik Etherly and Dylon Cormier led a well balance squad that took the MAAC by storm this season. Loyola finished with the most wins in the school’s history since they transitioned to a Division I school, and were able to breeze through the MAAC Tournament until they played Fairfield in the finals.

Sure, the game was sloppy, and it wasn’t what one would call fundamentally sound. But just as Patsos’s team proved back in 2004, they would not be afraid to get down and dirty to get a win.

Everything came full circle on Monday night, when years of effort and sacrifice finally paid off. All the hard work of Charlie Bell, Andre Collins and Gerald Brown was rewarded when Loyola did the unthinkable and won the MAAC.

Gonzaga of the East?

Nah. I prefer Loyola of the East.

Ever heard of Loyola University Maryland or Jimmy Patsos before Monday night?

I would not be surprised if you had not—the only reason I had is because I have religiously followed the MAAC for many seasons.

Patsos, the head coach at Loyola, took over the men's basketball program in 2004 after the Greyhounds went 1-27 under Coach Scott Hicks in 2003-04. Patsos had previously been an assistant under Gary Williams at the University of Maryland from 1991-2004.

Patsos' first season at Loyola was rough, as his squad finished 6-22. Since then, there has been steady improvement. He reeled off three straight winning seasons, and then this year, he finally put together a team of which the Loyola program can truly be proud.

On Monday night, Loyola defeated Fairfield in the MAAC championship game, 48-44, to earn the conference's automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

This is just the second time that the Greyhounds will play in the Big Dance. (The only other time they went was in 1994, when they upset No. 2 seed Manhattan in the MAAC championship. But Loyola ultimately could not do any damage in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 81-55.)

On Monday, the Greyhounds relinquished an early 16-9 lead and went into halftime trailing, 30-26. They quickly surged ahead of the Stags in the second half, but, after Desmond Wade's three-pointer, Fairfield trailed by just three in the final two minutes.

Down the stretch, Loyola made multiple defensive stops before senior Shane Walker's free throw with 2.8 seconds left iced the game by giving the Greyhounds a 48-44 lead.

This win adds one more accomplishment to a Loyola season that has been full of success.

A few weeks ago, the Greyhounds defeated Boston University in a BracketBuster game to mark its first 20-win season since 1948. Then, with a win at Manhattan in the final game of the regular season, they finished in second place in the MAAC, the Greyhounds' best finish since the 1996-97 season.

Maybe Loyola can add one more accomplishment to its list with a monster upset next week. The Greyhounds will most likely be either a No. 14 or No. 15 seed.

Also, make sure you are in front of your television when Loyola plays next week. Regardless of whether or not the Greyhounds can put up a fight, Patsos' sideline antics are guaranteed to give a good show.

Jimmy Patsos is a coach who is not intimidated by anybody.

He is not afraid of hollering at referees, his players, or his players' parents. In fact, sitting in the stands with the fans does not daunt Loyola Maryland's head coach—yes, he took a seat in the second row and watched his Greyhounds fall 82-72 to Cornell on Nov. 18.

Tonight's game at Manhattan wasn't even 30 seconds old, but Jimmy Patsos' voice was already hoarse—considering the way he coaches a game, it is hard to believe that his vocal chords are still functioning. 

Loyola's star player, sophomore transfer Jamal Barney, scored eight straight points in the beginning of the first half, but he followed the streak with a fall-away three-pointer from the wing, which prompted Patsos to shout, "You disgust me! You're disgusting!"

Play stopped in the ensuing seconds and Patsos pulled Barney out of the game, grabbed his jersey, sat him down, and scolded him for taking one bad shot. Barney was clearly embarrassed.

The star player was punished for five minutes. The Greyhounds scored one basket in that span and Barney hit a trey as soon as he re-entered the game. Hmmm...Logic, Jimmy Patsos? (His substitution strategies deserve a separate article, but to get straight to the point, he changes his lineup every two minutes and does not let his team get into a rhythm.)

Barney's theme song at Loyola must be, "I hate you, you hate me." Unfortunately, he has to deal with Patsos for two more years. He already transferred from Providence, so the only way he can play college basketball and receive a college education is to remain at Loyola.

Well, I shouldn't be speaking for Jamal Barney.

In Barney's absence, Loyola struggled; however, they were lucky that Manhattan could not score from anywhere on the floor, including the foul line where they shot 13-28. 

Patsos yelled at Barney throughout the game, but the sophomore was not the only player who took a scolding from his coach. A different player was rebuked during every timeout—on multiple occasions half the team was chastised. 

Patsos' method is not like every other coach's. He doesn't just single a player out. He singles them out and then gets right in their faces and shouts. If you're having trouble picturing this, think about Lou Piniella and an umpire—only, at Loyola, the players are too afraid to shout back. 

This tactic makes fans wonder why anyone would want to commit to play for Patsos—it also makes the players second-guess their choice to sign up.

Get this: A fan sitting near the Loyola bench claims to have heard Patsos shout, "I swear if you f*** this up," as Marquis Sullivan approached the foul line with a chance to ice the game. If the fan could hear it, you better believe that the words reached Sullivan's ears. 

Luckily for the senior, both shots found their way through the rim, so coach Patsos was satisfied (for once). 

I left the game incredulous as to how a player would want to sign up to play for Patsos.

The Associated Press wrote about the incident against Cornell, and said, "[Patsos] contends he's now a changed man who doesn't drink, wears a peace sign on his wrist, and has far more patience with his players."

I refute that statement based on what I witnessed tonight. The only changed aspect of Patsos is his slimmer stomach. That's it. 

Jimmy Patsos first displayed his mental prowess and Zen master abilities in a loss to Cornell in which he climbed into the stands in order to avoid receiving his second technical.

His ingenious game-time decisions were only surpassed by his display of intellectual and introspective prose:

"I really hadn't done anything in the first place to warrant the technical, and there was no warning. But instead of arguing, I just moved to the other side of the bench and had [assistant] Matt Kovarick call the plays."

"I didn't want to get tossed out. I had my hands up in the surrender position."

"I didn't want to hurt the school or the program, but at that point I really didn't know what to do."

"I've lost weight, feel better, and am happy to turn the other cheek."

His divine wisdom on and off the basketball court never seizes to amaze. Patsos has even been dubbed "Leonardo of Hardwood, Shakespeare of Post-game."

Tuesday’s game versus Davidson was no exception, as Patsos decided to double-team the nation’s leading scorer, Stephen Curry, wherever he was standing, regardless of whether Curry possessed the ball.

The brilliant strategy led to Davidson taking full advantage of their 4-on-3 power play en route to a 78-48 thumping of Loyola Maryland. At least that is what occurred to the untrained mind.

Patsos enlightened the naive media members with these nuggets of knowledge and thought provocation:

"I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I'm not some rookie coach. I won a national title as a top assistant coach to Gary Williams. For 13 years I spent on Tobacco Road. I coached a couple of No. 1 picks in the draft. And we scored 48 points. That's the problem that Loyola basketball had today."

"Our goal is to win. We weren't going to win with Curry scoring 35 and making nine assists. Those nine assists are at least 18 more points—that's 53 points. That's a pretty big number."

"We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"

We held him scoreless, or we lost by 30—that is the question.

Jimmy Patsos is far from the conventional college basketball coach.

The combination of standing 6'3" and having a booming voice makes Patsos intimidating to his players, opponents, referees, and fans.

Patsos is college basketball's Rasheed Wallace. If he is on the floor, he is the favorite to pick up a technical foul.

During the course of most Loyola games, Patsos will sweat through his suit as the frown on his face becomes more parabolic.

Earlier in the season, the fifth-year head coach of Loyola Md. chose to sit in the stands instead of being ejected in an 82-72 loss against Cornell. The fan who sat next to Patsos must have been shocked because fans do not attend games to sit next to the head coach of one of the teams.

Fans were even more shocked when they saw Patsos' Greyhounds hold Stephen Curry to zero points last night. No, they did not hurt him—Bruce Bowen is on the Spurs. Curry only sat for eight minutes because of foul trouble, yet he could not get more than three shots—all three shots were misses.

Loyola became the first team to finish a game with the nation's leading scorer's stat line reading the same point total it read at tipoff. As big of a shock as the box score was to the college basketball world, more people were startled at the audacity that Patsos showed as he set up a triangle-and-two defense—the two man defenders were both assigned to Curry.

After a few minutes, Curry realized that the two Greyhounds were not going to let him escape for a shot, so he let his teammates take over as he watched from the corner. Davidson is deep enough that they can beat teams when they are given a four-on-three advantage, so that is what they did.

Despite trailing 39-17 at halftime, Patsos was obdurate and continued to double-team Curry.

It was clear that Patsos didn't care about winning the game, and that bothered the college basketball world. Analysts said that Patsos should have exhorted his players to back off of Curry, so the final score would be respectable.

Patsos, who was a history major at Catholic University, said after the game, "We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. Are they going to remember we held him scoreless or lost by 30?"

Patsos must have been a successful student at Catholic, considering that he brushed up on his history of Stephen Curry enough to know that he had never been held scoreless at the college level.

That line in the quotation from Patsos tells us all about what his intentions were going into the game: Keep Curry's point total at zero.

Even though Patsos succeeded, Curry still leads the nation with 29.2 points per game.

Photo and quotation courtesy of www.sportsline.com

Loyola College suffered a 90-57 loss at Boston College on Monday in the opening round of the NIT Season Tip-Off.  Loyola was out rebounded by a margin of 46-30 and was outplayed in every statistical category by a very young BC team.  BC starts one senior, star guard Tyrese Rice and four sophomores.

Loyola was led in scoring by sophomore guard Jamal Barney, a Providence transfer, who scored 18 points in 23 minutes and grabbed four rebounds.  Junior guard Brett Harvey scored 12 points and sophomore guard Brian Rudolph scored 11 points.  Loyola will need more points and rebounds from its forwards to compete at this level.

Boston College was led by Sophomore forward Joe Trapani, who scored 20 points while grabbing four rebounds.  Senior guard Tyrese Rice had six points and three rebounds.  Sophomore forward Corey Raji had 14 points and nine rebounds.

In the second eastern bracket opener in the NIT, St. John's defeated Cornell 86-75 at St. John's.  Next, Boston College will entertain St. John's at 7:30 tonight on ESPN2.  The winner of that game will be the eastern champion and will move on to Madison Square Garden to play the winner of the North Region.

In the northern bracket, Purdue, ranked numbers 10 and 11 in this week's major polls, defeated Eastern Michigan, 87-58.  Purdue will play Loyola (Il) which defeated Georgia, 74-53.  The winner of that game will play the winner of tonight's game between Boston College and St. John's University.

Two nationally ranked teams advanced in the South Region—Oklahoma ranked number 14 and 12 and Davidson ranked 21 in both major polls.  In the West, Arizona and UAB advanced.  The NIT semi-finals will be held at Madison Square Garden November 26 and the final on November 28. 

Loyola finished off the 2007-08 season with a 65-63 loss to Siena in the semi-finals of the MAAC tournament, which took place in Albany, NY.  Siena went on to win the MAAC Championship. 

The Greyhounds enter the 100^th year of basketball at Loyola, ranked fifth by the coaches in the MAAC preseason poll. 

Lost from that team are three of the starting five: Gerald Brown, Michael Tuck, and Omari Israel.  Also lost from last year’s team are Hasan Fofana, a transfer from Maryland, and Greg Manning, a fan favorite and sharp shooter—now acting as an assistant coach. 

Leaving with last year’s graduating class is the size that helped last year’s team set a school record of 19 wins. 

Even with the loss of big producers from last year, the future looks bright for the Greyhounds.  Key players returning from last year include Brian Rudolph, who was named MAAC Co-Rookie of the year last year and is a preseason Second Team All-MAAC selection.

Marquis Sullivan, who was named MAAC Sixth Man of the Year last season and is a preseason Third Team All-MAAC selection, also returns.Also returning is Brett Harvey, a staple in the starting lineup for the last two years.

Each year Patsos has brought in at least one transfer to help contribute to the team.  This year is no exception with the addition of Jamal Barney.  Barney, another Baltimore native who has returned to his hometown from Providence College, will most likely not replace the potent scorer of Gerald Brown.

But he will certainly be a key starter and contributor.   Barney has three years of eligibility remaining and will be a factor for the team in the future. 

Sophomore Isaac Reid and junior Jawaan Wright should also see significant time and contribute in the frontcourt. 

Jimmy Patsos has also brought in a promising freshman class, with the likes of G Jhared Hall (New Rochelle, NY), F Anthony Winbush (Alexandria, VA), and C/F Josh Wiegand (Bel Air, MD).  All three will probably see minutes this year—as Patsos has shown in the past that he likes to mix up the lineup. 

The projected starting lineup looks to be Rudolph, Harvey, Barney, Reid, and Wright.  Look for Sullivan and Winbush to come off the bench, while also seeing some starts.  With the team losing a lot of size last year, this year’s team will probably look to do a good deal of running while relying on outside shooting and tough defense. 

The season opens with the continuation of the long standing rivalry with Mount St. Mary’s—the 164^th meeting between the two.  Then the Greyhounds head up to Boston College for the first round of the NIT Season tip-off. 

Over the Christmas break they make a trip down to North Carolina to face NC State and Duke, which will provide the team with good experience before they enter conference play.

Reitz Arena has become a home court advantage for the Greyhounds as student support has grown since Patsos arrived on the Evergreen Campus.  Last year they had an impressive 11-2 record in the newly renovated 3,000 seat gym. 

If the students are rowdy again this year they could put up a similar record at home. 

Season Prediction:  17 – 12 (7-4 OOC) (10-8 MAAC)