Jan. 10, 2002

Los Angeles, Calif. -- Loyola Marymount University men's basketball Head Coach Steve Aggers will be the featured guest on an ESPN.com chat session at 10 a.m. (PST), Tuesday, January 15, 2002. Aggers, who is in his second season with the Lions, will join ESPN.com to answer questions and discuss the turn-around of the LMU program to a contender in the West Coast Conference.

To ask questions in advance and to join the chat session, go to:

ESPN.com's Chat Room

Aggers is "Restoring the Roar" in the tradition-rich program at LMU. His first season was a success, leading the Lions to a seven-game turn-around, the fifth best in school history and second best by a rookie coach. His efforts earned him WCC Coach of the Year honors by CollegeInsider.com. The 2001-02 campaign has continued the improvement with the Lions, as they just finished the best non-conference campaign in seven years.

During the stretch of wins, Aggers has led the Lions to the most lopsided wins against a Division I opponent with the 18-point win over Sacramento State and against any division opponent with the 26-point win against Occidental. With the early-season success, LMU has taken hold of second year Head Coach Steve Aggers' 'Team First' approach. Since he became the Lions' 22nd head coach in April 2000, Aggers has taken the program from an RPI ranking of #314 and improved it to a ranking of #76, which they earned in the middle of the Lions' three-game win streak from Dec. 2 through Dec. 8, 2001.

The fast start also has the Lions sitting among the top three of the West Coast Conference. The rise has been in part to the Lions hot shooting. Heading into conference play, the Lions ranked #2 in shooting at 46.1 percent (just four-tenths of a percent behind Gonzaga) and #1 in free throw shooting at 78.5 percent (which is ranked fifth in the nation, behind Tulsa, BYU, Siena and Oregon) in the West Coast Conference.

Aggers "Team First" approach brought the crowds back to Gersten Pavilion, increasing the Lions attendance to more than 1,500 a game for the first time since 1996. This season attendance is up, averaging more than 1,800 heading into conference action.

Aggers came from Eastern Washington University where he had a phenomenal five-year run, guiding the Eagles to its first Big Sky Conference title in school history. Aggers was named Big Sky Coach of the Year and the National Association of Basketball Coaches' District 13 Coach of the Year. The winner of more Big Sky Conference games than any other coach in Eastern Washington University history, Aggers led the Eagles to 32 conference wins in the past four seasons. Since joining the Big Sky in 1984, EWU had won only 34 conference games combined. Aggers took the Eagle basketball program to new levels, as the team rose from a power ranking of No. 298 to No. 106 in 1999-2000.

Aggers entered the 2001-2002 season with a mark of 323-289 mark, and he currently sits at 330-296 with a 7-7 record this 2001-02 season. At LMU is has a record of 16-26. He returns to the West Coast Conference where he served as an assistant with Pepperdine for four years (1990-1994). He has been coaching on the collegiate level for 28 years.

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