Dec. 11, 2002
Loyola Marymount University men's basketball coach Steve Aggers was featured on a recent column by COLLEGEHOOPSNET.com. Here is some of what he had to say:
Coach Steve Aggers is heading into his 3rd year as the head coach of the Lions, and his 29thth season overall in college basketball. We'd like to thank Coach Aggers for taking the time to take part in our Coaches Survey Series.
(CHN) How satisfied are you with the 'state of the program'? What do you thinkis needed for your program to the reach the next level?
We took over this program in April two years ago when they were coming off a 2-26 season in which they let the former coaching staff go. We were forced to play our first season with 7 scholarship players and 3 walk-ons. But that team overachieved and finished tied for 5th in our league with U. of San Francisco. We spent a lot of time mending fences and building bridges. Changing attitudes and establishing our culture and value system. Year two saw us make big strides in the rebuilding process with good early season road wins against Long Beach State and at Texas A & M - We then came home to beat eventual Big West champ and NCAA tournament team U.C. Santa Barbara--lost by two at home to UNLV and after leading 18th ranked USC by 9 at the half we got beat and seemed to lose our confidence and never really regained our form. West Coast Conference action was tough but we did graduate all 7 of our seniors and had a good recruiting class. Rebuilding a program from the ground up takes time, patience, and involves up and down efforts where some days things look good and others it is tough. Nobody said it would be easy - if it were then there would never be any triumphs.
As we begin year 3 we are excited about our young team - we recruited 5 good freshmen, brought in two more freshmen walk-ons that will redshirt and bring back a good big man who redshirted last year. The other side of that coin is we only have two seniors - so we will have more growing pains and as our team gains experience we will be fine.
For more on what coach Aggers had to say, go to collegehoopsnet.com.
