It is finally over. The seventh month wait is coming to an end. A major transformation to the Loyola Marymount men's basketball program was set in motion on April 9 with the hiring of Bill Bayno as the Lions' 24th head coach. With Bayno came a whole new look to the Lions' program over the months that followed and the first real view of the new-look Lions has finally arrived. The 2008-09 regular season will finally get started as the Lions travel to the World Vision Classic hosted by Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, on Friday, Nov. 14-16. LMU will open with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Friday at 2:30 p.m. (PT) The game can be heard on KXLU 88.9 FM and on LMULions.com.

INSIDE THE LIONS
This is the season debut of a Lion roster that will play the 2008-09 season with just 10 scholarship student-athletes, including five new to a Lion uniform. Junior transfer Larry Davis (Seton Hall) and sophomore Drew Viney (Oregon) will redshirt the season due to transfer rules while redshirt sophomore Terron Sutton is out for the year due to a torn ACL suffered in practice this October. LMU will likely start a line-up that will include four of those new players. In the only exhibition this season, the Lions started freshman Ashley Hamilton, freshman Kevin Young, freshman Jarred DuBois, sophomore transfer Vernon Teel and senior Marko Deric. Hamilton, Young, DuBois and Teel have combined to play in no NCAA Division I basketball games while the fourh-year Deric has played in 82.

TAKE A GOOD LOOK
The Australian forward Marko Deric is the only senior on the Lions' roster who came to the Lions on a scholarship. He enters the opener with 82 games as a Lion, averaging 4.2 per games in his first three seasons. Fellow senior guards Corey Counts and Chris Kanne are former walk-ons who earned scholarships this summer from new Head Coach Bill Bayno. Kanne is a fifth-year senior who earned his Business degree in May and is now in graduate school at LMU for Business Law. Kanne turned heads this offseason with his shooting and is expected to play more as he enters the season with 32 career games in three seasons. Counts had a breakout year last season, starting 22 games, leading the team with 88 assists while hitting on 39 percent from the three-point line (37-for-95). Counts has played 59 games as a Lion, hitting 49 three-pointers with 128 assists. Take a good look at seniors this season as Counts, Kanne and Deric will be the only three seniors in the LMU men's basketball program for the next two years as the roster has only one junior and that is redshirt Larry Davis.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
While very young, the Lions do have experience on their roster. In addition to Marko Deric, Chris Kanne and Corey Counts, the Lions also return Tim Diederichs and Brad Sweezy. The two sophomores combined to start 40 games a year ago, including all 31 by Diederichs. The true sophomore from Seattle, Wash., became the first freshman in program history to start every game. He is the team's top returning scorer from a year ago after going for 255 points and 106 rebounds to rank 10th and eighth, respectively, in the freshman record books. As for the redshirt sophomore Sweezy, he started nine games and played in 29 of the 31 games a year ago and has become known for his defense and intensity, frustrating his opponent.

INSIDE THE GAME
This will be the first-ever meeting between LMU and Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who is from the Horizon League. The UMW Panthers will take the floor in the 2008-09 season with two starters and a total of seven letterwinners returning from last season. The returning starters are Ricky Franklin and Deonte Roberts, while the other returnees include Anthony Hill, Kaylan Anderson, Deion James, Charlie Swiggett and Jason Averkamp. Both returning starters have honors under their belts from a season ago, as Franklin was a third-team all-state selection by Inside Wisconsin Sports while Roberts earned a spot on the Horizon League All-Newcomer Team. Senior Avery Smith is also back and averaged 11 points in their two exhibitions but won't play in UWM's first two games of the season. The Panthers played two exhibitions, defeating Milwaukee School of Engineering 68-43 and Parkside 75-59.

AGAINST THE HORIZON
This will be the 12th meeting for the Lions against a team from the Horizon League. The last time LMU faced a team from the league was in 2002 when the Lions defeated Loyola (Ill.) 85-79 in the debut of their last deep freshman class with Brandon Worthy on Nov. 22, 2002. Seven of the 11 meetings have come against Loyola.

WORLD VISION CLASSIC
The World Vision Classic will run from Nov. 14-16 at the Hilton Coliseum on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The field consists of the Lions, the host Cyclones, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and UC Davis. The teams will all play each other in a round robin. On Friday, the Lions will open with Milwaukee at 4:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. in Los Angeles) followed by Iowa State and UC Davis at 7 p.m. (5 p.m.) On Saturday, LMU will take on the host Cyclones at 12:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m.) followed by Milwaukee facing UC Davis at 3 p.m. (1 p.m.). The final day on Sunday will have LMU taking on UC Davis at 4:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m.) and Iowa State taking on Milwaukee at 7 p.m. (5 p.m.) This will be the first time the Lions will have played all three of these opponents in program history.

BEHIND THE CLASSIC
The World Vision Classic is one of eight men's collegiate basketball tournaments organized by Basketball Travelers Inc., a company established in 1985 to arrange domestic and international basketball competition. The Lions played in one of their other tournaments, the BTI Invitational at New Mexico a year ago and went 1-2 in the tournament. Over 200 collegiate and high school teams participate annually in tours and tournaments organized by Basketball Travelers, Inc. In addition, the organize NCAA foreign exhibition games as well as international Olympic-qualifying tournaments for national teams. As basketball's popularity and skill level continues to grow around the world, Basketball Travelers, Inc. seeks not only to contribute to the sport's development, but also to facilitate goodwill and understanding between nations and peoples of all backgrounds.

A SNEAK PEAK
The first glimpse into the new look Loyola Marymount men's basketball program took place in the Lions' only exhibition game on Nov. 3 at Gersten Pavilion had the traditional ups and downs of a team that started four players who were not in a Lion uniform a year ago, three of which are true freshman. In the end the Lions lone exhibition game was a positive as the Lions pulled off an 81-51 victory over Hope International. The Lions had four players in double figures, and were led by sophomore transfer Vernon Teel with 19 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals in 29 minutes. Freshman Kevin Young had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds in 32 minutes. Also with double figures was senior Chris Kanne and freshman LaRon Armstead with 11 points each. The Lions turned a one-point lead, 23-22, with five minutes to play in the first half into a 13-point lead thanks to a 12-0 run over four minutes to take a 36-25 lead into halftime. LMU then started the second half on an 11-0 run to extend the lead to 47-25 with 17:49 to play on a Brad Sweezy lay-up. The Lions outscored the Royals 24-3 over a span of 7:11 to pull away.

SEASON OPENERS
The Lions are 35-18 in season openers since it joined the West Coast Conference in 1955-56. LMU had a winning streak of five straight in openers snapped last year with a 74-61 setback at UC Irvine. It was only the second time in seven years the Lions opened the season away from Gersten Pavilion.

LIONS DEBUT
Since William Donovan took over the LMU program in 1953-54 and ushered the LMU men's basketball program into the West Coast Conference two years later, LMU head coaches are 8-4 in their debut with the Lions. Of the eight wins, six came at home as first-year LMU head coach Bill Bayno makes his debut on a neutral site on Nov. 14 against Milwaukee. Two other coaches opened at neutral sites, Jay Hillock at the Maui Invitational in 1990 and Dave Benaderet at the Bronco Classic at Cal Poly Pomona. In fact one of the debuts came against Bayno when he was at UNLV. The Runnin' Rebels under Bayno defeat the Lions in Charles Bradley's debut in 1997.

AROUND THE CORNER
Following the three games at the World Vision Classic, the Lions will return to Gersten Pavilion for the home debut of the new-look Lions and Head Coach Bill Bayno on Friday, Nov. 21 against Notre Dame at 7 p.m. The Fighting Irish enter the 2008-09 season ranked ninth in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. The game against ranked Notre Dame will be the 90th meeting all-time for LMU against a ranked opponent. The last win for the Lions against a ranked team was in the 1990 NCAA Tournament when LMU defeated No. 23 Alabama 62-60 to advanced to the Elite Eight. The game against the Irish will be the 30th time the Lions have taken on a ranked team since defeating the Crimson Tide on March 23, 1990. The game against Notre Dame and LMU will be aired on Fox Sports Prime Ticket.

HISTORICAL THREE
Since the three-point field goal was introduced in the 1986-87 season, LMU has had just one game where they have not had a three-pointer. In the 645 games the Lions have played since the three-point line was instituted, the Lions have hit three-pointers in 644 of them. The only "miss" came on Dec. 19, 1995 when the Lions went 0-for-6 in an 82-80 win over Hawaii. That game snapped a 271 consecutive three-pointer streak for the Lions. They currently have made a three-pointer in 374 straight games heading into the WCC tournament. The Lions have never gone without a three-pointer in WCC play.

LIONS IN OT
LMU is 28-42 in overtime games with the first overtime game coming in the 1926-27 season against California Christian College, a 16-14 win for the Lions. As for double overtime, the Lions improved to 9-1 with the win over Boise State in 2006, winning their sixth straight. The longest game in LMU history was a five-overtime affair against Fresno State in 1957. The Lions lost 92-90.

GERSTEN PAVILION
Gersten Pavilion, entering its 28th year as the host of LMU's indoor athletic events, is the centerpiece of the LMU athletic complex. Opening in 1981, Gersten Pavilion has become one of the toughest places to play in the West Coast Conference and one of the premier athletic facilities in Southern California. While hosting men's and women's basketball and volleyball, the Pavilion has seen its share of memorable moments in the history of collegiate athletics. One of the more memorable moments came as the Lions posted a 16-game winning streak that spanned three seasons from Feb. 25, 1987 through Nov. 28, 1988. In that span, the Lions posted a 14-0 mark at home in the 1987-88 season. On Feb. 20, 1988, during the winning streak, Gersten set the attendance record with a standing-room-only crowd of 4,525 in a 142-127 win over rival Pepperdine. The Pavilion seats 4,156. The Pavilion has also hosted the highest scoring basketball game in NCAA Division I history when Loyola Marymount defeated U.S. International 181-150 on Jan. 31, 1989. In addition, it served as host to the WCC Tournament in 1990 and 1997. The Pavilion opened its doors on Jan. 15, 1981 with a men's basketball 83-68 loss to Santa Clara. The Lions' first win came eight days later with a 66-62 victory against St. Mary's. To this day the Pavilion keeps bringing them in as the 2005-06 season saw the third largest crowd in school history with 4,482 saw the Lions take on fifth-ranked Gonzaga in a game televised by ABC.

FOR THE FANS
Fans of LMU Men's Basketball have a special opportunity to own a piece of the program while helping the scholarship fund of LMU Athletics with the LionsFund Official Online Auction. Several items geared around the start of the basketball season are only offered at LMULions.com and give fans a chance at special access to the LMU Lions. Now through Nov. 24 fans can bid on two men's basketball experiences - Guest Radio Announcer of LMU's Homecoming against Wyoming and "Coach of the Game" for LMU vs. Gonzaga. Fans can also bid on three special items - the original Hank's House Banner, a 2008-09 LMU Women's Basketball Autographed Basketball, and a 2008-09 LMU Men's Basketball Autographed Basketball. Items are online now, go to LMULions.com to place a bid today.

NEWEST LIONS
Loyola Marymount men's basketball has three scholarships to give for the 2009-10 season, and have officially signed one so far:
• Terrell Vinson (St. Frances Academy - Baltimore Academy): "We are very excited to have Terrell joining our program," said Bayno. "He is a very athletic, talented player who will have the potential to do special things at LMU and in college basketball. We are hopeful to add more to this incoming class and along with them, Terrell and our current roster, we are very excited for the future." The 6-6 power forward Vinson has been rated as high as the 46th-rated player in the nation by "ESPNU 100" and was named a preseason high school All-American entering his senior season and was first-team All-MET after averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds for Montrose Christian High School in Rockville, Mary., a a junior. He will play his senior season at Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore. He was named All-Maryland First-Team by the Maryland Gazette and was chosen to play for the AAU Under-17 program, Team Reebok USA. He went on to play for 10 days in Italy with some of the top high school All-Americans in the country. He was also one of 25 players named to the Under-18 US National Team tryouts to compete in Argentina this past summer.