Nov. 20, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

The phrase "thrown into the fire" might be an understatement for the Loyola Marymount men's basketball program and its roster of eight newcomers as they finally return to Gersten Pavilion for their home opener. After playing three games in three days, playing less than 18 hours in between games at one point, the Lions will now get to open their home slate on Friday, Nov. 21 against the ninth-ranked team in the nation, Notre Dame. The game will tip at 7:00 p.m. It will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Prime Ticket and on radio at KXLU 88.9 FM. Both video and audio streaming will also be on www.LMULions.com.

LOSS OF A LEGEND
Pete Newell, the Hall of Fame basketball coach and 1940 alum of LMU (then known as Loyola) who won an NCAA championship and Olympic gold medal and later tutored some of the game's greatest big men, died Monday. He was 93. Newell coached for 14 years at San Francisco, Michigan State and California before doctors advised him to give it up because of the emotional toll. His final coaching job came in the 1960 Olympics, when he took a U.S. team led by Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and Jerry Lucas to a gold medal in Rome. Newell ended his coaching career in the Olympics, when the U.S. team won every game by at least 24 points. Newell later returned to prominence with his famous "big men" camps. He instructed some of the game's greatest stars, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Shaquille O'Neal and Ralph Sampson. Services for Newell will be announced later in the week. The Lions will observe a moment of silence for the hall of famer prior to the start of the game against Notre Dame.

SELLOUT
For the first time in program history Loyola Marymount will play their home opener in front of a sellout as the Lions welcome eighth-ranked Notre Dame to Gersten Pavilion on Friday, Nov. 21. It will be just the third non-conference game in team history that will be a sellout. With the sellout, special parking arrangements have been made for game day. Fans are asked to not park in the local residential areas for all games at LMU. All general parking lots (Lot A, Lot D, Lot L, Lots P2-3 - see map) on campus will be open for game day parking. Those coming to the game are asked to enter the LMU campus from the main gates on LMU Drive off Lincoln Blvd. For the sellout, LMU will have shuttles running from the parking structure at University Hall (Lots P2-3) to Gersten Pavilion starting at 5 p.m. The sellout is the first since the Lions hosted fifth-ranked Gonzaga on Feb. 18, 2006 and joins Oklahoma and UC Santa Barbara as the only sellouts against a non-conference foe in the 29 years of Gersten Pavilion. In the second game of the 1989-90 season, the Lions had their first-ever sellout against a non-WCC foe when they drew a capacity crowd of 4,156 in a 104-101 win over UC Santa Barbara on Dec. 9, 1989. Then on Dec. 23 the Lions drew a standing room only crowd of 4,210 as the Lions fell to ranked Oklahoma 136-121.

INSIDE THE LIONS
This is the home debut of a Lion roster that is playing the 2008-09 season with just 10 scholarship student-athletes, including six 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 started small against Wisconsin-Milwaukee's guard heavy line-up in their first game but stayed consistent the final two games with a line-up that included four of those new players and a sophomore. In the three games this season, the four newcomers of freshman Ashley Hamilton, freshman Kevin Young, freshman Jarred DuBois and sophomore transfer Vernon Teel have started all three games. Senior Corey Counts started the first game while sophomore Tim Diederichs started the other two. Hamilton, Young, DuBois and Teel have combined to play in just 12 NCAA Division I basketball games while the fourh-year Counts and Diederichs have started 57 combined games.

THE TEEL DEAL
Sophomore Vernon Teel was named to the World Vision Classic All-Tournament team this past weekend after an impressive opening act for the Lions. The native of Jamica Queens, New York, averaged 19.3 points and 9.3 rebounds in the three games in Ames, Iowa. He finished with 58 points in the tournament, going for 23 points, six rebounds and three assists against UC Davis; 17 points, 13 rebounds and three assists against Iowa State; and putting in 18 points with nine rebounds and two assists in his debut against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

CHARITY STRIPE
In three games, the Lions have averaged 53.7 points per game but it hasn't been due to the lack of agressive play. The Lions have gone to the free throw line 64 times in three games this season, hitting 41 (64.1 percent). They are averaging 21.3 attempts per game and Vernon Teel has led, going to the free throw line 39 times, an average of 13 times per game. Last season, only five players on the Lions' entire roster finished the entire yeaer with more than 39 free throw attempts. In 1988-89, Hank Gathers had 315 attempts in 31 games, an average of just more than 10 per contest to set the all-time single season record.

INSIDE THE GAME
While the Lions are in the first year of transformation under new Head Coach Bill Bayno, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in a different place, ranked ninth in the nation and with thoughts of a run to the final four. They are built for the run, starting with All-American and reigning Big East Player of the Year, Luke Harangody. The junior scored 30 points with 14 rebounds in their warm-up win against USC Upstate, 94-58. He is supported with a distributor in Tory Jackson (8 assists in the opener) and several shooters, including Kyle Mcalarney (10 points, two 3-pointers) and Luke Zeller (18 points, 4 3-pointers). This will be the fifth meeting between the two programs, the second at Gersten Pavilion.

TAKING ON THE RANKED
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.

WELCOME TO LMU, BCS - AGAIN
For the second straight season in non-conference play the Lions will take on a team from a "BCS" school. A year ago Mississippi State was the 22nd team from the conferences of the Big East, Big 12, SEC, ACC and Big 10 to visit the Lions. Notre Dame, who plays in the Big East in basketball, becomes the fifth team from the "BCS" schools to make a repeat visit to Gersten Pavilion. The USC Trojans have played LMU 14 times and Arizona State four times on the Lions' home floor. Notre Dame has made one other appearance in Gersten Pavilion, defeating the Lions in overtime, 76-73, on Dec. 5, 1994. All together, the Lions have a record of 14-27 at home against "BCS" foes.

AGAINST THE BIG EAST
This will be the 29th meeting for the Lions against teams in the current Big East. Surprisingly, the Lions have faced all but two from the powerhouse conference, Connecticut and West Virginia. This will be the fifth meeting against Notre Dame. All time the Lions are 7-21 (.250) against the Big East.

FSN PRIME TICKET
The LMU-Notre Dame game will be the first of eight games for the Lions on FSN Prime Ticket and FSN West. The Lions and FSN Prime Ticket have agreed to do three of LMU's home games this season, starting with Friday's game. The other two will be the Parent Weekend game against Santa Clara on Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m., and the final home game of the season against Saint Mary's on Feb. 28 at 5:00 p.m. Additional games that FSN Prime Ticket/FSN West will carry for the Lions will be Dec. 2 at Arizona (FSN-PT/6:00 p.m.), Dec. 17 at UCLA (FSN-PT/8:00 p.m.), Jan. 1 at Seattle (FSN-PT/7:30 p.m.), Jan. 24 vs. Gonzaga (FSN-PT/5:00 p.m.) and Feb. 19 at Gonzaga (FSN-West/6:00 p.m.).

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 Notre Dame game with 34 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 62 games as a Lion, hitting 55 three-pointers with 131 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. He continues to be slowed with an injured shoulder and has averaged 14.7 minutes per game, down nearly 13 minutes from his average as a freshman. 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.

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. Well, in the first game with the three-point line pushed back a foot they had their second, snapping a streak of 375 games snapped. The Lions went 0-for-8 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, marking just the second time they went without a three. 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. In the 649 games the Lions have played since the three-point line was instituted, the Lions have hit three-pointers in 647 of them. The Lions have never gone without a three-pointer in WCC play.

MAKING THEM COUNTS
Senior Corey Counts made sure the Lions didn't stay without a three-pointer for long, going 5-for-6 from long range against Iowa State. It was the second time in his career he has hit five in a game, hitting the mark while going for 21 points against Gonzaga in the WCC opener a year ago. Counts finished the weekend 6-for-10 from the three-point line and is now 55-for-140 (39.3 percent) in his career. He entered the season 11th in career three-point percentage at 37.7 percent and is currently ranked seventh.

MORE ON THE 3
The move of the three-point line did not seem to bother LMU's opponents at the world Vision Classic as they went 34-for-83 (41 percent) with all three opponents hitting more three-pointers in a single game than they did in any one contest the year prior. Wisconsin-Milwaukee hit 14 while Iowa State and UC Davis hit 10 each.

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 hosts men's and women's basketball and volleyball. 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.