Nov. 28, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The uphill battle for the Loyola Marymount men's basketball team in the early 2008-09 season keeps is starting to look more like Mount Everest than a hill as they continue their three-game, 8,804-mile road trip to Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday, Nov. 29. The Lions continued to get bad news on the injury front as they travel to game two of the road stint with their active roster trimmed to just seven scholarship players, eight total, as they take on undefeated and Sun Belt favorites UALR at 5:00 p.m. (PT) The game can be heard on KXLU 88.9 FM and online at LMULions.com.
DEPLETED ROSTER
Growing pains have become an understatement for the 2008-09 LMU Men's Basketball team. Already with the absence of head coach Bill Bayno (see note below) due to health issues, LMU's roster, which has six newcomers and just three seniors, has gotten much slimmer. They started the season with just 10 eligible scholarship student-athletes, including five new to a Lion uniform. Junior transfer Larry Davis (Seton Hall) and sophomore Drew Viney (Oregon), who give LMU eight new players total on the roster, 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. The line-up has gotten even slimmer as Tim Diederichs, who has played limited minutes in the first three games, requires surgery on his injured right surgery and will miss the remainder of the season and plans on applying for a medical redshirt. There is more. Leading scorer, rebounder and assist man Vernon Teel broke his right foot against Notre Dame and had surgery Wednesday and will be out four to six weeks. Not done yet. Freshman Ashley Hamilton is the latest to go down with a back injury suffered against Notre Dame. He played against Wagner but it was revealed after that he has a possible stress fracture and will also miss four to six weeks. With the injuries, the Lions are down to eight players, seven who are on scholarship. Two of those seven - seniors Corey Counts and Chris Kanne - earned scholarships this summer after playing as walkons the last three seasons. Current walk-on Griffin Reilly is the eighth active player and is expected to see playing time as the road trip concludes Tuesday at Arizona.
Bill Bayno
Loyola Marymount University Athletics announced on Sunday, Nov. 23, that Bill Bayno is taking a leave of absence, effective immediately, as the head coach of the LMU men's basketball team. Assistant Coach Max Good will serve as acting head coach during Bayno's leave. "Recently, I was diagnosed with a serious medical condition, in part, related to the stress and anxiety of head coaching," says Bayno. "It will require treatment which will force me to take a leave of absence. It is unfortunate and I feel badly for the University, the coaching staff and most of all my players and their families, all of whom I will miss very much. I ask for privacy for myself and my family and I thank you for your prayers and support." "The LMU Family's greatest concerns are for the wellbeing of Bill and the team," said LMU Athletics Director Dr. William Husak. "His health is the most important thing he needs to focus on right now. He has done great things in his brief time at LMU and has earned the love and respect of all. I have asked Max Good to be our acting head coach during this time period and I have great confidence that Max and the rest of the staff will continue the process Bill began. All of us at LMU are concerned for Bill's wellbeing and he and his family are in our thoughts and prayers."
MORE ON THAT YOUTH
Five newcomers on LMU's roster, including four true freshman, have been asked to carry the load for the Lions this season. Sophomore transfer Vernon Teel and freshmen Jarred DuBois, Ashley Hamilton, Kevin Young and LaRon Armstead have combined to play 640 of the 1,000 minutes played in five games this season, good for 64 percent. That number is expected to lower just a tad due to the injuries. DuBois leads the group with 33.4 minutes per game, on pace to snap the record by a freshman set by Forrest McKenzie with 29.8 minutes in 1981. "It is a huge adjustment," said DuBois. "In high school I was lucky to play that much in two games. Isn't a high school game 32 minutes long? It is tough." The group has also combined for 192 of the 266 points (72.1 percent) and 106 of the 169 rebounds (62.7 percent).
RECORD SELLOUT
For the first time in program history Loyola Marymount played their home opener against No. 8 Notre Dame in front of a sellout crowd of 4,534, breaking the all-time Gersten Pavilion record. The record was originally set with 4,525 on Feb. 20, 1988 in a 142-127 win over Pepperdine. It is the 16th sellout in LMU history, just the third in a non-conference game and the first in a home opener. The sellout was 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 GAME
It will be another match-up between polar opposites as the Lions travel to Little Rock, Arkansas to take on UALR. While the Lions have just seven scholarship players, many new to the program, the Trojans are experienced and poised to challenge for the Sun Belt Conference and a trip to the NCAA tournament. They are 4-0 thanks to a buzzer-beater win over Creighton at home Nov. 25, one of the biggest wins in program history. They returned all five starters and nine total letterwinners from a squad that tied for the Sun Belt West Division title and had a 20-11 overall record a year ago. Four players average in double digits, including sophomore Matt Mouzy, the only underclassmen starter, with 15.5 points per game.
MAKING A POINT
Freshman Jarred DuBois is one of the big reasons the Lions defense has fared well so far this season. The true freshman point guard turned heads with his defense against No. 8 Notre Dame, holding first-team All-Big East performer Kyle McAlarney to zero points. The senior McAlarney averaged 15.1 points a year ago and hit 108 three-pointers (hitting 44 percent) and then went on to hit 39 against No. 1 North Carolina a week later. DuBois held him to 0-for-7 from the field and 0-for-4 from long range, forcing him into four turnovers. DuBois added offense to that effort, going for a career best 16 points, hitting 4-of-6 from long range. DuBois is second on the team in scoring at 10.0 points per game and is sixth in the West Coast Conference with an .867 free throw percentage.
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 UALR game with 87 games as a Lion, averaging 4.2 per game in his first three seasons. Fellow senior guards Corey Counts and Chris Kanne are former walk-ons who earned scholarships this summer. 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 UALR game with 37 career games in three-plus 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 64 games as a Lion, hitting 59 three-pointers with 137 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.
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 other "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 653 games the Lions have played since the three-point line was instituted, the Lions have hit three-pointers in 651 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 go long without a three-pointer, 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 is 10-for-20 from the three-point line in 2008-09 and is now 59-for-150 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. On the season, he is currently fourth in the WCC in three-point percentage (50%) and sixth in three-pointers made per game (2.0).
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. The trend has continued as teams are averaging 9.8 three-pointers made per season. Unofficially, it is the most since the three-point line was put into the college game. The Lions are 22-for-76 from long range while their opponents have made more than double that, going 49-for-123.
THE TEEL DEAL
Sophomore Vernon Teel was named to the World Vision Classic All-Tournament team after an impressive opening act for the Lions. The native of Jamaica 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 the first three games, the Lions went to the free throw line 64 times, hitting 41 (64.1 percent). They were averaging 21.3 attempts per game and Vernon Teel led the way, going to the free throw line 39 times, an average of 13 times per game. Through three games the Lions had made more free throws than their opponents attempted. However, that changed against the Irish as they did what LMU had been doing to their first three opponents. Notre Dame went to the charity stripe 32 times while opponents went to the line 38 times in the first three games combined. Through five games LMU is 58-88 while their opponents are 56-84. In addition to DuBois ranking sixth in free throw percentage, Ashely Hamilton is ranked ninth at .833 (10-for-12).
FSN PRIME TICKET
The LMU-Notre Dame game was 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.).
- GO LIONS -
