Dec. 1, 2008

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The exhausting 10-day tour of the United States that has had Loyola Marymount men's basketball team playing in every time zone in the continental U.S., will finally come to an end as they end their 8,804-mile road trip at Arizona on Tuesday, Dec. 2. It won't get any easier as the Lions continue to play with an active roster trimmed to just seven scholarship players, eight total, as they take on undefeated the Wildcats of the Pac-10 at 6:00 p.m. (PT) The game can be heard on KXLU 88.9 FM and online at LMULions.com. It will also be the second of eight games on FSN Prime Ticket this season.

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 sholder suffered in the first weeks of practice this season. He 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 Nov. 26 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. He did not make the trip to Arkansas and is doubtful for Arizona. 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 739 of the 1,200 minutes played in six games this season, good for 62 percent. That number is expected to lower just a tad due to the injuries. DuBois leads the group with 33.7 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 233 of the 325 points (71.7 percent) and 120 of the 203 rebounds (59.1 percent).

MAKING A POINT
Freshman Jarred DuBois is turning into a floor leader. The true freshman point guard first 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 has now added offense to that effort, going for a career best 16 points, hitting 4-of-6 from long range against the Irish. He did one better against UALR with 23 points. The point total ranks tied for 12th among single game scoring by a freshman (tying Orlando Johnson's mark on Nov. 17, 2007). DuBois is second on the team in scoring at 12.2 points per game and entered the week sixth in the West Coast Conference with an .867 free throw percentage. He is now at .857 after going 5-for-6 against UALR, including hitting a rare four-point play.

INSIDE THE GAME
The Lions will play the University of Arizona for the 12th time in program history, maing the trip to Tucson for the 10th time. Arizona has won the last four meetings, the last at the McKale Center on Dec. 4, 1984, an 82-75 Wildcat win.

AGAINST THE PAC-10
The Lions will play their first of two opponents from the Pac-10 this season as they take on Arizona on Tuesday and then UCLA on Dec. 17. It will be the 126th and 127th time the Lions have faced a Pac-10 team. They have faced USC the most, playing the Trojans 54 times. The Lions have wins against eight of the 10 teams from the conference, lacking victories against Oregon and Stanford. This will be the 12th meeting against Arizona and 17th against UCLA.

SHOOTING TOUCH
Leading most of the first half, Loyola Marymount, playing with just seven scholarship players, had Arkansas-Little Rock, who is favored to win the Sun Belt Conference, scrambling. The Lions shot 56.8 percent from the field (21-for-37), 58.3 percent from long range and 83.3 percent from the free throw line. It was the best shooting performance for the Lions in over two seasons and ranks seventh overall in the last decade. The Lions held UALR to just 41.7 percent shooting (25-for-60) and out-rebounded one of the best rebounding teams in the nation by nine (34-25). Despite having UALR on the ropes, the Lions could not overcome 26 turnovers. The extra possessions contributed to 23 more shots and 37 UALR points, leading the Trojans to a 67-59 win at the Jack Stephens Center on Saturday night. DuBois added four rebounds and two assists in 35 minutes while freshman LaRon Armstead added 11 points and seven rebounds in 36 minutes. Senior Corey Counts did one better with 39 minutes, scoring 11 points with four rebounds, two assists and a steal. DuBois, he took over in the second half, scoring 20 of his 23 points. DuBois hit a three-pointer and was fouled, cutting the lead to 63-57 with 2:42 to play after finishing the rare four-point play with the free throw. On the next possession, UALR went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe and Counts hit a jumper in the lane to cut the lead to 64-59 with 1:34 to play.

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 Arizona game with 88 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 Arizona game with 38 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 65 games as a Lion, hitting 60 three-pointers with 139 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 11-for-23 from the three-point line in 2008-09 and is now 60-for-153 (39.2 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 entered the week 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 10.0 three-pointers made per season. Unofficially, it is the most since the three-point line was put into the college game. The Lions are 29-for-88 from long range while their opponents have made more than double that, going 60-for-149.

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.

FSN PRIME TICKET
The LMU-Arizona game is the second 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 -