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Loyola Marymount invests in postseason play

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Loyola Marymount’s first foray into college basketball’s postseason in two decades is going to cost the Lions.

Put the price tag at $31,500. That’s how much the school will pay CollegeInsider.com to host Pacific on Wednesday night at 7:30 in the first round of its third-tier tournament.

“It’s not the NCAA tournament, but it’s an opportunity to continue to play and practice,” Loyola Marymount Coach Max Good said. “It’s a reward for players to play on.... We’re not at the point in our program where we can look down at anything.”

Loyola Marymount is 18-15 after winning only three games last season. Pacific, regular-season co-champion of the Big West Conference, is 20-11.

It will mark the Lions’ first postseason appearance since their Hank Gathers-inspired run to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight 20 years ago, and it’s generating at least a little buzz on a campus that typically has an empty feeling this time of year.

“There’s a little swagger and a bounce in people’s steps,” said Athletic Director Bill Husak, who added that there was no hesitation about paying the five-figure hosting fee.

“I think that shows the support we have,” Good said. “They wanted to do it as a reward for the season we had and to parlay it into something for the future.”

With a roster that includes no seniors and a starting lineup composed of one junior, three sophomores and a freshman, Loyola Marymount hopes the additional practice time could help accelerate the development of a young team.

If the Lions defeat Pacific, they would face an opponent to be named later because there are no brackets in the second-year tournament. CIT officials determine the matchups in each subsequent round prior to the championship.

“It’s not etched in granite,” Good said of a possible quarterfinal opponent. “It’s not even etched in Silly Putty.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com

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