College Notes : Injury, Youth and Underrated Foes Slow Loyola Cagers

A year ago Loyola Marymount was in the midst of spinning a 25-game winning streak that brought the Lions to the college basketball forefront. The streak came after a 3-3 start.

This season the Lions are 5-5 with a possible breather Saturday at U.S. International in San Diego before they open West Coast Athletic Conference play next week. The Lions are losing close games they have come to expect to win, and they don’t figure to go undefeated in the WCAC again.

None of which means the Lions are necessarily much weaker than a year ago. But they are a different team, and three factors probably enter in:

- Despite Loyola’s 111.5-point average, Bo Kimble’s knee injury and absence from the lineup leaves the Lions one gun short, with the four regular starters doing nearly all the scoring.

- Last season’s team graduated three starters, and Coach Paul Westhead is integrating several young players into his rotations and living with mistakes and turnovers that can be credited to inexperience while the newer players--notably freshmen Terrell Lowery, Chris Knight and John O’Connell and sophomores Tom Peabody and Terry Mister--learn the ropes.

- The preconference schedule is much tougher than last season and probably tougher than the Loyola coaches anticipated. And it won’t get much easier when WCAC play starts.

In the latest ratings in USA Today, which tabulates strength of schedule by a computer, Loyola has the third-toughest schedule in the country, behind only VMI and Oral Roberts. Even games that looked like mismatches when the schedule was published--such as Austin Peay--have turned out to be tough contests against teams with winning records. The Lions have played well in close wins over several underrated teams: Nevada-Reno, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Austin Peay. Down-to-the-wire losses have come to teams probably headed to the NCAA playoffs: unbeaten UC Santa Barbara, Oregon State, DePaul and Xavier of Ohio.

The only blowout loss came to powerful Oklahoma, where Loyola was simply outgunned without a healthy Kimble.

Adding to the strength of Loyola’s schedule is the good showing so far by the WCAC: St. Mary’s is 11-1 and bucking for national rating, though the Gaels have played a soft preconference schedule; Santa Clara is 10-2 against stronger competition, Gonzaga is 8-4 and Pepperdine is 8-6.

Wednesday’s run-and-gun loss to Xavier, 118-113, was symptomatic of Loyola’s struggles against a good opponent. The Lions made several runs at Xavier, took a short lead midway through the second half, fell behind by as many as 11 points, made several charges down the stretch but finally lost as Xavier hit 10 straight free throws in the final minutes. “It felt like we were in the Alamo,” Xavier Coach Pete Gillen noted. “They kept coming over the wall and we kept trying to beat them back.”

However, Xavier rewrote the Alamo ending, in part because Lions starters Hank Gathers, Enoch Simmons, Jeff Fryer and Per Stumer scored all but 12 of the Lions’ points. The fifth starter, Peabody, took two shots and didn’t score.

“I knew last season we’d be a very good team,” Gathers said. “This season, even the games we lost, we were right there. . . . We just couldn’t get over the hump. That’s gonna come with experience. Right now our young guys haven’t totally bought into the system. They don’t believe they can go the extra 5 minutes at full speed. That’s gonna come.”

The upshot is Loyola has the sixth-best record going into WCAC play but has already played a handful of tournament-quality games. The Lions may roar in conference thanks to the tests they’ve gotten early.

Kimble, the 6-foot-5 junior guard who averaged 22 points last season and was one of the nation’s premier 3-point bombers, is expected back in about four weeks if there are no setbacks in his rehabilitation from arthroscopic knee surgery. The high-scoring junior had surgery last Thursday when rough cartilage was shaved smooth and loose particles were removed from his right knee.

Doctors feel his recent knee problems were the result of a fractured patella a year ago. They had tried to treat the problem with exercise and Kimble tried to play in several games, but the pain remained persistent and nothing conclusive showed up on tests.

Four days after surgery, Kimble was walking around Gersten Pavilion without crutches and looking forward to getting back into the lineup. He was set to begin serious rehabilitation as soon as the swelling was reduced.

“They found what they thought,” Kimble said after watching Monday’s game against Wisconsin-Green Bay. “At least they found something wrong. I knew it all along.”

If his rehab stays on schedule, Kimble hopes to return to practice in another week and be back in uniform about four weeks after surgery, “no longer than five.”

Loyola’s opponent the week Kimble hopes to return is rival Pepperdine. They play a home-and-home series Jan. 25 and 29. Lions trainer Chip Schaefer plans a similar timetable for Kimble but said the only real target is whenever Kimble is recovered and fit to play. Schaefer added that Kimble’s cartilage was so worn in spots that the knee may never feel the same.

Conversation at an airport: Loyola guard Tom Peabody to trainer Chip Schaefer (passing out airplane tickets): “Hey Chip, when you gonna put me in first class?”

Schaefer: “When you start shooting.”

Peabody: “Hey, I shot eight times last night.”

Center Hank Gathers: “Tom, you missed all eight.”

Peabody: “That’s cold, Hank.”

Gathers: “Tom, let me put it this way. When you crank it up I head straight for the rim.”

Bell Tolls: Michael Bell, a freshman guard who has seen less than an hour’s playing time in Cal State Dominguez Hills’ 11 games, may be spending less bench time after his performance last week in the Puget Sound Tournament. With the Toro lineup weakened by illness and injury, Bell came off the bench to hit 4 of 4 from the field for a season-high 8 points in a victory over San Francisco State.

Bell helped the bench produce 20 points after the reserves had been shut out the night before in a loss to Central Washington. The Monroe High School graduate also had three rebounds and a blocked shot and did a good defensive job on San Francisco’s leading scorer, Robert Thrower, who was held to 12 points.

College Notes

In 3 1/3 seasons, Paul Westhead has 64 coaching victories at Loyola, placing him fourth on the school’s all-time list ahead of Dave Benaderet (63). Next up: Scotty McDonald (83). . . . Hank Gathers’ first basket Monday gave him 1,000 for his Loyola career, which is 1 1/3 seasons old.