LOYOLA PREVIEW : Shoot, Lions May Be Even Stronger

They’ve never answered the musical question, “How High the Moon?” but this may be the season Paul Westhead and Loyola Marymount define the basketball equivalent: How high the score?

Led by seniors Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble and Jeff Fryer, Loyola has four starters back from last season’s team that set a collegiate record by averaging 112.5 points a game, including a high of 181. Westhead has brought in a faster point guard and may have the deepest Loyola team ever.

If the Lions are going to break their own record, it will have to be this season. There are no recruits or reserves on Loyola’s horizon the caliber of Gathers and Kimble, and in their shadow last season Fryer still managed to average 22.9 points and rank as the nation’s most prolific three-point shooter, hitting more long-distance shots (126) than four conference teams. Each of the three Lion players scored at least 40 points in a game last season, and one night they combined for 106.

The 6-foot-7 Gathers is the school’s first consensus preseason All-American and is coming off a junior season in which he led the nation in scoring, with a 32.7-point average, and rebounding, with an average of 13.7. He will be hard-pressed to match last season’s totals, but Loyola may have more ammunition than it did a year ago--a fully recovered Kimble and Ventura College transfer Tony Walker at point guard. Kimble managed to average 16.8 points despite early-season knee surgery, and raised that to 20.5 in conference play. Walker is one of the few Lions who doesn’t look to shoot. Gathers said: “He’s got unbelievable wheels. He just glides.” Westhead said: “He’s got great quickness, great speed, and he plays the game to give the ball to his teammates. Needless to say, he’s very popular.”

Rounding out the lineup is 6-7 junior forward Per Stumer, another three-point threat and a solid rebounder. Guard Terrell Lowery and swingman Tom Peabody provide a spark off the bench, and -6 sophomore forward John O’Connell has become the first front-line man off the bench. Center remains the team’s Achilles’ heel unless Westhead gets production and defense out of 6-10 senior Marcellus Lee or 6-9 sophomore Chris Knight.

Although the Lions stumbled last week, losing to top-ranked Nevada Las Vegas, 102-91, in the preseason National Invitation Tournament, Westhead said Loyola’s full-throttle attack needs five or six games to hit its stride. A better test will be a three-week stretch in late December and early January when the Lions play Oregon State, Oklahoma, Xavier (Ohio) and LaSalle. There may be another assault on the record books Dec. 7 when Loyola plays U.S. International, the sacrificial lamb in last season’s 181-150 game.

After last season, Westhead said there may “still be some notches left” in his offense, but now he is predicting only that the effort will be there. Westhead, borrowing from W. Somerset Maugham, said that in his system, the difference between being sharp and looking bad is “as the trembling of a leaf.”

The Lions hope to make their way--speedily--to a third consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, but first they must battle Pepperdine for the West Coast Conference title.

Loyola , which has won the last two conference tournaments, will will play host to that event next March. “Our goal is to return to the NCAA,” Westhead said. “It would be a fitting ending to the careers of the three seniors.”