Olive Restores Roar to Lions’ Schedule : Basketball: New Loyola Marymount coach schedules home games against Nevada Las Vegas and DePaul. The Lions could also play host to Michigan State.

Loyola Marymount, which has not played a home basketball game before a sellout crowd since the 1989-90 season, is hoping a more attractive schedule will boost attendance at 4,156-seat Gersten Pavilion next season.

The Lions will play host to Nevada Las Vegas and DePaul in nonconference games, and Michigan State will compete in the second annual Los Angeles Classic, a four-team tournament at Gersten Pavilion.

“We’re really excited,” said John Olive, Loyola’s new coach. “Everyone tells me that the quality of opponents we have coming into Gersten Pavilion is unprecedented.”

Loyola will play UNLV in its second game Dec. 5. It will be UNLV’s first game under Coach Rollie Massimino, who resigned after 19 years as Villanova’s coach to succeed Jerry Tarkanian. Olive was Villanova’s top assistant for the past seven seasons and also played for the Wildcats under Massimino.

“To have Coach Massimino play his first game here as a Runnin’ Rebel is quite an honor,” Olive said. “It’s going to be a lifelong memory. We’re going to have a home-and-home (series) forever. I think it will be great for both schools.”

Olive said he approached Massimino about scheduling UNLV shortly after he was named Loyola coach in April, a week after Massimino got the UNLV job.

“Obviously I felt we had the most to gain,” Olive said. “I also asked (Massimino) to come here and play here first. He gave me a hard time but he didn’t hesitate to do that for me and begin the series by playing here.”

Loyola and UNLV have not met since the 1990 NCAA West Regional final, a game the Runnin’ Rebels won, 131-101, on their way to the national title.

Loyola Athletic Director Brian Quinn said he hopes that, by bringing top-notch competition to Gersten Pavilion, the school can improve season-ticket sales and renew fan interest in the basketball program.

The Lions’ average home attendance last season was 2,283. Three seasons ago, when Loyola reached the NCAA final eight, it was 4,097.

“We think bringing in DePaul and Michigan State and Nevada Las Vegas is going to be an attractive sell for us,” Quinn said. “We’re hoping to have a rush for season seats. Our crowds have fallen off in the last two years. We want people back in the stands again.”

The only way to accomplish that, Olive said, is by scheduling competitive Division I opponents. Olive said he was disappointed that Loyola opens with a home game against College of Notre Dame, a small Division II school located in Belmont, Calif. The game was scheduled by previous coach Jay Hillock, whose contract was not renewed after last season.

“Let’s face it, there are a lot of things to do in Los Angeles,” Olive said. “You have to offer a good product.

“We have great teams coming in and great coaches. Fans in Los Angeles are going to be able to see teams that they normally wouldn’t see.”

If Loyola and Michigan State win opening-round games in the L.A. Classic, they would meet in the tournament final Dec. 12. DePaul, which beat Loyola in Chicago last season, visits Gersten Pavilion on Jan. 2.

Most are expecting the Loyola-UNLV game to result in the first sellout at Gersten Pavilion since Feb. 24, 1990, when the Lions played Santa Clara in a West Coast Conference regular-season finale.

“That will be a great problem to have,” Olive said of the anticipated demand for tickets for the UNLV game. “That’s what we hope. We hope to have full houses and carry that over to Pepperdine and the other conference games.

“We want to make this a difficult place to play. It’s a loud arena when it’s full. There are a great many LMU alums in the L.A. area and we want to make a pitch to get them out. And that applies to the student body as well.”

Quinn said increasing student support of the basketball team is his top priority.

“They’re the ones I care the most about,” he said. “We want to see our students at the games.”

Quinn said membership in the Lions’ Pride Student Club dropped to a low of 500 last season, when Loyola finished 15-13 and lost in the first round of the conference tournament for the second consecutive season. Membership was around 1,500 in the 1989-90 season, Quinn said.

Ideally, Quinn said he would like to see the school sell about 2,000 season tickets, compared to last season when Loyola sold about 1,000.

“I would like to see us sell out the building for every game,” he said.

To help the school reach that goal, Quinn said Loyola has hired an athletic development officer to oversee the marketing of all sports programs.

Olive, meanwhile, is hoping his ties to Villanova will help him get another attractive opponent on Loyola’s schedule. He said he has talked with USC Coach George Raveling about the possibility of scheduling the Trojans. Raveling is a graduate of Villanova and a former Wildcat assistant.

USC and Loyola have not met since 1983, but Olive indicated the teams could schedule a game as early as the 1993-94 season.