Season Bounces Back With ‘Midnight Madness’ Drills

A look at the region’s college basketball teams heading into the start of official practices:

A new era at Loyola Marymount will get under way tonight when the Lions open their first practice of the season at Gersten Pavilion with a new coach and new players.

Coach Charles Bradley, who replaced John Olive in March after three seasons at Division II Metropolitan State in Denver, will try to improve a last-place team that finished 3-11 in the WCC and 7-21 overall. In his three seasons at Metropolitan State, Bradley, a first-round pick of the Boston Celtics in 1981, had a 37-43 record.

The Lions lost the WCC’s second-leading scorer and top-assist man from last season in Jim Williamson to graduation and will try to replace him with 5-6 guard Haywood Eaddy, a transfer from Casper Junior College in Wyoming.

Two other junior college transfers are possible starters. Junior Leo Saucedo, a 6-4 guard, averaged 10.8 points a game at Frank Phillips College and 6-11 center Silvester Kainga, a native a Kenya, had 143 blocked shots in two seasons at Midland College.

Returning forwards Kenny Hotopp and Ben Ammerman are projected starters.