Loyola Loses, Starts Looking Ahead

The baby steps were interrupted by several slips and falls, but Loyola Marymount made painful progress.

Santa Clara ended the rebuilding Lions’ season, 77-60, Saturday in a first-round West Coast Conference tournament game.

Now the real work begins.

“We have to recruit, recruit, recruit,” said first-year Coach Steve Aggers, whose roster included only seven scholarship players and nobody taller than 6 feet 7.

Loyola went 9-19, a significant improvement from last season’s team that was 2-26 with no Division I victories.

Aggers, who transformed Eastern Washington from a perennial loser into a Big Sky Conference champion in five years, understands that a reclamation project of this magnitude is not completed overnight.

“I think our guys overachieved,” he said. “We were outmanned, but our guys kept fighting. Now we must try and get better. We are going to get it done.”

Robert Davis, who scored 14 points, and Marcus Smith, who added 12, will be part of the effort. Both are juniors.

“I want to win,” Smith said. “This off-season will be all about working hard.”

And replenishing the roster. Guard/forward Keith Kincade of Compton Dominguez High and guard Kent Dennis of Reseda Cleveland, and transfers from West Virginia who sat out this season, will be eligible.

“We’ll increase our size,” Aggers said. “We’ll bring in some front-line players.”