Loyola Marymount preparing to make run at West Coast Conference title
Max Good isn’t packing light for the West Coast Conference tournament.
The Loyola Marymount basketball coach said he would bring four suits to Las Vegas “even if we were going to play the Bucks, the Thunder, the Lakers and the Celtics.”
The fifth-seeded Lions (16-14) might feel as if they have survived a gauntlet of NBA teams if they are able to win four games in four days to capture their first conference tournament title since 1989.
Loyola Marymount’s quest for an unlikely — and unprecedented — run starts at 6 Friday evening at Orleans Arena with a first-round game against eighth-seeded Pepperdine (7-23). A victory would move the Lions into a quarterfinal Saturday against fourth-seeded San Francisco (12-17), which has a first-round bye and twice defeated Loyola Marymount during the regular season.
Waiting in the ensuing semifinal is top-seeded Gonzaga. The Bulldogs (24-5) are the defending tournament champions and have won five of the last six titles, but they won’t intimidate the Lions if they get that far.
“We have a mantra that we respect everyone but fear no one,” said Good, whose team upset then-No. 9 Gonzaga, 74-66, last month at LMU’s Gersten Pavilion. The Bulldogs’ only other conference loss came against San Francisco.
Sixth-seeded San Diego (10-20) plays seventh-seeded Santa Clara (11-20) in the other first-round game Friday, with the winner advancing to face third-seeded Portland (19-9). Like Gonzaga, second-seeded St. Mary’s (24-5) has a bye into a semifinal.
Loyola Marymount has won three of its last four games after getting guards Larry Davis and Given Kalipinde back from injuries. The Lions have already earned 13 more victories than last season and could be on the brink of their first postseason appearance since advancing to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight 20 years ago.
“I’d like to go over there and remove all doubt,” Good said. “If we win three it wouldn’t hurt, and four would guarantee it.”
In that scenario, four suits might not be Good enough.
“I might pack five,” he said, “for the celebration the next day.”
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