The Greyhound
Matt Kiebus
Issue date: 1/27/09 Section: Sports
Loyola College in Maryland is not known for our sports, we never have been, but as our school is gaining popularity and notoriety our sports program has been receiving more attention. Whether we deserve it or not is up for debate, but recently there have been complaints about our student body's attendance at our sporting events, most specifically men's basketball. While the pleas for bigger crowds are understandable, so are the reasons for people not being there.
Loyola lacks tradition, I'm completely aware we have been around for 157 years, but we have undergone many drastic changes in the last quarter century and are still cementing our identity. The sports scene is behind the curve. The school's goal is to become one of the premier catholic universities in the United States; we need an athletic department to match. In a recent Loyola Magazine article was a ranking of the top 10 moments in Loyola Basketball's 100 years. Our number one moment was making the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round. Granted that was a special team, lead by the late Skip Proser and point guard Tracy Bergan, but what progress have we made since then? Wake Forest's basketball team has been ranked No. 1 in the country this year. Their coach is Dino Gaudio, Loyola's men's coach in the late-90s. He was an under 500 coach at the Evergreen, now he's no longer coaching in empty gyms, he's in packed houses. He's obviously a good coach, but why couldn't he succeed in Baltimore? A better question is can anyone?
I'm one of the few non-fair-weather Greyhounds fans; I've seen the 15 person crowds and yes it is sad. The real question is why so few people? The student body and alumni expect more from our current teams. The type of student Loyola attracts are winners, and lets face it, we aren't winning. Students don't care when our teams lose, but we desperately want something to be proud of. In my four years I have encountered one team that played and acted like winners. This year's soccer team had confidence, they had swagger, they fought their way to the No.6 team in the nation, and then fell flat on their face in the NCAA tournament. I tip my hat to their season, but we expected more. Basketball goes to the MAAC semi's last year and blows a 17-point second half lead to Siena. The same team we beat twice in the regular season and embarrassed at our home gym. Siena went on to the NCAA tournament and made it to the second round. Again I tip my hat to the basketball team, we've come a long way, but we expect more.
Loyola lacks tradition, I'm completely aware we have been around for 157 years, but we have undergone many drastic changes in the last quarter century and are still cementing our identity. The sports scene is behind the curve. The school's goal is to become one of the premier catholic universities in the United States; we need an athletic department to match. In a recent Loyola Magazine article was a ranking of the top 10 moments in Loyola Basketball's 100 years. Our number one moment was making the NCAA tournament and losing in the first round. Granted that was a special team, lead by the late Skip Proser and point guard Tracy Bergan, but what progress have we made since then? Wake Forest's basketball team has been ranked No. 1 in the country this year. Their coach is Dino Gaudio, Loyola's men's coach in the late-90s. He was an under 500 coach at the Evergreen, now he's no longer coaching in empty gyms, he's in packed houses. He's obviously a good coach, but why couldn't he succeed in Baltimore? A better question is can anyone?
I'm one of the few non-fair-weather Greyhounds fans; I've seen the 15 person crowds and yes it is sad. The real question is why so few people? The student body and alumni expect more from our current teams. The type of student Loyola attracts are winners, and lets face it, we aren't winning. Students don't care when our teams lose, but we desperately want something to be proud of. In my four years I have encountered one team that played and acted like winners. This year's soccer team had confidence, they had swagger, they fought their way to the No.6 team in the nation, and then fell flat on their face in the NCAA tournament. I tip my hat to their season, but we expected more. Basketball goes to the MAAC semi's last year and blows a 17-point second half lead to Siena. The same team we beat twice in the regular season and embarrassed at our home gym. Siena went on to the NCAA tournament and made it to the second round. Again I tip my hat to the basketball team, we've come a long way, but we expect more.
The lacrosse team is the most recognized Loyola sports program. Under former head coach Dave Cottle we were a force, a perennial top 5 team, reaching national semi-finals and making the national championship in 1990. Now we're celebrating just making the tournament. This generation of Loyola students doesn't want to settle for mediocrity, quite frankly we just won't. What the school needs to realize is that we aren't a school that kids grown up rooting for, Greyhound green is not Tar Heel or Duke blue. This is a school where students root for other colleges more than for the one we attend. Of my closest friends there is a Pitt Panthers fan, Arizona Wildcats fan, and a Maryland Terrapins fan. They are all proud Loyola students who love sports, but Greyhound games never captivated them.
Seniors long for Andre Collins hitting 40-foot trey-balls, one senior said, "I'd rather watch Andre Collins vie for the national scoring title than our current team. I miss the days when the 'safe staff' didn't ruin all the fun of the basketball games." In countless interviews of the current student body, many people couldn't name five players on the basketball team. The amount of people that can talk intelligently about Loyola basketball is pathetically minuscule. I feel as though I'm maybe one of 20. I wish I were joking. How many people know that Jamal Barney has scored 40 points twice this season? A feat no one in school history has accomplished, not even Collins and Gerald Brown.
How do we solve this? Win. Want to get the student body excited? Win more. Want to see crowds like the season opener in basketball more often? Keep winning. It's easy to say Loyola students are bandwagon fans, but sports are comprised of bandwagon fans from high school to profession ranks. How many were Arizona Cardinals fan before the playoffs? How many people rooted for the Tampa Bay Rays before the World Series? Philadelphia shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, criticized his own city calling them bandwagon and fair-weather fans. Guess what? He was right, but how many of those same fans euphorically celebrated at the World Series Championship parade?
Like many Loyola students I went to a high school with a powerhouse sports program, and I went to all the games, I had pride in them. People just don't feel that way about Loyola. Once we got a taste of winning, we got spoiled. There are higher expectations, so are the goals. In a recent Greyhound article, Loyola was depicted as aspiring to be a Gonzaga or Villanova. I'm sorry but we aren't them, we will never be them. Even if, God willing, we build a basketball powerhouse, we will do it the Loyola way.
We want to be inspired. We want packed houses and national attention. But criticizing students for not going to games isn't going to help. We will never be too proud, however, to hop on the bandwagon.
Seniors long for Andre Collins hitting 40-foot trey-balls, one senior said, "I'd rather watch Andre Collins vie for the national scoring title than our current team. I miss the days when the 'safe staff' didn't ruin all the fun of the basketball games." In countless interviews of the current student body, many people couldn't name five players on the basketball team. The amount of people that can talk intelligently about Loyola basketball is pathetically minuscule. I feel as though I'm maybe one of 20. I wish I were joking. How many people know that Jamal Barney has scored 40 points twice this season? A feat no one in school history has accomplished, not even Collins and Gerald Brown.
How do we solve this? Win. Want to get the student body excited? Win more. Want to see crowds like the season opener in basketball more often? Keep winning. It's easy to say Loyola students are bandwagon fans, but sports are comprised of bandwagon fans from high school to profession ranks. How many were Arizona Cardinals fan before the playoffs? How many people rooted for the Tampa Bay Rays before the World Series? Philadelphia shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, criticized his own city calling them bandwagon and fair-weather fans. Guess what? He was right, but how many of those same fans euphorically celebrated at the World Series Championship parade?
Like many Loyola students I went to a high school with a powerhouse sports program, and I went to all the games, I had pride in them. People just don't feel that way about Loyola. Once we got a taste of winning, we got spoiled. There are higher expectations, so are the goals. In a recent Greyhound article, Loyola was depicted as aspiring to be a Gonzaga or Villanova. I'm sorry but we aren't them, we will never be them. Even if, God willing, we build a basketball powerhouse, we will do it the Loyola way.
We want to be inspired. We want packed houses and national attention. But criticizing students for not going to games isn't going to help. We will never be too proud, however, to hop on the bandwagon.
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