There’s been five times this year that junior forward Mario Faranda, that charming Italian kid in your finance classes, has taken notes at a desk by day and knocked bodies with NBA-caliber talent in road exhibitions on the basketball floor by night.

So have the Smith twins, when after psychology class they fell victim to future WNBA center Sylvia Fowles and the LSU Lady Tigers at home in Baton Rouge.

NCAA opponents have been unkind to Wolfpack basketball this season: the men have lost to five NCAA opponents by an average of 24.4 points (and they’ve yet to play Loyola-Chicago and 6-foot-7 point guard Blake Schlibb, who’s keyed in as a 2007 NBA draft pick), and the women have dropped three by an average of 36.6 points.

So why send your classmates into these almost guaranteed heartbreaks?

Because the price is right.

Aside from the allure of, in coach Michael Giorlando’s words, putting “a rock between the eyes of a Goliath” (Loyola, behind accounting senior James Bunn’s 19 points and psychology junior Luke Zumo’s 13 points, faced a manageable 59-51 deficit against neighborhood nemesis Tulane with two minutes left in regulation on Nov. 21), the fact that the NCAA exhibitions help pay as much as half the teams’ operating budget dulls the sting of a blowout loss.

According to Giorlando, Hurricane Katrina drastically reduced basketball’s operating budget.

“We’ve been depending on fund-raising to supplement our budget, and these games are very important to close the gap,” he said.

Exhibition “guarantees” are key to a small athletic program’s success. Smaller football schools such as UL-Lafayette earn as much as $400,000 to endure a blowout road loss to BCS-contenders like LSU.

The guarantee Loyola earns from its six exhibitions against D-I opponents pay for 50 percent of its operating budget, which finances travel costs, housing, hotels, meals, gear (uniforms, practice equipment) and expenses embedded in recruiting, according to Giorlando.

“(Those games) triple the budget we have right now,” Giorlando said, explaining the monetary boost six games provide for the Wolfpack to complete its remaining 29 games.

Giorlando did not provide actual figures of the department’s operating budget or the amount earned from such guarantees.

When Giorlando served as an assistant to LSU basketball coach John Brady, the program paid guarantees anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 for exhibitions with lower-rung Division I schools.

“We brought in Centenary, Nicholls State, Southern University. The price varied on location and quality,” he said.

Southern, whose campus is right up the road from the state titan, was probably the cheapest opponent. “But these teams have gotten smart. If they can travel two hours and get twice as much, they’ll do that,” he added.

Sometimes, major programs like LSU (a 2006 Final Four finalist) opted to play barnstorming traveling teams like the EA Sports All-Stars, Global Sports and the Czech Select All-Stars for exhibition tilts.

But when the NCAA implemented rules that restricted scheduling games against barnstormers, the gate swung open for small NAIA programs like Loyola to land exhibitions against NCAA mid-majors and even bona-fide high-majors like Jesuit counterpart Loyola-Chicago.

The payoff’s tradeoff, however, is usually losing by a big margin.

“In these mismatches, for these guarantees, some teams are getting beat by 50 (points). The key is in an old saying: Don’t lose by too much too often,” Giorlando said.

So in between the high-paying mismatches, Loyola’s tipped off against teams more on its level. In between losses to NCAA programs Southern Mississippi and Tulane, the Wolfpack men tallied convincing wins against Huston-Tillotson and Wiley College to fashion a 2-1 record – Loyola’s first time atop the .500 mark since the 2003-04 season.

Since then, they lost to the NCAA’s UL-Monroe 87-53.

The women, after big losses to Troy University and Tulane, ran away with the Union Thanksgiving Classic in Jackson, Tenn. after upending No. 25 Lambuth 63-58 behind exceptional play from psychology sophomore Trenell Smith (22 points), psychology pre-med senior Kim Rigg (11 points, nine rebounds) and criminal justice junior Marley Milton (11 points).

“You win games against teams more on your level, then go at a Goliath and see if we can throw a rock in between the eyes,” Giorlando said.

There’s no real science to cashing in on guarantees, Giorlando admits. It depends on both programs’ availability.

It does, however, add credibility to their recruiting pitch.

“That’s why we do it. We tell our players we’re playing D-I teams, and a lot of them are competitive and take it as a challenge,” he said.

Political science junior forward David Curtin said in a Maroon Online podcast, “It’s always a good experience going up against talent like that, because it really gauges you and tells you where you’re at. It also gives you a good chance to admire all the other athletes out there.”

It also provides local area players like guard Luke Zumo (a Baton Rouge native) an opportunity to expand his geographic horizons.

The Windy City showdown with Schlibb and Loyola-Chicago will be Zumo’s first time on an airplane.

“I’m pretty pumped,” Zumo told The Maroon before the start of the season.

Ramon Vargas can be reached at [email protected].