Loyola’s men’s basketball team has stumbled out to a 1-3 start. We can talk about this issue in two different ways: the short way or the long way.

Out of courtesy to those that do not wish to read the entire article, we’ll proceed with the short method first. That way, they can get back to the important things on their schedule like finally getting to level 132 on Candy Crush.

 While the team has a losing record, it is important to note that the Wolf Pack just beat Xavier, ranked #19, on Tuesday on the road. After a rough start, that is a great showing from the players. However, we can still take a look behind how that rough patch came to be.

The team is playing without Robert Lovaglio, the Pack’s leading scorer from last year. While Lovaglio is not the entire team in any sense, it is still tough to replace the fulcrum of the offense that averaged almost 20 points per game. The team has also only gotten one game out of McCall Tomeny this year, the team’s leading rebounder and second leading scorer from last year.

The first issue has been that the team has been as crisp on offense over the first four games. Last year, the team shot 45.1 percent overall while shooting 33.7 percent from the three-point line. This year, the team is shooting 41.3 percent with a 31.6 percent clip from beyond the arc. This year’s numbers were lower before the team’s strong shooting night against Xavier.

Maybe the most damning part so far has been the team’s turnover numbers. Last year, the men’s team averaged 15.4 turnovers per game. So far this year’s team is giving the ball away 18.5 times a game. Can you guess how many times the team turned it over in the victory against Xavier? If you guessed 15, you get a free ticket to the Pack’s next home game!

Turnovers hurt by taking away entire possessions from teams. There is no shot attempt, no rebound opportunity, no chance of scoring for the team turning it over. Furthermore, turnovers can give the opposition a great chance to get easy buckets in transition.

So even though Loyola has had a rough start, we have some positive takeaways. The defense is as present as ever, which is a testament to coaching’s ability to get players to focus on the defensive system.

 But we have only seen four official games, people. Once our players have more time to get healthy, gel and play more games, we can really see what this team is made of.

Karl Gommel covered men’s basketball for The Maroon last season

Karl Gommel can be contacted at [email protected]