After putting up a hopeful 7-2 start at the beginning of the season, the Loyola men’s team seems to have fallen into their routine post New Year’s conference letdown.

Or maybe not.

The ‘Pack has shown signs of improvement, keeping point deficits lower than previous seasons’ conference starts. But the three-game losing streak of 2008 has revealed some familiar flaws that could yield unfortunately familiar results.

Darrinton Moncrieffe, management freshman, has more rebounds than anyone for the time that he’s on the floor and has recorded more minutes against teams with a taller presence.

“We need to get more intense, you know, box out, rebound,” Moncrieffe said. “We have to get back on defense – that’s our main problem.”

At the beginning of the season, head coach Michael Giorlando prioritized an aggressive defense to complement a primarily shooting offense. Assisted by the new arsenal of taller talents, the effort has paid off in pre-conference play.

However, in the last three games the ‘Pack has struggled defending against second-chance points and turnovers.

Last Saturday’s 78-65 loss to Belhaven College showed the Blazers out-rebounding Loyola 51-28 and putting back 23 second-chance points. Louisiana State University-Shreveport beat Loyola by a 13-5 margin on offensive rebounds, giving LSU-S 12 second-chance points to Loyola’s one.

However, Loyola only lost by five points to LSU-S, which the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics ranks fifth in the nation. The ‘Pack is spreading their offense out, effectively making fewer turnovers and more assists.

Although barren on offense earlier this season, the ‘Pack’s bench has shown some signs of life by keeping up with the backups of conference opponents.

Against Belhaven, Moncrieffe, McArthur Strickland, marketing sophomore, and

Carter “Bear” Wurts, marketing senior, recorded buckets on offense while relieving the starters.

When the ‘Pack takes on William Carey University this Thursday their aggressiveness under the rim will be tested by the 6-foot-7, 297 pound senior Derek Jarvis and the 6-foot-10, 266 pound center Alex Eberle. William Carey lost to Mobile University by eight points and defeated Dillard University by seven in their two conference games so far.

Loyola plays its first conference road game against Spring Hill on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Badgers rank fourth in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference in offensive scoring and lost to Xavier University and defeated Dillard – both low-scoring games.

So far the early losses in conference are reminiscent of last year’s start, which eventually led to a 5-24 season.

But last month Loyola received votes in the NAIA rankings for the second time in the school’s history. The 7-2 start to the season matched the best in 40 years. Moreover, there are 16 more games left before the conference tournament where it all really matters – as the women’s volleyball team demonstrated last semester. ‘Pack fans should stay hopeful.

Steve Heath can be reached at [email protected].