After a season that saw the ‘Pack make their way to the conference semi-final game, Loyola’s men’s basketball program is already looking forward to next season.
After a regular season that had Loyola’s men finish with record of 16-14, Loyola was able to win two Southern States Athletic Conference games, defeating Brewton-Parker College and Lee University. Head basketball coach Michael Giorlando was happy with the overall performance of his team, but was particularly impressed by some individual performances as well.
“We had a lot of guys step up this year,” he said. “Corey Grey really had some great performances for us.”
Aside from the biology junior’s strong offensive play during the conference tournament, Giorlando also highlighted the Senior Night game in which Grey hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime against Auburn-Montgomery. The Wolfpack won in overtime with 96-91.
Grey will be returning for one more season at Loyola, but three key players will be graduating. Darrinton Moncrieffe, who at 6’10” was a big part of the ‘Pack’s interior play. Moncrieffe, a marketing senior, led the team in rebounds with 130 in his senior season at Loyola and accumulated 560 rebounds throughout his career. “It’ll be difficult to replace a player like Darrinton,” Giorlando said. “He was second in the country in blocked shots and was a big factor in the tournament.”
Giorlando hopes that players like management sophomore and center Marc Luettecke and international business freshman and forward Manuel Gandara can help take Moncdieffe’s place in the paint next season.
In regards to new recruits, Giorlando, who was on a recruiting trip at the time of the interview, said, “We’ve got a couple of guys coming in.” He could not go into detail on new recruits since high school seniors will not officially commit to their colleges until mid-April.
After the loss that eliminated the Wolfpack from the SSAC tournament and halted their chances of qualifying for the 32-team national tournament, Giorlando still remained positive about what the team accomplished during the season. “One of our goals was to qualify for the conference tournament,” he said.
When Loyola switched conferences at the end of last season, they switched to a conference where only the top four teams in the division would make the tournament.
When they were competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference last season, all teams automatically qualified, regardless of their record. “We wanted to win some games in the conference tournament, so that makes the season a success for us,” Giorlando said.
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