Matthew McCabe and Robert Mason are only two of several graduating seniors who spent their college years on the grind with the men’s basketball team at Loyola.

Mason, marketing senior, considered his college basketball career to be full of ups and downs.

“I was a transfer to Loyola from my junior college,” Mason said. “As a freshman (at the junior college), I didn’t play much at all. Then, my first year coming to Loyola was like being a freshman again because I was the new guy. Then I got into the rhythm of things and started to understand the coaches.”

Mason said his time at Loyola wasn’t what he expected, but he feels like he has helped the Loyola basketball program improve over the three years he’s been attending.

“I felt like I was a solid contributor to the team and helped others, especially my teammates,” Mason said. However, he admits his career with the team could have been better.

“Loyola has a great education but our accomplishments as a team wasn’t what we expected. We had higher expectations so I was kind of disappointed,” Mason said.

McCabe, international business senior, focused less on past scores and more on his experiences building relationships with the other senior players. McCabe, economics senior Nick Tuszynski and marketing senior Sean Bennett have been roommates since their freshman year and consider themselves best friends.

“I will definitely keep in touch with Torry Beaulieu (and) even those who aren’t on the team anymore like Josh McGrew,” McCabe said. “I truly cherish those friends.”

Even though the relationships McCabe built mean the most to him, competing at the college level wasn’t a far second.

“A great experience to me being on the team was learning to accept my role and being humble,” McCabe said.

“During my freshmen year, I was a little immature but my perspective changed since the team’s 5-24 season (that) year,” McCabe said. “My perspective changed from being all about me and what I want, to hoping our team wins a championship by my senior year.”

Even though that goal was never fulfilled, McCabe is satisfied with his accomplishments.

“I felt like I gave it my all,” he said.

With graduation on the horizon, senior athletes are finding themselves more worried about careers than conference records. McCabe recently interviewed with seven different companies in hopes of working somewhere in the sale’s field.

“Medical sales is something I really want to do,” McCabe said. “But if not medical sales, anywhere in the sales field.”

Yet, some players strive to continue their basketball career after graduation. Even though Mason does not plan on going to graduate school, he intends to play basketball somewhere in Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Asia.

“My future aspirations for my basketball career are going out there and representing my country as a basketball player,” Mason said. “In between my freshman and sophomore year, one thing I really learned is you can always be a better basketball player tomorrow than you are today.”

Mason’s advice did not stop there.

“Play hard, do the little things and keep it fun,” Mason said.

For McCabe, it was the effort put into his career here that was the most important aspect of the game.

“Win and losses wise, our season wasn’t really successful but one thing people need to know is that we didn’t give up on the season,” McCabe said. “We really did think we could turn the season around.”

Yvette Naniuzeyi can be reached at [email protected]