This story was was published on Nola.com.
Three years ago the Loyola Men’s Basketball Program finished their season with a record of six wins and 21 losses and were an afterthought in the NAIA basketball conscience. Now the Wolf Pack are going dancing.
After steadily increasing their win total each of the past three seasons, the Loyola Men’s Basketball Team is headed to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time since 1946, snapping a 71 year drought for the program.
This also marks the first time in Loyola history that both the men and women’s basketball team have both made it to the national tournament simultaneously.
“I think it’s great. I think it says a lot about the athletic department and what we are trying to do here. I’m so proud of Stacy and his group, what a milestone for them to get here after such a long time,” said Kellie Kennedy, head coach of the women’s basketball team.
For the past four years the women’s basketball team has been a standard of excellence at Loyola, winning four consecutive Southern States Athletic Conference titles and reaching the national tournament each year. During their historic 2014-2015 campaign the Wolf Pack set a school record for wins in a season with 27. So to see the men’s program reach the national tournament has been exciting for everybody involved.
“To see the men’s team work so hard for four years and to see it finally pay off, it’s really exciting. I’m really happy for them and I hope they do big things,” said Meghan Temple, senior forward for the women’s basketball team.
Stacy Hollowell, head coach of the men’s basketball team, believes that what the team has accomplished will only help continue to build the men’s basketball program and take it to new heights.
“Hopefully making the national tournament carries a lot of weight and helps us with recruiting. Landing us a higher caliber of player, and maybe garners more respect nationally for our program,” said Hollowell.
The accomplishment is historic for the program as a whole, but senior guard Jalen Gray savors this even more after enduring the struggles of losing early in his career.
“It means a lot, especially coming from freshman year when we didn’t even make the conference tournament. So to see the transformation from then to now has been a lot of hard work but also a lot of fun and I am proud of everybody on the team,” said Gray.
There was a since of disbelief from the men’s team when it was announced that they would be headed to Kansas City since the team didn’t win their conference regular season title and after being eliminated from the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals. But now that disbelief has been replaced with optimism.
“We are definitely excited because we thought our season was over so to get the news that we made it, it kind of rejuvenated us. Now we have another week left to see what can happen,” said Gray.
Getting to the national tournament was a goal of the men’s basketball team before the season and now that they have made it, they believe they can make some noise and surprise people.
“I think we can go all the way. Start one game a time, obviously we have a tough matchup at the beginning being the eight seed and facing the one seed. But we are excited and we are confident,” said Gray.
The women’s basketball team will take on Montana State University-Northern in the first round of the NAIA National Tournament on Thursday, March 16 at 8:00 p.m. in Billings, Montana.
The men’s basketball team will face William Penn in the first round of the NAIA National Tournament on Wednesday, March 15 at 8:15 p.m. in Kansas City, Mo.
Kameron Hay 