After a 2-1 start, the Loyola Maryland men's basketball team has lost five of its past six games. That's concerning to coach G.G. Smith, but with a pair of nonconference games against Stony Brook (5-4) and Fairfield (4-5) ahead before Patriot League play begins, he knows the Greyhounds can grab some much-needed momentum.
"You want to win because you want to get that winning attitude," Smith said Thursday afternoon, after a Midwest recruiting trip. "We've got three wins: against UMBC, Cornell and Columbia. Looking back, that Columbia win is going to be a pretty good win for us, and Cornell is a whole lot better than they were last year. We want to win every game, but I just want to see some improvement. I want to see some improvement on the offensive end. We've got to get into a better rhythm as a team, and a lot of it just comes from not making shots. Our post players have got to score in the post. We want to try to win these next two games, but we've got to take it game by game. Stony Brook is pretty good, and they have a pro [in junior forward Jameel Warney] inside. So we've got to work on our defensive traps in the post, and we've just got to get better every game."
A 3-6 record is not terrible, but Smith said he thought the team would be 4-5 at this point and called a 74-65 home loss Saturday to Mount St. Mary's disappointing.
"We should've beaten the Mount," he said. "I don't think we played well at all versus the Mount, especially in the second half. I don't think we competed. We kind of laid down against them. So we're where I thought we would be, but we have two tough games coming up: at Stony Brook and at Fairfield. So we've got two winnable games coming up before league play, and we're just trying to get to league play."
The Greyhounds are in the midst of a 12-day layoff between Tuesday's 68-42 loss at Saint Joseph's to a Dec. 21 game at Stony Brook. Much of the break will be dedicated to final exams, but players also will take time to improve their games.
"At this time of the year, guys want to get better themselves," Smith said. "They'll come in and have individual workouts with the coaching staff and work on some of their weaknesses. Like [junior guard] Eric Laster, he needs to work on his ball handling and his free throws. [Junior guard] Tyler Hubbard needs to work on his defense a little more over the next few weeks. The freshmen have to come in and get more reps in. It's a good time to get some shots up, and it's also a good time of the year for me and the staff to evaluate where we are, what's working for us, what's not working for us, film session with the guys, film session as a staff."