Head coach Jim Whitesell and the Loyola men's basketball team will play 15 home games during the 2009-10 season
 
Head coach Jim Whitesell and the Loyola men's basketball team will play 15 home games during the 2009-10 season
 
 
Loyola Announces 2009-10 Men's Basketball Schedule

Ramblers to open season at Kansas State, play 15 home games this winter

Sept. 30, 2009

CHICAGO - Loyola University Chicago will play 15 home games according to its 2009-10 schedule, which was released today by head coach Jim Whitesell. The Ramblers will play six non-conference games at the Gentile Center and raise the curtain on the home portion of the Horizon League slate with a New Year's Eve matinee versus Wright State. The contest at Kansas State is also the beginning of a three-year series in which the Wildcats will visit the Gentile Center during the 2010-11 campaign.

After opening the season at Big XII power Kansas State, which is picked as a preseason Top 25 club by numerous publications, on Nov. 13, Loyola plays three of its next four contests at home, including the home opener versus Canisius (Nov. 17). Following the Canisius showdown, the Ramblers head east to square off with Holy Cross (Nov. 20) before closing out the season's opening month at home versus Western Michigan (Nov. 23) and St. Ambrose (Nov. 28).

A change in the calendar brings a change in the schedule as well as Loyola lifts the lid on December by opening Horizon League play with games at Green Bay (Dec. 3) and Milwaukee (Dec. 5). The Ramblers return home on Dec. 12 when they renew a rivalry with San Francisco that has been dormant since 1971. Trips to Bradley (Dec. 16) and SIU-Edwardsville (Dec. 20) are a precursor to a four-game homestand, the longest of the season, opening with a pre-Christmas battle with Albany (Dec. 22) and a Dec. 28 meeting with St. Francis (Ill.).

Wright State ventures to Rogers Park for a Dec. 31 matinee and Detroit pays a visit to the Gentile Center two days later (Jan. 2) to kick off the 2010 portion of the ledger. Perhaps the toughest part of the schedule looms after that, as Loyola plays five of the next seven contests on the road. Home games versus Butler (Jan. 21) and Valparaiso (Jan. 23) are sandwiched in between road tilts at Cleveland Sate (Jan. 7), Youngstown State (Jan, 9), UIC (Jan. 15), Detroit (Jan. 28) and Wright State (Jan. 30).

The Ramblers open February with a weekend homestand against Youngstown State (Feb. 4) and Cleveland State (Feb. 6), before traveling to historic Hinkle Fieldhouse for a Feb. 8 meeting with Butler. In two of its last three regular-season trips to Hinkle, Loyola has posted a victory over a nationally ranked Bulldogs squad. Following that three-games-in-five-days stretch, the Ramblers return home to tangle with city rival UIC (Feb. 13).

After venturing east for a Feb. 17 game at Valparaiso, Loyola will play a road game against a to-be-determined opponent in the annual BracketBusters event on Feb. 20. The Ramblers close out the regular season at home with contests against Milwaukee (Feb. 25) and Green Bay (Feb. 27) before the Horizon League Championship tips off with first round games on March 2.

Loyola registered 14 wins a year ago and returns two starters from that squad. Senior forward Andy Polka is healthy after missing all but 11 games a year ago, when he averaged 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per outing.