2020-21 Finish: 26-5; 16-2 MVC (1st)
Letterwinners Returning/Lost:  10/6
Starters Returning/Lost:  4/1

After reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in the last four years, the Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball program welcomes back four starters from the 2020-21 team that finished the season ranked No. 12 in the final Coaches Top 25 Poll, and posted a 26-5 overall record.

Drew Valentine, who has been an assistant on the Ramblers’ staff for the last four seasons, takes the reins of the program and is the youngest head coach in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. During his time at Loyola, Valentine has helped the program to three Missouri Valley Conference regular season championships, three postseason appearances, a NCAA Final Four and a pair of Sweet 16 trips, while racking up 99 wins and producing three MVC Player of the Year award winners.

Replacing 2021 MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year, Associated Press Third Team All-America and CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-America selection Cameron Krutwig will be no easy chore, but Valentine will lean on a veteran cast, led by guard Lucas Williamson, who was a Second Team All-MVC and MVC Defensive Player of the Year honoree a season ago. The 6-foot-4 graduate student, who is one of the top defensive players in the country, is the club’s leading returning scorer from a year ago, when he put up 8.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game. 

Joining Williamson in the backcourt are returning starters Braden Norris (8.5 ppg, 3.2 apg) and Keith Clemons (7.5 ppg), who each shot over 40 percent from three-point range last season, with Norris capturing MVC All-Newcomer Team status. Bolstering the Ramblers’ backcourt is two-time MVC All-Bench and 2020 MVC Sixth Man of the Year Marquise Kennedy (7.2 ppg) and graduate student Tate Hall (6.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg), who was a Third Team All-MVC pick in 2019-20.

Aher Uguak, who had a breakthrough season that saw him collect Third Team All-MVC and MVC All-Defensive status, provides a physical presence in the frontcourt and contributed 7.3 ppg, and 3.9 rpg, while knocking down 61.9 percent of his shots from the field in 2020-21. Six-foot-10 sophomore Jacob Hutson should assume the starting role at center and blossomed late in the season, providing quality minutes to spell Krutwig.

Loyola will play a challenging schedule this season, one befitting a team that has made its presence known on a national stage, with contests versus Michigan State, Vanderbilt, DePaul and Davidson, along with possible matchups versus 2021 national champion Baylor, Arizona State, Auburn, Syracuse, UConn and VCU at the Battle 4 Atlantis.