Formidable task

First in an occasional series on trying to turn around one of college basketball’s worst programs.

BALTIMORE — Jimmy Patsos is on the phone discussing next season’s schedule, something he routinely does this time of year. Only now Patsos is on the receiving end of a call from a major conference basketball team looking for an easy opponent on which to fatten its record early in the season.

“You’re the buyer,” Patsos tells the Virginia Tech assistant coach in charge of scheduling. “We’ll come and play whenever you want. You know the golden rule. The man with the gold makes the rules. I know how this works.”

Patsos has seen how it works from the other side.

Between a bookshelf and the wall of his cramped office at Loyola College, he keeps a framed photograph of the Maryland Terrapins winning the 2002 national championship. As an assistant to Gary Williams the past 13 seasons, one of his jobs was to call smaller programs and schedule “guarantee games” for the Terrapins, who pay considerable amounts of money for weaker teams to come to College Park and lose.

Now, in his third week as Loyola coach it is Patsos and his team who are sought as early-season fodder. Patsos has gone from the top to the bottom of college basketball’s world, taking over one of the nation’s worst programs.

He envisions turning Loyola into a “mini-Maryland,” though the Greyhounds have posted 10 consecutive losing seasons — including a 1-27 campaign last season that led to the dismissal of coach Scott Hicks.

Patsos plans to give the program an extreme makeover, changing everything from the locker rooms to courtside seating to the attitudes of those on campus — and in a city that largely ignores Loyola.

Most importantly, Patsos plans to upgrade talent and avoid the academic casualties and transfers that have stung Loyola in recent years.

“There is no question there is a culture of losing here,” says Patsos, who arrived at Loyola with a reputation as a top recruiter. “The joke in the league was that playing at Loyola wasn’t even a road game. [My players] have won only five games in two years. We have to get them feeling good about themselves again.”

One of the first things Patsos did was spend $1,100 out of his own pocket to buy T-shirts to give to players, alumni and visitors in hopes of raising morale and restoring pride. He hopes to recoup the money with a shoe deal as part of an effort to establish a big-time feel for a team that routinely draws hundreds for home games at 3,300-seat Reitz Arena.

“I have to get my own tickets printed here,” said Patsos, an energetic 37-year-old who played basketball at Division III Catholic University. “They didn’t have enough interest to print individual tickets. If you wanted to come, you just paid $6 and went in. That’s how they operated around here. I want season tickets.”

The result of the phone conversation with the Virginia Tech assistant was that Patsos virtually guaranteed his debut as a head coach will be a loss. The Greyhounds will open the season in Blacksburg on Nov. 19.

Patsos sees the game as good exposure against an ACC opponent — the Hokies begin play in that conference next season — and a chance for his team to get a taste of a major college hoops environment. It also is a way for the program to earn much-needed cash — about $40,000 — to refinish its playing floor and remodel run-down locker rooms.

Patsos considers it an early step to returning Loyola to competitive status in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Association, a league that traditionally gets only one NCAA tournament bid. But the MAAC has enjoyed some success: League champion Manhattan, for instance, upset Florida last month in the NCAA tournament.

The 10-school conference consists mostly of small Catholic schools in the Northeast. It has, however, produced some top coaches. Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt coached at Siena, West Virginia’s John Beilein at Canisius and Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser at Loyola.

The Greyhounds have not won more than eight games in any of the past five seasons. Hicks was fired after a campaign in which Loyola flirted with the Division I record for consecutive losses: The Greyhounds lost 31 straight before a victory left them two shy of the dubious record. Returning seniors will bring a cumulative 10-74 record into the season.

Those around the 3,200-student Jesuit college in North Baltimore hope Patsos finally will end their decade of despair.

“I’ll say one thing about Jimmy: He’s not good, he’s exceptional,” Loyola athletic director Joe Boylan said in announcing the hire April 1. “I think back as an Irishman with a little Celtic mysticism: Many years ago on April 1st, we hired a coach. His name was Skip Prosser, and good things happened. Better things are going to happen with Jimmy.”

Prosser’s one-season stint with the Greyhounds (1993-94) was the last time the program had a season to celebrate. Prosser led the Greyhounds to a 17-13 record, the MAAC tournament championship and the NCAA tournament — then left for Xavier. Four coaches and 10 years later, Loyola is still searching for another winning season.

“We are going to be like a mini-Maryland: pressing, uptempo, trying to score a lot of points,” said Patsos, who plans to sell recruits on the picturesque campus, the academic reputation of the school, its location in Baltimore and its proximity to Washington. “You try to sell everything. And they have to have a little blind faith that the basketball program is going to be good.”

Patsos took the job after consulting with Williams and former DeMatha High School coach Morgan Wootten. Both encouraged him to take the position. Wootten said he would guide players to Loyola, as he did the last time the program was winning.

The blueprint for reviving the Greyhounds is to bring in one impact transfer a season, along with at least one Baltimore or Washington high school player, while using the other two scholarships to fill specific needs. Patsos plans to keep recruiting at public schools in Baltimore and Washington and to make regular stops in both cities at top private school programs like those at DeMatha and Gonzaga.

“I don’t have all the answers, but nobody is going to outwork us or care more than we do,” said Patsos, who signed a five-year contract. “Teams from the MAAC are no longer going to come down here and take players from Baltimore and Washington, because we want to keep those kids at home.”

Last season Loyola only had one player from the area, Charlie Bell of the District. Patsos has given the program a Maryland flavor by hiring former Terps point guard Terrell Stokes as an assistant. Former Terps guard Andre Collins said he plans to transfer and will sit out next season to be eligible for the 2005-06 campaign.

Patsos is a one-man promotional machine. He is finalizing a deal to have a summer basketball camp featuring Juan Dixon, the Baltimore native who was an All-American at Maryland and now plays for the Washington Wizards. He hopes that will bring attention to the program and sell season tickets. He also plans to speak at community events, attend other sporting events and visit local restaurants and businesses hoping to create interest and sell tickets.

“We have to be creative,” he said. “I’m like a politician. I’m shaking hands and kissing babies. I’m out on the streets.”

But while the coach is thinking big for the long term, he also is focused on the short term, such as improving next season’s team and getting past the emotional scars and questionable habits of losing. He spent part of one afternoon this week in the academic coordinator’s office checking on his players, especially one who tends to miss morning classes.

“We have some issues,” he said.

Several players returned late from Easter break and missed a team function because weather forced cancellation of some flights. One player got caught in traffic on I-95. Patsos disciplined players for the infractions with a 7 a.m. running session.

“Bottom line is, we didn’t get it done,” said Patsos, who has been gauging his players’ commitment through individual workouts and off-the-court behavior like class attendance. “I have to tell them how we are going to do this. In the meeting, I am going to tell them, ’OK, you want me to be nice, I can be nice. Now I am going to tell you why you were 1-27.’ There is always a reason. These are juniors and seniors. It is all connected.”

And the downtrodden Greyhounds hope Patsos’ past achievements will soon be linked to their future success.