No program in college basketball has a more singular, heartbreaking, and beautiful legacy than Loyola Marymount. In 1990, Paul Westhead’s Lions were the most exhilarating show in the sport: an 11-man run-and-gun system that produced the highest-scoring team in Division I history at 122.4 points per game. Then came the moment that froze time. On March 4, 1990, during the West Coast Conference tournament, star forward Hank Gathers — the nation’s leading scorer and rebounder the year before — collapsed on the court from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and died. He was 23. What followed is one of the great tributes in sports history: Gathers’ best friend and teammate Bo Kimble, an All-American, shot his first free throw of every NCAA Tournament game left-handed in Hank’s memory, and the grieving Lions stormed to the Elite Eight, beating Michigan along the way. The 1989-90 Lions remain immortal — and the 1989 trio of Jeff Fryer, Kimble, and Enoch Simmons all earned honorable-mention All-WCC recognition in a program-defining season.
That history — the joy of Westhead’s system, the tragedy of Gathers, the heroism of Kimble — is the soul of LMU basketball, and every Lions team since has played in its shadow. The modern era has been about steady, respectable competitiveness in a league increasingly dominated by Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. The program’s current steward is Stan Johnson, now entering his seventh season. Johnson, a former Marquette assistant under Steve Wojciechowski, has built the Lions in his own image: tough, defensive-minded, and competitive. His teams have won two multi-team event titles — the Jamaica Classic in 2022 and the Cancun Challenge in 2024 — and he’s kept LMU in the WCC’s middle tier through an era of constant roster churn.
Last season was a near-miss. The 2025-26 Lions finished 15-17 overall and 6-12 in the WCC, tied for ninth — a record that undersold a team with real talent. That talent got its due in March, when the WCC’s 12 head coaches voted three Lions to the All-Conference Honorable Mention team: senior guard Myron “MJ” Amey Jr., junior guard Rodney Brown Jr., and sophomore forward Jalen Shelley. It was the first time LMU had produced three honorable-mention selections since Fryer, Kimble, and Simmons in 1989 — a beautiful echo of program history. Amey led the Lions in scoring at 14.7 points per game, buried 80 threes (third in the WCC), and ranked sixth in the league in steals; as captain, he was the program’s heartbeat. Brown was right behind at 14.2 points per game, and no player in the WCC hit more threes — 86 at a 2.87-per-game clip. Shelley, the former four-star USC transfer, emerged as a double-double machine: 13.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, third in the league in defensive rebounding.
The good news for 2026-27: all three are back. Amey returns for his senior year as the undisputed leader, Brown for his junior season as the league’s most dangerous perimeter shooter, and Shelley for his sophomore campaign as one of the WCC’s rising frontcourt stars. Around them, Johnson has assembled a deep, experienced roster. Junior guard Jan Vide — who led the entire FIBA U20 EuroBasket 2025 in scoring at 17.9 points per game for Slovenia — gives LMU a high-ceiling playmaker with international pedigree. Senior guard Nakyel Shelton, a transfer from Eastern Illinois where he averaged 17 points per game, brings physical scoring and rebounding from the backcourt. Senior guard Tanner Thomas led Sacred Heart in both points and rebounds last season and plays the wing with versatility on both ends.
The frontcourt has real size. Senior center Rick Issanza, a 7-foot presence from Kinshasa, Congo, and senior forward Rokas Jocius, a 6-10 Lithuanian, give Johnson legitimate rim protection and rebounding. Junior forwards Aaron McBride and George Tupy add depth, while the freshman class — guards Cooper Smith (Milwaukee), Marley Zeller (Portland), and AJ Thomas (Lancaster, California), and forwards Jael Martin (Carlsbad) and Josh Dalton (Concord, North Carolina) — restocks the pipeline. Senior guard Kevin Carney, a Menlo Park native, provides program continuity.
The home is Gersten Pavilion, the 4,156-seat gym on the bluff in Westchester, Los Angeles, where the sightlines are close, the student section is loud, and the program is in the midst of a long-term facilities vision that includes expanded training, film, and academic spaces. Johnson’s mantra — #RaiseTheSTANdard — is everywhere, and the 2026-27 home slate is one of the most intriguing in years: the Lions will host new WCC member Denver along with Pacific, Portland, Saint Mary’s, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Seattle U at Gersten.
The WCC remains the land of the giants. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s set the terms, and the league’s expansion — Denver’s arrival is part of a broader WCC reshaping — adds new wrinkles. But the league’s middle is genuinely up for grabs, and a veteran LMU team with three all-conference-caliber players and one of the nation’s top young international guards has as good a claim as anyone’s.
What defines Loyola Marymount in 2026-27 is the tantalizing gap between history and the present — and a roster that might finally close it. The Lions haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990, the longest drought in the WCC, and every season in Los Angeles begins with the dream of ending it. This is the deepest, most experienced team of the Johnson era, led by a captain in Amey, a sniper in Brown, a star-in-waiting in Shelley, and a Slovenian phenom in Vide. Hank and Bo’s banners hang over Gersten. The mission, as always, is to make them proud — and this year, the pieces might just be in place to do it.