Even in a frustrating season, Loyola Chicago won't say it's been a miserable year
There are plenty of reasons for Drew Valentine to hang his head.
Loyola's head coach is in charge of a 5-17 team that felt injury on top of some insults. Three players in the starting lineup at the start of the season returned against St. Joseph's on Tuesday.
The result was the same, another stumble that marks eight losses in a row.
But, Loyola isn't miserable. That's not the word which comes to Valentine's mind when he sees his team every day.
"These guys are good human beings," Valentine said. "It hasn't been miserable."
Big picture view:
Loyola has been successful under Valentine, which makes this current season difficult to swallow.
In the past four years in Rogers Park, Valentine has won 20 games in three of those seasons. The 2024-2025 season had 25 wins, a second-straight NIT berth and sustained success.
The Ramblers have yet to make the NCAA Tournament since their move to the Atlantic-10. That wait will most likely continue.
But, there's no sense of dread or misery at Loyola. It was business as usual on Monday when the team gathered for practice at Gentile Arena. Even as the losing streak became eight in a row on Tuesday, Valentine knows this is a team that hasn't unraveled.
He's already felt that with a team before.
"Is losing games fun? No, it's not fun," Valentine told FOX 32 Monday. "Our first year in the A-10 was way more miserable."
Loyola went 10-21 in its first season as an Atlantic-10 team. Moving on from the Missouri Valley, where they had established rivalries and sustained success, to a conference with the cleanest slate was a harsh reality check.
Valentine also knows the present-day Ramblers are much more equipped to hand the reality check that has hit the roster.
"Some of those personalities that were around just didn't match with the culture here," Valentine said. "I think the guys that are here now, their personalities are definitely ones that we like to be around."
Those personalities have helped the team endure a difficult stretch where injuries forced the team into at least 12 different starting lineups.
Three of the team's most important players – Justin Moore, Kymany Houinsou and Kayde Dotson – have missed time with injuries. The three returned to the starting lineup against St. Joseph's, but they'll need time to get back up to speed.
The most difficult to overcome has been Moore's absence. He's the point guard and one of the team's top offensive weapons. Last season, he suffered a season-ending knee injury after starting just nine games.
The losing weighs on the team, but so do the injuries. Valentine alluded to Derrick Rose when talking about Moore.
"Our guy D-Rose is the perfect example of it, the fear of what could happen," Valentine said. "It can really get in the way of what could happen. That's kind of what he's dealing with right now."
To overcome how challenging this season has been mentally for Loyola, the Ramblers need wins. Moral victories on the court don't cut it. Instead, some of the voices that understand the program the most get a chance to speak louder.
Dig deeper:
Caleb Reese has been a Rambler since that first season in the A-10. He remembers it clearly.
He credited Will Smythe, who was a redshirt freshman who had spent a year in the program, as a player that helped him get accustomed to the culture Valentine wants at Loyola.
Reese watched as the Ramblers grew from a struggling team with the wrong voices to a team with the right voices. Wins followed, and it taught Reese how strong the voices need to be to cultivate wins.
"I'm thankful that I've had the opportunity to even be here, see what good teams look like and see what success looks like here, and then just try to try to replicate that on the court and try to bring others onto that idea," Reese said. "Because we have keywords in our locker room that signify what good teams did and what bad teams did, and seeing what the good teams did and kind of trying to implement that here."
Before this season, Reese had played in just 26 of Loyola's 101 games in his first three seasons on campus. This season, he finally got a chance to start and he didn't even know it.
Reese had dreams about hearing his name called, getting a chance to have his handshake and enjoying a chance to start for the Ramblers. On Jan. 13, after practicing with the starters all week, Valentine put Reese in the starting lineup.
All the time he spent learning about team culture from Smythe, watching Braden Norris play and talking with Sheldon Edwards was going to pay off.
"Knowing that I was helping the team out, doing scout work and that type of stuff, and then finally getting the opportunity seeing like all the work that I had put in the payoff," Reese said. "That's just an amazing experience."
Rewarding the work Reese put in is part of the program Valentine runs. It's a positive moment the team can see.
It helps keep the misery away from the team, especially as February approaches. That's where potential can really stave off bad thoughts.
An A-10 regular season title might be out of reach, but there's still time for Loyola to get its starting lineup back and win games in February.
"Just getting available bodies and having a team for a week," Valentine said. "For example, if we play two games in a week would really allow us to grow and get better."
Getting there is step one for Loyola, though.
"A lot of people are probably going to underestimate us just because of our record," Reese said. "Getting those pieces back that are influential to the team."