There Is Nowhere to Look but Up

Loyola College is in danger of becoming the Prairie View A&M; of college basketball, having lost 29 consecutive games to spiral within four of the NCAA record held by Grambling.

Although Loyola is in little danger of matching Prairie View A&M;’s record for futility, which reached 80 consecutive losses in football from 1989-98, players at the Baltimore school take little solace in close calls.

Six games have been decided by five points or fewer, yet starting guard Jamaal Dixon won’t be satisfied until the Greyhounds secure their first victory since a 74-69 overtime triumph against Rider on Jan. 19, 2003.

“Everybody teases us about it,” Dixon, a freshman who helped his high school team in Massachusetts win three league titles, told Associated Press. “My whole high school career, I probably lost about 12 games altogether.

“Then to come here and struggle just to get one win -- it’s not fun.”

Loyola’s next chance to break its skid comes today at Manhattan, which rests atop the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference standings.

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Trivia time: What happened to Willie Mays 25 years ago today?

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D.C. stands for Departed Coaches: Eddie Jordan of the Washington Wizards, who has been on the job for all of seven months, became the longest-tenured pro coach in the nation’s capital this week when Marianne Stanley of the WNBA’s Mystics resigned.

The Redskins, Wizards, Capitals, Mystics and D.C. United have all changed coaches since June, and Jordan realizes he won’t be around too much longer if the Wizards continue to struggle.

“One day my day’s going to come,” Jordan told Associated Press.

“I don’t know when. We’re all hired to be fired.”

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Carolina barbecued: The Sporting News asked some of its staffers to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl, and the results were heavily in favor of the New England Patriots.

Responded senior writer Dennis Dillon, who picked the Patriots to win, 23-17: “If New England’s defense can shut down Peyton Manning, what do you suppose it will do to Jake Delhomme?”

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Trivia answer: Mays was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility after being named on 409 of 432 ballots.

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And finally: Gary Shelton of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times lists South Florida men’s basketball Coach Robert McCullum as having the toughest job in the Tampa Bay area, ahead of such sad sacks as Devil Ray reliever Danys Baez and Buccaneer Coach Jon Gruden.

“McCullum’s challenge isn’t just the most imposing in Tampa Bay, you could measure it against anyone’s in the nation,” Shelton wrote. “McCullum is the coach of a team with very little tradition and a small following in a state with limited talent.

“Yet, very soon, he will be thrown into a room with the new Big East, where all 15 of the other teams have reached a Final Four. South Florida never has won an NCAA tournament game. In other words, McCullum’s job is a little like trying to win a sword fight with an olive fork.”