Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
He had just spent the evening muscling up against, pushing, straining, jockeying for position, bouncing off of, doing anything to try to stymie Wright State’s 6-foot-9, 270-pound Loudon Love — a “wrestling match,” WSU coach Scott Nagy called it afterward – and now as he stood on the edge of the Nutter Center court talking to friends after the Raiders’ 56-54 victory. Milwaukee big man Amir Allen was asked about what it was like playing against WSU’s sophomore center.
He said Love was the largest guy they’ve played against this season and used words like “strong…big…tough…physical…good” to describe him.
He never mentioned “sensitive.”
And none of the other Milwaukee players would either, not after Love roughed them up with 21 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth double double of the season.
Milwaukee guard Darius Roy certainly didn’t see the warm and fuzzy side of Love when he tried to launch a shot only to have Love smother the attempt with his arms and body as though he was a big, beefy blanket being draped over him.
It was the same about four minutes later when Panthers guard Jake Wright – who once played for the Miami RedHawks – tried to turn and shoot, only to come face-to-chest with Love, whose arms were extended skyward. The unexpected wall of humanity caused Wright to go up and come back down with the ball and he was whistled for travelling.
Sportswriters and coaches weren’t thinking of Love’s sensitive side either when they voted him the Horizon League Rookie of the Year last season and made him a preseason, first team all-league pick this past fall. Neither were the folks who put him on the preseason watch list for the Lou Henson Award, which honors the top big man at the mid-major college level.
Yet, those who are closest to him – his Raiders teammates and coaches and especially Nagy – have seen the sensitive side.
