Davidson can win the A-10, and running the show is a guard who ‘never won a layup line’
If you’ve ever come to a college basketball game early enough to see the warmups, you know it sometimes looks like a dunk contest. One after another, a bunch of tall guys slam the ball through the rim.
And then there’s Davidson point guard Foster Loyer, a shade under 6 feet tall, looking about as imposing as a team manager.
“I’ve never won a layup line,” Loyer said. “My friends and I started saying that even back in high school.”
But start the game and you realize one thing quickly: Loyer can play.
Loyer has been one of the biggest keys for a scalding hot Davidson team that has won its past 12 games in a row entering Friday’s game at Richmond and is a threat to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018.
Loyer ranks No. 4 in the country in 3-point percentage, having made 44 of his 88 attempts this season for an even 50%. He basically serves as coach Bob McKillop’s avatar on the floor, speeding up or slowing down games at will.
Loyer can’t dunk. He used to be able to, he said, but then he messed up his knee in high school. But you want the ball in his hands at the end of games when it’s time to shoot clutch free throws, because he’s 90.5% from the line (tied for 19th in the country).
A Michigan State transfer, Loyer came to Davidson this season looking for a bigger role and has found it for the Wildcats, who are off to their best start in 52 years. At 13-2, Davidson already has a road win over then-No. 10 Alabama and will be a candidate for an NCAA at-large bid if it doesn’t win the Atlantic 10 tournament outright in March.
“The addition of Foster has been very, very noticeable,” said Davidson coach Bob McKillop, whose team is off to its fastest start in his 33 years as the Wildcats’ head coach. “His performance is clearly validated by his numbers. But our team’s success is validated by his leadership. … He had only been on our campus three months and our guys had elected him a captain.”
Going to Michigan State
Loyer’s basketball background is unusual, which may be best represented by this quote.
“In Philadelphia, when I was little, I’d watch Allen Iverson get his hair braided before every game,” Loyer said.
This was possible because Loyer’s father, John, has been an NBA scout, assistant coach and even an interim head coach once, for the Detroit Pistons. John Loyer is now the director of pro scouting for the L.A. Clippers. Katie Loyer, Foster’s mother, was a college volleyball player at Indiana.
When John Loyer was an assistant coach in Philadelphia, Foster was a kid who would be a ballboy during every game and rebound for the players in shootarounds. In some ways, it was similar to the way that Davidson icon Steph Curry grew up, although Dell Curry was a player and not a coach for the Charlotte Hornets.
In high school, Foster Loyer became the 12th-highest scoring player in the state of Michigan while leading his Clarkston High team to two state championships. He started developing his aggressive attitude on the court during those years.
“I think that’s a big thing as an undersized guard,” Loyer said. “If you’re playing at a high level of basketball, you can’t be arrogant, but you have to have that confidence that every shot is going in.”
McKillop and his staff began recruiting Loyer early, hoping to lure him down South. But Michigan State was only 70 miles away and Loyer kept getting better, turning himself into a consensus four-star recruit. During his own visit, McKillop saw Tom Izzo walking into the gym to see Loyer and thought to himself: “We’re done.”
But Davidson wasn’t done with Loyer — it just took a while. Loyer took the scholarship offer at Michigan State and stayed for three seasons — one of them with a Final Four team. But he was mostly a reserve for the Spartans, playing just 8.7 minutes per game in those three years. So he entered the transfer portal, looking for a new opportunity.
“I was interested in having a more predominant role and being kind of that lead guard,” Loyer said.
‘Foster is our leader’
That’s exactly how it has worked out. Loyer can score with a bit of daylight and averages 16 points per game. The redshirt junior was the A-10’s Player of the Week in early January when he averaged 22 points in two conference wins.
But on Tuesday against Massachusetts, Loyer was more of a facilitator, with 11 points, six assists and zero turnovers. He’s reminiscent of Jason Richards, another true point guard who could score when needed and who started for Davidson during the run to the Elite Eight in 2008 (at the time, Curry was a shooting guard).
Davidson was down by a point to UMass at halftime, and Loyer took it upon himself to talk to his teammates.
“Foster is our leader,” senior forward Luka Brajkovic said, who is also a team captain. “When he talks, everybody listens … And if your leader goes out there and plays really tough, you just follow.”
Brajkovic had 25 points and 11 rebounds in that game, which Davidson ended up winning, 77-67. Shooting guard Hyunjung Lee, a 6-7 sharpshooter with NBA draft potential, had 18 points. Junior Michael Jones also averages in double figures for a balanced team that can shoot the three from all five positions and made only three turnovers in the entire game against UMass.
Picked sixth in the A-10 in the preseason, Davidson is about to enter the meat of its conference schedule. The Wildcats don’t have a true superstar and the road ahead “isn’t paved,” as McKillop said.
But Loyer is a future head coach who happens to play college basketball right now. With him running this show and McKillop directing it, Davidson has a serious shot.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
