Love brings heart to R-Lions
There is going to be a whole lot of Love in the Niagara River Lions dressing room this season.
When Eddie Ekiyor suffered a torn ACL playing overseas, Niagara head coach/GM Victor Raso went searching for a replacement and found 6-foot-8, 260-pound Louden Love, a two-sport athlete in high school, who was offered a scholarship at offensive tackle by Illinois.
“He is Eddie’s replacement and he brings a lot of similar attributes and personality. He is going to be a guy who runs through a wall for his teammates,” Raso said. “He rebounds the ball really well, he is a great teammate and he is an energy giver.”
The 26-year-old Geneva, Ill., native played for former River Lions assistant coach Danielle Boiago with the Memphis Hustle in NBA G League.
“She gave him a very good character reference and I have had him on my radar for the past few years,” Raso said. “He is a big body, he has skill to his game and he is a good solid player who we are going to rely on a lot.”
With Memphis, Love played in 43 games and recorded 8.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 53.8 per cent from the field.
The former two-time Horizon League Men’s Basketball Player of the Year Award while at NCAA Division 1 Wright State also has an offensive upside.
“In college, he was a scorer out of the post but in the G League they don’t really allow players to post up that much because of the style of game but he has similar skill to Eddie in the post,” Raso said.
Love last played in Italy for Victoria Libertas Pesaro of the Lega Basket. In six games, he averaged 6.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 15.8 minutes per game of playing time.
“The CEBL (Canadian Elite Basketball League) was in my mind if I was going to play this summer. I was going to play in Puerto Rico or the CEBL because those are the two best summer options just competition-wise,” Love said. “Then I started looking into who was signing across the league and saw that it was super competitive so when the opportunity arose I took it, for sure.”
His other option was to not play and just get in needed repetitions but feels Niagara is the perfect balance of reps and game action.
He knew right away he was in a good spot in Niagara.
“It was the people when I first met them. It was easy because they are all upbeat and very in tune with each other. It works out very well to be welcomed into a situation like that and so far I have really enjoyed it.”
Love fills an important role on the team.
“I am a staple guy for the grunt work: the rebounds, the toughness and the physicality. On top of that, I think I have a good playing style. They seem to get it through the fours and fives a lot. There’s a lot of good passing and spreading the ball around.”
The grunt work is clearly the least glamorous part of his role.
“But that stuff usually finds a way to pay off on its own. I will still get some here and there but I am not going out of my way to get mine because I think that is the wrong way to go about things in this kind of situation. With the flow of the ball and the way these guys play, I think it is going to find everybody.”
He has been a pro for about three years, minus a year and a half he spent rehabbing an injury, and Love feels he is getting back to where he wants to be and maybe a little above it.
He was selected 10th over all in the 2021 NBA G League draft by the Texas Legends. He averaged averaging 8.4 points, 7.1 rebounds 54.3 per cent shooting and 23.6 minutes of playing time per game but was waived by team in January 2022 after suffering a season-ending knee injury.
“I had that, I played a full healthy season and now I am going to keep it rolling,” Love said.
His initial impressions of Niagara are favourable.
“I drove up here from Ohio and it’s a pretty drive after going over the Peace Bridge. I like it so far.”
Niagara opens on the road May 24 on the road against the Brampton Honey Badgers before hosting Brampton May 30 at 7 p.m. at the Meridian Centre.
Visit www.riverlions.ca/tickets for more information.
