Maryland men’s basketball coach Gary Williams had some advice for Jimmy Patsos when he was hired at Loyola College in Baltimore four years ago. Williams, who had coached at Boston College, one of the oldest Jesuit universities in the country, knew that coaching at a Catholic school had its own set of challenges.

“When I took this job, [Williams] said, ‘Let’s go over a few things about coaching at a Jesuit school,’” said Patsos, who was Williams’ assistant at Maryland for 13 seasons and helped the Terrapins win a national title in 2002. “It’s hard to pinpoint what the differences are, but there are differences.”

For Patsos -- a Catholic who had gone to a Jesuit high school in Boston and played basketball at Catholic University in Washington -- going to Jesuit Loyola wasn’t as much of a departure as going to Boston College had been for Williams, who isn’t Catholic. Yet even though Patsos is very comfortable in a Catholic setting, he recognizes the subtle distinctions between religiously-affiliated schools and secular ones.

“I do think at religious schools you do have to conduct yourself just a little bit differently, not a ton differently,” Patsos said. “You’ve got to be yourself. . . . I’m trying to follow the mission of the college, and I think I’ve done a good job of that.”

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Defining Sarah-Jo Lawrence as simply a basketball player would be too limiting. The senior guard is an explosive scorer with the No. 17-ranked George Washington women’s basketball team. She carries a 3.85 grade-point average in her double major of communications and sociology. She is a member of Athletes in Action, a Christian group for student-athletes, and president of the Jackie Robinson Society, a student organization that sponsors discussions about Robinson and participates in community service projects. She has twice won the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award, given to outstanding minority student-athletes around the country, and she is one of the 10 finalists for the senior CLASS award, presented annually to one men’s and women’s senior basketball player. (CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School.)

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