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Philly native Sean Lloyd finds home at Southern Ilinois

06/30/2015, 2:45pm EDT

By Garrett Miley

Garrett Miley (@GWMiley)
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West Philadelphia’s Sean Lloyd is no stranger to starting at a new school.

Most recently of Mt. Zion Prep in Baltimore, Lloyd bounced around to three different schools in his final three years of high school.

The athletic 6-foot-4 wing is hoping he's found a place to stay, however, committing to play for Southern Illinois yesterday.

Lloyd made the announcement on his Twitter account.

Beginning his high school career at Franklin Learning Center, Lloyd played his freshman and sophomore seasons there before transferring to Haverford School for the 2012-13 season to repeat his sophomore year.

After one season for the Fords, Lloyd once again changed schools. In October of 2013, Lloyd went to Imhotep for his junior season, but it was ruled that Lloyd was a senior for the 2013-14 year. Thus, a prep year in 2014-15 at Mt. Zion Prep (Md.) helped the journeyman find a college team.

After Lloyd was ruled to be eligible by the NCAA two weeks ago, Salukis head coach Barry Hinson and the rest of the Southern Illinois staff reached out to Lloyd and the process took off from there. Lloyd took an official visit to the university this past weekend and committed to the program before heading back home.

Lloyd and his family felt at home at SIU.

“I took a visit this weekend and it went very well,” Lloyd told CoBL. “The coaching staff is great, the team welcomed me with open arms and it’s very family oriented.”

Hinson lacks a proven two-way guard on his roster and he’s hoping that Lloyd can fill that void. The only guard on the Salukis roster 6-4 or taller is Armon Fletcher, who will be a redshirt freshman in 2015-16 after sitting out last season.

“They need a big guard,” Lloyd said. “Most of their guards are little right now so they need a big guard that can come in that can score and defend.”

Southern Illinois, aside from being a good fit for Lloyd in terms of culture and feel, makes sense for Lloyd because of the opportunity to play as a freshman. Hinson is willing to give the incoming freshman a guard to contribute out of the gate.

“He’s a great guy,” Lloyd said. “He was pretty straightforward with everything. He told me if I do what I have to do I could come in and play. If I don’t do what I have to do I will just sit on the bench. He kept it real with me and my family. That was a good thing about him.”

After finishing 12-21 last season and finishing a disappointing 4-14 in conference play, Southern Illinois is still looking to return to their winnings ways of the mid-2000’s. The Salukis finished 29-7 and made a Cinderella run into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2007.

They made it clear to Lloyd that the goal is to return to that level of play.

“They were just talking to me about trying to get back to those traditions because the last two years wasn’t as ‘winning’ as they wanted them to be,” he said.

Joining Lloyd in Southern Illinois backcourt in 2015-16 is former Harcum guard Leo Vincent from Bensalem, Pa.

Lloyd will go to Southern Illinois to begin workouts and school on August 24.