ATLANTA — Everything went almost perfectly for the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers on Saturday night. Entering as slight underdogs to Kansas State was nothing new for this team — the No. 11 seed was doubted and unknown to most of the country entering this tournament.
Loyola-Chicago’s miracle run to the Final Four is even more fun in person
A look inside college basketball’s newest Cinderella on an historic night.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Then came the upset win over Miami in the opening round, followed by wins over Tennessee and Nevada — by this point, the Ramblers were a household name.
Loyola didn’t fade in the spotlight one bit against the Wildcats, even as K-State was coming off of a momentous win over Kentucky two days prior. The Ramblers’ came out firing on all cylinders, starting the first half 8-for-10 with every starter getting involved. After a Donte Ingram three with 15:11 to put his team up 12-5, it was pretty much over.
No, I’m not even kidding — the closest Kansas State came to even tying the Ramblers all night was in the first half, when it was a five-point game with 5:55 left.
The Ramblers won 78-62, and clinched a trip to the Final Four as the fourth 11-seed to ever do so.
It was the exact opposite of how Loyola-Chicago won its last three games, just as fate would have it.
Those were decided by just two points or less. But on this night, it was just different — you could feel it. The Ramblers’ ball movement was so fluid and fast that K-State’s defense was consistently one step behind on seemingly every possession. With five minutes to go, K-State pulled within 12, but that was as close as the Wildcats were going to get.
This, friends, was Loyola’s night. And everyone in the building knew it.
Loyola is a small Jesuit university that lies in north Chicago, sitting right on Lake Michigan. It’s enrollment is just over 16,000, and it felt like there were that many in the building cheering on the maroon and gold.
This tournament has single-handedly put Loyola on the map — one of the school’s photographers I spoke with pregame told me it’s not even that much of a sports school. It has just 13 total men’s and women’s sports.
That’s the greatest part about these Cinderella stories — it changes a culture within the campus community. No longer is Loyola-Chicago just a small Jesuit university off Lake Michigan that’s unknown on a national level. It’s “that school that made history as an 11-seed going to a Final Four” from now till forever.
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“Before the tournament I wouldn’t call our school a basketball school,” freshman center Cameron Krutweg said in the winning locker room. “Throughout the run, when we beat Miami, people started to blow up around the campus and stuff like that. It’s been truly amazing to see all these people around campus. The places where you walk everyday just flooded with students, flooded with alumni, and things like that, and just cheering for you because you’re playing in the NCAA tournament. We got back and it kind of hit me like ‘alright, people are really starting to get behind us.’ When we got back to school I would be walking to class and [people would say] ‘good game, great game’ and you just hear whispers walking around like ‘oh, my bracket’s still alive’ so it’s cool to just experience that.”
The city has even further embraced the Ramblers, too:
Freshman Lucas Williamson, and senior Donte Ingram, are one of two Chi-town natives who are getting to play for both their school and hometowns.
“It means a lot to me,” Williamson said of representing the city. “Growing up in Chicago, born and raised — to show something positive about the city, it’s truly a blessing and I love this opportunity.”
“Chicago, you can be really proud,” Ramblers head coach Porter Moser said on the podium to the crowd. “This team’s coming home!”
This tournament has also turned a 98-year-old Jesuit nun, Sister Jean, into a superstar.
Not going to lie — I came into Phillips Arena as a proud and outspoken Sister Jean fangirl. I loved everything about her, from her scouting reports she gives to the team, seeing her face light up when talking about this team, and her unmistakably sharp wit that will absolutely catch you off guard.
“We always do one game at a time, and so we know what we want to do next,” Sister Jean said after the victory. “A young man said to me the other day ‘sister jean, we broke your bracket, I said keep breaking it! that’s OK with me’. I did have a second bracket bringing them to the top in my Cinderella dream bracket, so we’ll see how far we go.”
Sister Jean hasn’t just been with the team this tournament — she’s been the team’s chaplain since 1994, and is a mainstay on campus. You can see how strong her relationship is with each and every one of the guys, when they’re asked about what she means to them.
“Obviously she’s become a superstar in the tournament but for us, it’s kind of normal,” Krutweg said. “She’s always been around. You know, in the middle of the season she hurt her hip so she wasn’t at a couple games, and it was definitely noticeable for us because she always does that pre-game prayer and kind of gets us calmed down and ready to go.”
Her spirit is infectious, and you literally cannot listen to her glowing words without smiling to yourself — she just does that to you.
It sounds like this run the Ramblers have had is helping her, too:
“When we left Dallas, she’s in a wheelchair obviously, and we’re getting on the plane,” Krutweg said. “And coach calls me and Carson [Shanks], another strong guy to kind of lift her up and carry her onto the plane. And we’re right there on the stairs, there’s like a couple stairs, and she just gets up and starts walking up the stairs, and we were just like ‘I don’t know man, it’s unbelievable!’ And she just got up and walked.”
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
“I’m so happy for Loyola, for my congregation, for the city of Chicago, and the nation,” Sister Jean said. “We need something to boost us, and I think this what is doing it.”
It’s obvious that the odds are stacked against this Cinderella team. There’s no blueprint for something that’s never been done before. But the Loyola Ramblers are just two wins away from a national title — something no one could have predicted at the start of this whole thing two weeks ago.
“We got to win two more to win the national championship,” Krutwig said. “And that’s kind of crazy to say coming from a mid-major school from the Missouri Valley Conference to think we’re two wins away from winning the national title.”
As I watched some of the staffers and fans from the court on Saturday night with tears in their eyes savoring every moment, you had to be moved by both the scene and the emotion. An underdog team doing the unthinkable, now has the chance to do what was once thought impossible.
Why not this team? Why not Sister Jean? Loyola-Chicago may not have what the other blue-bloods in the Final Four have, but there’s something exceptional about this whole team that goes far beyond X’s and O’s. The Ramblers are a force to be reckoned with. The three teams in Dallas better be ready.
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