The slipper still fits.

 

Cinderella teams are one aspect of the tournament that anyone can appreciate. They add an element of excited uncertainty and unbalance to the equation. When David slays Goliath not once but repeatedly, we are compelled to wonder – what’s this dude’s secret?  We latch on to the inner-workings of the Miracle team, drawing ourselves to the hidden stories that amplify the team’s compelling nature.

Insert Loyola-Chicago.

This team has the DNA of a true Cinderella. The Ramblers are a double-digit seed that has already reached the Sweet 16. They hail from a small school in Chicago that hasn’t made the tournament in three decades. Their mascot name is fun to say. Their fan base looks a group of Gryffindor cosplayers.

And they have a lovable 98-year-old team chaplain who has become more of a hero than any player on the team.

That’s all well and good, but do these cute anecdotes do anything to explain why this team is still playing  while the likes of Virginia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Michigan State are watching from home? Probably not.

Here are the five real reasons why the slipper still fits.

 

1. They have an experienced rotation of talented, high-major players who are all winners. 

A ‘mid-major’ status may be the first pre-requisite for Cinderella eligibility, but the biggest correlation to post season success against high-major schools is having an experienced roster of winners who boast high-major talent. Winning isn’t new to this team: seven players won state championships in high school, including Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson, who grew up fifteen houses away from one another, played on almost every team together since third grade and led their school to  back-to-back Kansas state titles. Eight upperclassmen play crucial roles on this team and possess the high-major talent that goes a long way in the tournament. Clayton Custer is a red-shirt junior who had previously played at Iowa State under the tutlidge of current Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg. Junior Marques Townes previously starred at Joseph-Meuchen High School with the likes of NBA-talents Karl-Anthony Townes and Wade Baldwin. He attended Fairleigh Dickinson University after flying under the recruiting radar and has been an indispensable glue-guy since transferring to Loyola. Senior Donte Ingram turned down more celebrated programs in order to receive a first-class education and play four years in his home city.

2. They are elite in offensive and defensive efficiency

Historically speaking,  Cinderellas tend to rank towards the top in the nation in either offensive or defensive efficiency.  Lucky for the Ramblers, they rank in the top 50 of both categories. They also ranked 23rd in the nation with an average scoring margin of 10.3 points. Their offensive potency derives from an abundance of ball-handling floor spacers. This results in a “pace and space attack” where everyone gets touches and poses a triple threat in the dribbling, passing, and shooting game. This is a balanced, unselfish team that features five scorers in double figures and assisted on 75% percent of their field goals in the NCAA tournament, best among remaining teams. One of the most efficient shooting teams in the country, Loyola has the eighth best effective field goal percentage, shooting 40% from beyond the arc and 57% from inside.

Versatility is the common thread on this roster. Guard Clayton Custer leads the team in both scoring and assists, mixing clutch shooting with quickness and court vision. Freshman forward Cameron Krutwig, a 6’9″ 260-pound center exhibits an uncanny ability to take defenders off the dribble, can pass as well as the guards, is a lethal scorer shooting 60% from the field, and controls the boards with 6 rebounds a game. According to KenPom.com, Krutwig had the highest offensive rating for any player in his conference. ‘Tweaners’ like Donte Ingram and Aundre Jackson are wing-scoring forwards who possess the ball-handling and jump-shooting skills of a guard.

As good as they are offensively, Loyola-Chicago is even better on defense. The Ramblers only surrender 62 points per game, the fifth fewest in Division I (and gave up exactly 62 points in both of their tournament victories).  They do a great job getting back in order to eliminate fast breaks and force their opponents to execute their halfcourt sets. They smother their opponents with their rotations and quick hands, forcing misses at the rim and racking up a lot of steals without managing to get in foul trouble. In fact, Loyola-Chicago has never once had a player foul out of a game this season.

3. They benefit from great coaching and a great environment. 

All the talent in the world will only get you so far in the college game – it takes a coach to hold it all intact. Porter Moser is an experienced coach who knows how to run a successful program. He worked as an assistant under defensive mastermind Rick Majerus, who is most notably known for taking Utah all the way to the finals in 1998. Moser practices and preaches development. He has built this program from the ground up. When he got the job seven years ago he one player from the state of Illinois; now, they have seven.

“You achieve what you emphasize,” Moser said during Wednesday’s press conference. “You can demand a lot of students and be hard on them if they know that you love and trust them.” The Ramblers’ coach has cultivated a connected team that hangs out together all the time and always emphasizes team over individual. “None of us care about the names of the back of our jersey,” explained Clayton Custer.

Moser does a great job harnessing focus for his team. He has preached the same level of focus and energy all year. Senior guard Ben Richardson called this squad the best practice team he’s ever been on, and added that they are built to handle the spotlight well. “We compartmentalize all the media stuff,” Richardson told the press on Wednesday. “Coach told us to stick to focusing on what we’re used to, staying urgent and staying ready.”

And then there’s Sister Jean, a 98-year-old chaplain whom players call another assistant coach. She leads the team in a pre-game prayer, mixing in the scouting report, and sometimes praying for the refs to make the right calls. After the games she even emails Coach a general message as well as individual notes for each player. “She’s just a wonderful person,” Marques Townes commented about Sister Jean. “She’s the biggest Loyola fan I’ve met in my entire life. Just a blessing to have her around.”

Basketball player turned nun, Sister Jean started out as a grade school teacher and a coach for several girls sports programs. She taught for 40 years at a neighboring woman’s Catholic college and, after it merged with Loyola-Chicago in 1991, joined Rambler nation as an academic advisor. Sister Jean lives in the dorms on campus and holds an office whose door is always open. She continues to be a resource not only for the team for but the university as a whole. She’s witnessed more than half a century of the team’s basketball history and has missed only two home games since becoming the team chaplain in 1994.

She even has her own bobblehead.

 

4. They are battle-tested.

Many mid-major teams struggle when they reach the tournament in large part because they aren’t accustomed to facing as good competition. Loyola-Chicago’s 2017-2018 résumé was a good indication that they’d be up for the challenge, ranking an impressive 31st in the nation in RPI. On December 5th the Ramblers went in to Gainesville and shocked the No. 5 ranked Florida Gators, the school’s first top-five victory since 1984. They’ve only lost once since January 3rd, closing out the season winning 17 of 18 games in the Missouri Valley Conference, a perennially solid mid-major league. All season long they were one of the best teams against the spread, and they pride themselves in playing with a style that’s just as effective against talented opponents.

5. They aren’t afraid of the moment.

A single picture hangs in Porter Moser’s office – it’s a photo of the 1962-1963 Loyola-Chicago national championship team. Moser and his 2017-2018 squad share the same aspirations. The persistent belief in themselves is one of the team’s greatest strengths. Moser has stated time and time again that there’s no quit with this team, a statement that’s been backed up by two incredibly gutsy tournament wins this past weekend.

They started things off by beating Miami on a last-second buzzer beater courtesy of Donte Ingram, which fellow veteran Clayton Custer followed up with another game-winner against Tennessee.

A Miami squad led by Jim Larranaga, the same coach that brought George Mason, also an 11-seed, all the way to the Final Four. Leading into that season for George Mason, Larranaga consulted a long-time friend and sports psychologist for some assistance. The psychologist asked  all of the players to sit with their heads down and dream the biggest dream they could of what they thought could happen that season. After a few minutes he asked for volunteers to share.

Lamar Butler raised his hand and said, “I dreamed that we went to the Final Four.”

And the rest is history. The unlikely underdogs knocked off Michigan State in the first round, came back from a 16-2 deficit against defending-champ UNC to advance to the Sweet 16, and came out on top in an overtime thriller against Connecticut in the Elite 8.

In that run, Coach Larranaga had a few shining moments himself. When they got down by 14 against UNC in the first four minutes, he called a timeout and told his players, “We got these guys right where we want them.” He looked  over and down the UNC bench and said “See? They’re already celebrating because they think the game is over.” And it wasn’t. Towards the end of the run, when George Mason pulled off its most acclaimed victory over UConn, it was Larranaga that helped his team find the confidence that made them a Final Four team. Up by two points with seconds to go, Mason missed a free-throw and UConn drove the length of the court for a buzzer-beating lay-up to force overtime. Leading into the extra session, Larranaga told his huddle to look him in the eye and listen to what he had to say: “We didn’t play defense for one possession. We’ve got 5 minutes left. Let’s play it for every possession.”

After their loss to National-Champion Florida, coach Larranaga approached Lamar Miller and said, “You know, I’m mad at you.”

“You’re mad at me?”

“Yeah, you know, back before the season when Dr. Rotella was here and you said you dreamt we went to the Final Four. You should’ve dreamt we won the National Championship!”

Coach Moser has had that dream. His Ramblers have a roster loaded with the clutch gene, and no moment feels too big for them. Akin to the Cinderellas of the past, this team reminds us that regardless of seeding, the door is wide open for anyone willing to fight for it. “There are good players everywhere [in college basketball]” said Ingram. “Everyone wants to win. We embrace the underdog mindset.”

“Maybe the difference between high-major and mid-major isn’t as big anymore,” Custer suggested, to which Townes added, “People get caught up in, ‘I have to be with a high-major or else I can’t do it,’ It’s not really like that…If you’re with a good mid-major team and you have players and coaches who love each other and have each other’s backs, you can play with the best of them – you can beat anybody. You don’t have to be at a high-major school, as we’re showing right now in this tournament.”

Loyola-Chicago’s Sweet 16 run is no fluke, and with the South Region in ashes they have as good a chance as anyone to extend their season. They face a worthy opponent Thursday night in the Nevada Wolfpack, a non-power conference squad that shares many of the same Cinderella traits, including the resilience to piece together two of the best tournament comebacks in recent history. Nevada plays fast, Loyola likes to slow you down. The Wolfpack are 20-1 when scoring 80 points or more, but the Ramblers have only allowed 80 twice this season.

The fate of two seasons hangs in the balance. I’m not betting against Sister Jean.