Loyola Believes; Stuns No. 1 Seed Illinois To Advance To Sweet 16

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Five days before the Loyola Ramblers slayed a college basketball giant, Sister Jean Delores Schmidt believed. As it turns out, Porter Moser’s team never lacked faith that it had another NCAA tournament run to make three years after reaching the Final Four.

Making it beyond the opening weekend, however, would take a monumental effort against what many believed to be an unmovable force of biblical proportions. But on the fifth Sunday of Lent and the first of college basketball’s biggest event, faith won out.

And so did Loyola.

The Ramblers became the tournament entry to reach the Sweet 16 by stunning the Midwest Regional's No. 1 seed, Illinois in a 71-58 victory. The win, in which Loyola never trailed, was defined by the Ramblers’ trademark defense and fueled by Cameron Krutwig, the harmonica-playing senior center who willed the Ramblers to 13-point upset victory that became the latest bracket-busting surprise of the tournament’s opening weekend.

Loyola never allowed Illinois’ pedigree as the Big Ten tournament champions and a favorite to reach the Final Four to impede its progress. Instead, it was Loyola that dictated the pace of the their latest takedown of a bigger program that extends back to 2018 when the Ramblers knocked down one obstacle after another before eventually losing to Michigan in the national semifinals.

Yet, as memorable as the that run may have been, Sunday’s victory over the heavily favored Illini — the tournament’s No. 3 overall seed — may have been as program-defining as any.

“The guys believed,” Moser said after Sunday’s victory. “I’ve said this before as the coach of Loyola. It’s amazing what happens when you get a group of guys who believe. These guys believed. From start to finish, it wasn’t just the last 48 hours.

“This wasn’t just something where the switch just flipped these last 48 hours. These guys have invested in what we do and they believe in it. It’s just a great group of guys who believe.”

As NCAA officials attempted to clear Loyola from the floor, the Ramblers remained after being told to do so by Moser, who said he wanted his team to enjoy the moment.

Asked after Sunday’s victory what he learned from the 2018 Final Four run, Moser said one of the biggest lessons came in how to coach his team on a big stage and not to wind his players so tightly. That was never the case against Illinois as the Ramblers led by as many as 14 points. Illinois whittled the lead down to six, but never got closer before Loyola closed out the Illini in the final moments to advance onto the Sweet 16.

The victory was one that Sister Jean predicted last week when the Ramblers’ 101-year-old team chaplain predicted a spot in the Elite 8 for Loyola, which, of course, was predicated on a win over Illinois. Sister Jean, who said she was fine with Loyola busting her bracket in 2018 when she predicted the Ramblers would bow out in the Sweet 16, had no qualms about busting brackets of her own this year by predicting a loss for the Illini.

She didn't stop there.

“If they beat Illinois,” Sister Jean said last week in a Zoom call with reporters, “they can beat anybody.”

Before Sunday’s game, Sister Jean delivered her traditional pregame prayer, which – thanks to coronavirus restrictions – is being delivered by phone to Loyola's locker room as it has been all season. The CBS national broadcast included a portion of the prayer, which was part scouting report and which conveyed the importance of stunning the Illini early. The Ramblers did that and never let up. As she admitted Saturday, Sister Jean kept praying for the entirety of the 40 minutes of Sunday's monumental win, believing Loyola was destined to move on.

After Sunday’s win, Krutwig didn’t go as far as his team’s most recognizable fan but made clear just how big beating the Illini is in the run the Ramblers hope to make. After entering the tournament as the 17th-ranked team in the country, the Ramblers downplayed being seeded 8th in the Midwest Regional, which was part of the hand they were dealt, Krutwig said.

But three years after making a name as one of the tournament’s Cinderella sweethearts, Moser’s players are walking with a different swagger.

“If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best,” Krutwig said. “(Illinois) is a really, really good team and we came out and we just executed, played our game and kind of controlled the game from the start. We just stuck the game plan, really.”

Krutwig added: We feel like we’re one of the best teams in the country. …You’ve got to feel like you’re one of the best teams in the country and you’ve got to play like it.”

The Ramblers will now face Oregon State, a 12-seed, which bounced No. 4-seed Oklahoma State from the tournament Sunday night, capping a day of upsets included Oral Roberts' second shocking win. Asked Sunday if all of the tournament’s early upsets bode well for a team like Loyola, Moser took a measured approach and said he doesn’t allow himself to pay too much attention to what’s happening in other regions of the tournament to keep him from focusing on the work that’s left to be done with his own team.

Like his coach, Krutwig is too busy soaking up the present to get caught up in the business of other teams or to compare what happened Sunday to the magic the Ramblers created four years ago. Instead, he would prefer to create more magic before his career representing the school located in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood that Sister Jean on Saturday compared to The Little Engine That Could draws to a close.

“The Final Four run and everything will hold a special place in my heart, obviously, but this one feels (more) special and sweeter in the moment because I’m here, I’m in the present right now,” Krutwig said.

“But like we said last round, we’ve got more work to do.”

And more believing.