Popular nun’s hoops IQ is ‘off the charts’

It was November, just before freshman Cameron Krutwig’s first game with Loyola-Chicago. In the quiet of a team prayer, team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt called upon divine guidance.

“When we got in there and she started talking about the scouting report, and watch out for him and watch out for that, I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen this before,’” said Krutwig, Loyola’s center.

She’s 98 and a Jesuit nun, but that doesn’t mean that Sister Jean can’t break down a ball screen. The woman who has become the star of the NCAA Tournament offers far more than spiritual guidance to the Ramblers, who play Kansas State today at Philips Arena for the South region championship.

“So she’s kind of like another assistant coach, to be honest,” guard Donte Ingram said.

Sister Jean emails players a scouting report before games, and the detail is far more than a rehashing of media-guide bios or a reciting of statistics, players said.

She usually breaks down the opponents’ top four or five players for Loyola to lock in on, guard Cameron Satterwhite said. Then, when the Ramblers go into the scouting-report meeting, “our coach has the same five,” he said.

“Honestly, we’re at a point where we’re just used to her,” backup center Carson Shanks said. “She’s got a basketball IQ that’s off the charts. She just happens to be a 98-year-old nun.”