Sister Jean steals show at Final Four media day
SAN ANTONIO — Forty news cameras were trained toward a small stage. Approximately 200 reporters crammed into the room, waiting for the star.
Then a moderator made an announcement: “Sister Jean is in the building.”
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was wheeled in, up a ramp and — naturally — onto center stage.
“Ready to roll?” moderator Mark Fratto asked her. “You better believe it,” Sister Jean replied. The 98-year-old Loyola team chaplain was the celebrity of Friday’s Final Four media news conferences. Actually, who are we kidding? She’s the celebrity of the tournament.
“I walked by, I thought it looked like Tom Brady at the Super Bowl,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said.
Reporters who have covered the NCAA Tournament for decades and NCAA officials could not recall a breakout-room session with more media. With a gold-and-maroon scarf draped around her neck and wearing a black Loyola shirt with her letterman’s jacket on her lap, Sister Jean marveled at the attention.
“I’m amazed at what the different channels and radio stations and all the reporters from all the papers and so forth do,” she said. “I think to myself, ’Oh my, don’t let it go to your head.’ I haven’t done that, nor has the team.”
In the midst of the hoopla, Sister Jean offered thoughts on praying (“I always ask God to be sure that the scoreboard indicates the Ramblers have the big ’W’”), mottos for life (“Worship, Work and Win”) and whether God is a basketball fan (“He’s probably a basketball fan more of the NCAA than the NBA”).
Witty as usual, she said about her best-selling bobblehead (the third version ever made of her), “I think the company could retire when they’re finished making these bobbleheads.”
Moser later joked about his original autographed Sister Jean bobblehead, “I might be a pseudo name on eBay putting it out there.”
Loyola players were tickled about the nun they’ve loved for years receiving this recognition.
They joked about how much more packed her media session was than theirs but appreciate that Sister Jean’s positive messages are being broadcast around the globe.
“We all think it’s awesome,” guard Clayton Custer said. “We laugh about it too. It’s really cool. We’ve all known about her for so long. We’ve known how special she is. It’s cool that everybody in the world knows who she is now and they’re getting to see how cool she is and how amazing she is really.”
Sister Jean was fitting in time for Mass on Good Friday and also planned for Easter Sunday in San Antonio. Yes, she said, she plans for the Ramblers to beat Michigan on Saturday and still be in Texas, playing for the national championship on Monday. For her part, she’s having a blast. “This is the most fun I’ve had in my life,” she said. And what a life she’s had. She left reporters with one last gem before being wheeled out of the room.
“You’re great people,” she said. “Don’t let anyone put you down.” Saturday Alamodome, San Antonio. No. 11 Loyola (Chicago) vs. No. 3 Michigan, 6:09 p.m. Michigan by 5.5 (129.5). No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 1 Villanova, 8:49 p.m. Villanova by 5 (155). TBS
The Wildcats shoot 3s like no other, play suffocating defense and have that look — the one they had winning a national title two years ago.
The other No. 1 seed to get through, the offensively-gifted Jayhawks are back in San Antonio, where Bill Self won his only title in 2008.
Stingy D or raining 3s, these scrappy Wolverines find ways to win.
Sister Jean gets much of the attention, but the Ramblers have rambled into the Final Four with a free-flowing, nothingto-lose style.
Jalen Brunson, Villanova. Devonte’ Graham, Kansas. Moritz Wagner, Michigan. Clayton Custer, Loyola.