Saturday, March 31, 2018
Loyola’s Moser hopes Ramblers run opens door for mid-majors
San Antonio — Loyola-Chicago’s miraculous run to the Final Four will be remembered for clutch shots, the “Wall of Culture,” a couple of guards who have been playing together since grade-school and, of course, Sister Jean.
Regardless of whether the Ramblers beat Michigan (32-7) in the Final Four tonight at the Alamodome to become the lowest seeded team to reach the national championship game, they have been the stars of this NCAA Tournament. Coach Porter Moser hopes his team’s legacy is more than just memorable moments. Maybe the Ramblers’ success can help turn around a troubling trend for programs from mid-major conferences that are finding it increasingly difficult to secure at-large NCAA bids.
The Ramblers (32-5) are the fourth No. 11 seed to reach the Final Four. The last two were George Mason in 2006 and VCU in 2011. Both of those underdogs came from the Colonial Athletic Association, but unlike the Loyola, they didn’t win their conference to earn an NCAA Tournament bid.
“Those story lines wouldn’t have happened in today’s day and age because they wouldn’t have got in,” LOYOLA-CHICAGO VS. MICHIGAN 6:09 p.m. Alamodome, TBS
Moser said.
In 2006, eight at-large bids went to teams from conferences other than the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference. And that was when the field had still had only 64 teams. In 2011, when the field expanded to 68, seven at-large bids went to teams outside college basketball’s big six conferences. This year, that number was down to five.
Loyola won both the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and regular-season titles, but had the Ramblers stumbled in the league tournament there is a decent chance they would have been left out of the NCAA field. That’s what happened to Middle Tennessee this season. The Blue Raiders went 24-7 overall and 16-2 in the Conference USA, but were upset in the league’s tournament and relegated to the NIT. Meanwhile, Marshall, which won the C-USA tournament, ended up winning a first-round NCAA game against fourth-seeded Wichita State.
The problem, as Moser points out, is the selection committee’s emphasis on schedule strength gives major conference teams a built-in advantage. Syracuse can go 8-10 in the ACC, but simply by having more opportunities to face what is considered better quality opponents the Orange can accumulate more impressive victories than a team such as Middle Tennessee can.
“The thing that bothers me the most is us getting blamed for not having a tough schedule when we’re trying our tails off,” Moser said.
Moser said getting games against teams in the power conferences — even in preseason tournaments — is becoming more difficult. Loyola played at Florida this season and beat the Gators in a buy game, when a power conference team cuts a check to the opponent instead of playing a future game at their place. The Ramblers success this season will make even those games harder for Loyola to get.
“To get bought now is tricky,” Moser said.
Third-seeded Michigan has been playing the underdog card for much of this season. The Wolverines were unranked nationally to start the season, predicted to finish in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten and stood at 19-7 on Feb. 6 after losing at Northwestern. The Wolverines have not lost since, winning 13 straight, including the Big Ten Tournament as the fifth seed.
Against Loyola, Michigan will play the heavy favorite trying to spoil an all-time feel-good story. But the Wolverines also want to make clear they see the Ramblers, who have won 14 straight, as equals.
“They’re not a Cinderella team,” Michigan’s Charles Matthews said. “That is not a good way to explain it. They are a good team. They are a legit team. You can’t keep saying this is luck. This is who they are.”
San Antonio — Don’t mind Kansas or Villanova if the winner starts cutting down nets tonight.
In the most lopsided Final Four bracket since the tournament was expanded in 1985, these two No. 1 seeds square off in what might as well be called the “Big Boy Semifinal.” Barring an injury or something else totally unexpected, the winner will be favored to take the championship two nights later against either third-seeded Michigan or the Sister Jean-inspired 11th-seeded Loyola-Chicago Ramblers.
Monday night’s game is, naturally, not a topic anybody playing or coaching is very interested in discussing at this point — everyone is well-versed in taking it one game at a time.
But it brings up the on-again, offagain discussion of whether the sacred NCAA bracket should be reseeded at some point to ensure the matchup between No. 1s is more likely to take place at the end of the tournament instead of the semifinal.
“My concern is that the very thing that makes the tournament so popular would be diminished in some way,” said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA senior vice president of basketball. “You’d set up barriers as you advance in the tournament that make it harder for the lower seeded teams. Loyola is a great example of, hey, they had one region to play in, there were upsets in that region, and they took advantage of that opportunity.”
Some of the greatest moments in KANSAS VS. VILLANOVA 8:49 p.m. (approx.) Alamodome, TBS
the Final Four have come thanks to underdogs such as Loyola. Two of the poster children for those sort of upsets: Kansas and Villanova.
Coached by Larry Brown and led by Danny Manning, “Danny and the Miracles” of Kansas made it to the Final Four as a No. 6 seed in 1988 and beat No. 2 Duke and No. 1 Oklahoma on its way to the title.
Three years before that, in the first 64-team tournament, Rollie Massimino’s eighth-seeded Wildcats shot 78.6 percent in the final to knock off top-seeded Georgetown 66-64.
And yet, neither of those Final Four brackets was as lopsided as this one. This marks the seventh time since 1985 — but only the second time since 2002 — that two No. 1s have squared off in one semifinal with a guarantee they wouldn’t face another one in the final. In 1986, when LSU and Duke were in the “other” semifinal, their seedings added up to 13. Michigan and Loyola add to 14.
But never have the numbers meant less in the way of predicting winners at the tournament than this year, which featured the first 16-vs-1 upset (UMBC over Virginia), along with the first 9-vs-11 regional final (Kansas State vs. Loyola).
“They might win the national championship,” Michigan coach John Beilein said of his opponent today. “So I’m not saying that seeding is wrong. I’m just saying it’s an inexact science to try to figure out.”