Ramblers soak up campus adulation
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt and Loyola-Chicago got quite a reception as they returned to campus on Sunday.
Fans serenaded the 98-year-old team chaplain with chants of “Sister Jean! Sister Jean!” as she was wheeled into the arena.
Some players held up their phones and scanned the crowd, taking it all in a day after securing a spot in the Final Four. The 11thseeded Ramblers face Michigan in the national semifinals on Saturday, and a win would put them in the championship game for the first time since the 1963 team won the title in a landmark tournament run for racial equity.
But on Sunday, Loyola was enjoying the moment.
“How much fun is everybody having?” coach Porter Moser said.
The roars and sea of maroon and gold T-shirts let him know. Loyola senior Maggie Yarnold, seated courtside, came with a sign for Clayton Custer asking him if he’d attend the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority’s formal at Chicago’s Willis Tower with her.
“I think it’ll be hard to say no,” Yarnold said about her chances.
The Rambers join LSU (1986), George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011) as the lowest seeds to reach a Final Four. The other three lost in the semis.
FSU’S HAMILTON APOLOGETIC >> Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton says he wishes he “could have done better” in making postgame comments during an awkward exchange with ESPN reporter Dana Jacobson following the Seminoles’ Elite Eight loss to Michigan.
In a statement posted on the program’s Twitter account Sunday, Hamilton said he was “impacted” by the emotions as he answered questions.
Jacobson asked why his Seminoles didn’t foul after Michigan’s Duncan Robinson grabbed a rebound with Michigan up 4 and just 11 seconds remaining, allowing the clock to run out.
Hamilton became defensive and almost walked off before returning to answer.