Teams arrive at festive Final Four
ANTONIO» Loyola SAN
Chicago’s team plane pulled into a private hangar, and the players were serenaded by a brass band playing “Deep in the Heart of Texas” while they walked a festive carpet to a team bus emblazoned with their logo and colors.
The 11th-seeded Ramblers sure looked like they belonged when they rolled into San Antonio in style for the Final Four.
Several hours later, the excitement still hadn’t worn off when the biggest underdogs in recent NCAA Tournament history joined powerhouses Kansas, Villanova and Michigan at the Alamodome on Thursday morning for the four teams’ first workouts.
“We dreamed of getting to this moment, and now we’re here,” said Loyola Chicago senior Aundre Jackson, a native Texan.
The teams and their legions of fans arrived in a downtown decked out in vibrant colors, with the Final Four logo plastered on most available surfaces from the River Walk to the Alamo. The players even had brightly colored socks on their chairs in their locker rooms.
The unlikely Ramblers are downright dazzled by the Final Four festivities, but it’s also a new experience for the players at Kansas, which hadn’t made it since 2012, and Michigan, which was last here in 2013.
Jayhawks star Devonte Graham did a double take when he saw larger-than-life photos of himself and several teammates lining the Alamodome hallway outside the Kansas locker room.
“Yeah, OK, I took some pictures of it,” Graham said with a laugh.
Several Villanova players already won it all in Texas two years ago. The media obligations, fan frenzy and difficult game preparations are nothing new to Jalen Brunson, the junior guard named AP’s national player of the year Thursday.
“I think it’s definitely an advantage for us that we’ve been through it before,” Brunson said.