Imagine if a 90 year old Nun led a basketball team from a small school in Illinois to a Final Four in the biggest basketball. Loyola-Chicago in 2018 went on a big march madness run in the NCAA Tournament. As a small catholic school in Chicago they dont bring in many five star recruits. By them advancing to the final four was incredible.

The Ramblers basketball team went 25-8 in the regular season under Coach Porter Morser. With the best victory over #5 Florida. Star guard Jalen Hudson, who averaged 15.5 ppg that year was not on his game that day. The Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, after beating Illinois State 65-49. There players were on fire ready for the tournament especially Donte Ingram.

Loyola would go to the NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed and would play Miami in the round of 64. Miami shot free throws up 1 and missed, Marquez towns ran it down to the left wing before passing it to Senior guard Donte Ingram who shot it from the logo to win the game 64- 62 to advance to the round of 32. The Ramblers would have to face a tough #3 seed Tennessee, With 9 seconds left guard, Clayton Custer from Overland Park, Kansas, would drive to the right wing before letting a 16 foot fadeaway jump shot go, the ball hit the backside of the rim, the top of the backboard, rattled around the rim and went in with 3.7 seconds left. Tennessee missed the final shot of the game and the Cinderella was still alive.

Loyola would play the smoking hot #7 Nevada Wolfpack. Nevada was coming of a win over #2 Cincinnati. Loyola would be up 69-65 before Nevada hit a big 3 to put the game within 1 point. Loyola would get the ball in a few times and seal the game by doing that. Cinderella was still moving. Loyola would play #9 Kansas State in the Elite 8. K-State had just come off a 3 point victory over #5 Kentucky. Loyola would dominate the game shooting lights out from the 3 point line and shutting down the Wildcats best scorers. Loyola was going to there first final four since 1963. Loyola would then play the Moritz Wagner and the #3 Michigan Wolverines. Loyola would not play a bad game but Michigan’s post play was to good for them to stop. Loyola would lose the game 69-57 after one of the greatest march madness runs ever.

This Loyola team of small recruits from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska all came together and created something crazy. Anything is possible if you give it your faith and hard work. The Ramblers Cinderella Story will forever be talked about and im happy i could witness it. The links to the websites i used are below.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/2350/season/2018
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2020-05-06/2018-ncaa-tournament-bracket-scores-stats-=5records
https://loyolaramblers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/2017-18