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This Day In Sports…March 31, 2018:
One of the more remarkable runs in NCAA Tournament history ends in the Final Four when Loyola Chicago, a No. 11 seed, falls to Michigan 69-57. The Ramblers, in tandem with their chaplain, 98-year-old Sister Jean, captivated fans with their clutch play. Loyola Chicago had a hoops history, winning the national championship in 1963, but college basketball had seen massive change in the 55 years since, and this was a remarkable turn of events.
It was Loyola Chicago’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 1985, the first year the Big Dance expanded to 64 teams. In six previous seasons under coach Porter Moser, the Ramblers had reached the 20-win threshold only once. But they sliced and diced the Missouri Valley Conference, winning the regular season and league tournament titles. And the world was about to discover the magic of Sister Jean.
Late-game heroics carried Loyola Chicago from there. The Ramblers upset Miami in the first round with a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Donte Ingram, and Sister Jean was a focal point of the celebration. In the second round, Clayton Custer’s jumper with six seconds remaining spelled doom for Tennessee. And in the Sweet 16, LUC took down Nevada on a three from Marques Townes with eight seconds left. The Ramblers had an easier time with Kansas State in the Elite Eight before running into the Wolverines, the eventual national runners-up.
Boise State watched the story unfold that March from a unique perspective. The Broncos had handed Loyola its worst loss of the season in an 87-53 drubbing at Taco Bell Arena the week after Thanksgiving. The Ramblers came in undefeated and eight days later would upset No. 5 Florida, but they certainly didn’t look like a Cinderella story in the making that night. The 34-point margin of victory was the Broncos’ largest over a Division I opponent in almost four years. Boise State did it by working over the Ramblers on defense and on the boards and lighting it up on offense. The Broncos knocked down 16 three-pointers—six of them from Justinian Jessup—and shot 57 percent from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Sister Jean is alive and kickin’ at the age of 105 and was honored with a big birthday bash last August at Loyola Chicago. She’s still involved in the Ramblers program, commuting from her assisted living facility via shuttle to provide students with her cherished moral support. Sister Jean remains the team chaplain for the men’s basketball team, a role she has filled for 31 years. A story last September at Today.com (the NBC show’s website) noted that Sister Jean still works five days a week. “I feel fine (at 105),” Sister Jean said. “I eat well, I sleep well and hopefully I pray well.”
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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