As the 2018 NCAA Tournament field starts to whittle down (we’ve eliminated 44 teams already-where does the time go?), easily the two best stories of the tournament’s first week have been identified with a pair of underdogs who are precisely what makes this event what it is.
Along with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County becoming the first 16 seed to defeat a 1 seed with a fearless performance Friday against Virginia (‘UMBC’ should appear right next to the word ‘onions’ in the dictionary), we also know after Saturday that we’re guaranteed to have at least one double-digit seed remaining after this weekend. Loyola Chicago nipped Tennessee 63-62 in a second round game in Dallas, the Ramblers advancing with a second straight game-winner in the final seconds, this time as Clayton Custer’s jumper hit all parts of the rim and rolled in with :03.6 left for the winning points.
Loyola was outstanding and in control much of the way after falling behind 15-6 just over four minutes into the game, limiting the Volunteers to just 10 points the rest of the first half and eventually leading by 10 with four minutes to play. Tennessee fired back late, hitting several three-pointers and taking advantage of turnovers and missed free throws by the Ramblers to eventually take a 62-61 lead with 21 seconds left after a three-point play by Grant Williams.
As they oft have been this year in tight situations, though, the team from Chicago was cool in the clutch, and Custer’s fadeaway jumper from the right wing bounced three times before going in. Loyola is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1985, also its last NCAA tourney appearance. And we can’t continue to get enough of the Ramblers’ story, as well as Sister Jean, the team’s 98-year old nun/team chaplain.
(Loyola’s run shows yet again the absurdity of just how badly the NCAA Selection Committee continues to misjudge teams like them. It’s all but a sure thing that the Ramblers wouldn’t have been in the tourney if not for winning the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, this despite having 27 wins going into the MVC tourney final and handily winning the regular season title in a double round-robin schedule in the No. 8-ranked league in the country.)
Something that should be noted about Loyola coach Porter Moser, who is rightfully getting a moment in the sun this week: he entered this season with a career record as a head coach of 193-206. This is his seventh year at Loyola, and the Ramblers’ record through his first six was 89-105, and in his overall first 13 years as a head coach he’d had exactly one season with more than 18 wins-the 2014-15 campaign at Loyola, when the Ramblers went 24-13 and won the College Basketball Invitational title. Moser’s teams had never made so much as the NIT before this year, and he was fired from Illinois State after four years, which to some made him a retread when he took over at Loyola, though he served four years as the top assistant to the late, great Rick Majerus at Saint Louis. At some schools, he assuredly would’ve been fired before ever getting to accomplish what his team has this year.
There are many excellent basketball coaches out there. Sometimes results don’t always happen overnight. Sometimes it pays to be patient with coaches. Sometimes, even greatness awaits after a number of years of average or slightly better performance. (See: Middle Tennessee State and Kermit Davis). Loyola gave Moser time, and it has paid off handsomely.
NCAA Tournament Roundup:
- Saturday started out with dominant performances by a pair of March regulars. Villanova drilled Alabama 81-58 with a devastating second-half shooting display. A 26-4 run out of halftime turned a five-point game into a blowout, and the Wildcats hit 17 three-pointers in blowing out the Crimson Tide. Then, Duke hauled past Rhode Island 87-62, the Blue Devils getting a show from all five starters and shooting nearly 60% while the Rams did not put up much of a fight, often looking tentative offensively against Duke’s zone.
- Kentucky also had a red-hot shooting day, hitting 56.3% of its shots in a much-closer-than-the-final-appears 95-75 win over Buffalo. The Wildcats have shot better only one time since the early non-conference season.
- Kansas outlasted Seton Hall 83-79, taking full advantage again of playing in Wichita for what may as well have been sold as home games in the Jayhawks’ season ticket package. Malik Newman scored 28 to lead KU, while the Pirates received a memorable effort from Angel Delgado in his final game: 24 points and 23 rebounds (plus five steals) as the big man did yeoman’s work inside, so fun and so good to see in a sport that increasingly continues to become essentially a three-point shooting contest.
- Gonzaga held off Ohio State 90-84 as freshman Zach Norvell was outstanding with 28 points plus 12 rebounds. A new star is being born for the Bulldogs.
- Texas Tech was another team benefitting from a friendly crowd as the Red Raiders edged Florida 69-66. These two went back and forth all night with eight ties and 12 lead changes, but Zhaire Smith threatened a triple-double to lead Tech (18 points, nine rebounds, seven assists).
- The night ended with another buzzer-beater. Michigan edged Houston 64-63 as Jordan Poole hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to win it, only after the Cougars had missed two free throws with less than four seconds left that would’ve put it away, or at least guaranteed overtime.
Side Dishes:
- There was one NIT game Saturday, and Penn State is now in the quarterfinals after a 73-63 win at Notre Dame. The Nittany Lions are the very type of team that could get a lot out of this tournament, using it as a potential springboard to next year.
- There also was one CIT game Saturday night, as San Diego rallied past Portland State 67-64, getting a buzzer-beater of its own from Tyler Williams. The Toreros continue to fight hard even as they play under interim coach Sam Scholl.
Today’s Menu:
- The NCAA tourney schedule starts with 10 seed Butler against No. 2 Purdue (12:10 p.m. Eastern, CBS). These two met back in December, the Boilermakers cruising to a 15-point win, but March is often the Bulldogs’ time. It would be little surprise if this goes down to the wire.
- Next will be 11 seed Syracuse essentially on the road at No. 3 Michigan State in Detroit (2:40 p.m., CBS). A tough matchup, but if there’s any team whose style can suck the air out of a crowd, it Jim Boeheim’s.
- Another team with a home game is North Carolina against Texas A&M (5:15 p.m., CBS). This is happening too much; either the NCAA needs to ditch the pod system, or get more creative in its sub-regional site locations.
- The schedule gets busier in the evening, the NCAA foolishly acquiescing to networks pushing so many games to Sunday night. Nevada goes against Cincinnati in a 2/7 matchup in Nashville (6:10 p.m., TNT); the Wolf Pack certainly have the offense to pull this off, but do they have the defense? An hour later, Clemson faces Auburn in San Diego (7:10 p.m., TBS), and thinking from the beginning of this season, it’s still incredible to us that one of these two will be in the Sweet 16.
- Coming off the greatest upset in the history of this tournament, 16th-seed UMBC somehow has been relegated to truTV for its second round game against Kansas State (7:45 p.m.). The Retrievers will face the task many teams like them have in the past and few have conquered: duplicating the same level of play that got them by a better team already, but after two days of requests and adulation that oft leaves those teams spent.
- Florida State and Xavier meet in a rematch of a second round game a year ago (8:40 p.m., TNT), one where the Seminoles were the higher seed and got smashed by the Musketeers. It would be no surprise if FSU turned the tables here.
- Maybe the best game of the day is the last one. State rivals Marshall and West Virginia used to meet every year recently, but that stopped and there has been some sparring between the teams’ two coaches, the Thundering Herd’s Dan D’Antoni and the inimitable Bob Huggins. Now they’re forced to play in the NCAA tourney, and it should be fantastic. (9:40 p.m., TBS)
- While all those NCAA games are going on, the NIT also will be busy with three second round games. Mississippi State is at Baylor (Noon, ESPN), Oregon travels to face Marquette (4:30 p.m., ESPN2), and Middle Tennessee State at Louisville will follow (6:30 p.m., ESPN2).
One more CIT game on the slate has Drake at Northern Colorado.
Have a great Sunday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
Amen to you comment on the pod system. Apparently, they’re not going to quit tinkering with the pod system until they completely screw up the tournament. There was a kind of charm back in the old days when matchups weren’t determined by seedings but just thrown in a pot. You could have a No. 1 team play a No. 2, which if my memory is correct was the case back in ’76 when Indiana, a clear No. 1, played No. 2 Marquette in a regional. Those days are long gone, of course, as well as a team passing on a bid because of its region assignment as Al McGuire did with his Marquette team back in ’70 or ’71. They wanted him to go to the Midwest and he wanted the Mideast. When they wouldn’t budge, he went to the NIT!
Love those stories about the tourney in the 70s, we could use some more Al McGuires! I personally would like to see a return to conference champs getting first priority for regionals as much as possible, not higher seeds. The pods are just horribly confusing (Auburn-Charleston in Midwest Region…in San Diego?), and not always very fair, either.