IT'S OVER! See you in San Antonio!#Loyola – 78
KSU – 62#OnwardLU #MVCHoops #MarchMadness #FinalFour #NoFinishLine pic.twitter.com/eTyGLLNYcE— Loyola Basketball (@RamblersMBB) March 25, 2018
In what could be viewed as a boost for all the underdogs in life, the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers have qualified to play in the NCAA Final Four.
The 11th-seeded Ramblers claimed their ticket to San Antonio with a 78-62 victory over Kansas State Saturday in Atlanta for the South Regional championship.
It is Loyola’s first trip to the Final Four since the Ramblers won the 1963 NCAA championship.
Winners of 14 in a row and 21 of their last 22, the Missouri Valley Conference champions tied with three other programs in the modern history of the tournament as the lowest seed to reach the national semifinals.
In addition, a basketball coincidence has emerged with Loyola-Chicago coach Porter Moser coming to the Alamodome.
The late Rick Majerus brought his Utah Utes to the Final Four in 1998 in San Antonio’s first year to host the event.
Rising through the coaching ranks, Moser always considered Majerus as one of his mentors.
He worked on Majerus’ staff at Saint Louis for four years before taking the job at Loyola-Chicago in 2011.
Majerus, battling heart trouble, died in 2012. He was 64.
“It’s hard to quantify all the things I got from him,” Moser, the MVC Coach of the Year, told the Chicago Tribune recently. “I made the most of four years with him as a friend and a coach.”
Lowest seeds to the Final Four
No team seeded lower than No. 11 has ever made it to the NCAA Final Four since 1985, according to The Sporting News.
The following are the lowest seeds to make it:
No. 11 — LSU (in 1986), George Mason (2006) and Virginia Commonwealth (2011)
No. 10 — Syracuse (2016)
No. 9 — Wichita State (2013)
No. 8 — Villanova (1985), North Carolina (2000), Wisconsin (2000), Butler (2011), Kentucky (2014).
Note: The tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
First half action!
?: @Stevewphoto #OnwardLU #MVCHoops #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/k4g910S2FD
— Loyola Basketball (@RamblersMBB) March 24, 2018