Happy Birthday Sister Jean: A Look Back At Loyola’s Final Four Run!
As Sister Jean turns 106 today, we look back at Loyola’s miraculous Final Four run to celebrate her miraculously long life! We will also look at how they went from Missouri Valley Conference unknowns to America’s annual March underdog darlings to help keep the madness in March Madness! So let’s get into it right now!
An Overachieving Roster and Coach!
Looking back at this roster on paper, it was a very typical mid-major conference-type roster. Bringing in two 3-star recruits and not a single player in the NBA, not counting Lucas Williamson, who plays in the NBA G-League but has never stepped foot in an actual NBA game. If the roster didn’t have any sneaky superstars, we should go to the coaches to see how they led this roster to a Final Four run!
Head Coach Porter Moser is by far the best head coach in program history. With an impressive 188 wins and three conference titles, including two conference tourney titles. He led them to the Sweet 16 in 2021, plus a CBI title in 2015!
Drew Valentine, who was one of Moser’s assistants for the 2017-18 season, is Loyola’s head coach today. Moser left Loyola in 2021 for the much greener pastures of the Oklahoma Sooners. He hasn’t had the same success in Oklahoma as he had in Chicago, but it’s far from a failure. Three of his four seasons have been winning ones.
The Regular Season!
Loyola dominated the regular season with magical moments sprinkled throughout that previewed what was to come. Sister Jean got to watch as the team went undefeated in the Savannah Invitational, beating four teams for a perfect 4-0 record. Then upsetting No. 5-ranked Florida 65-59 on the road to go to 9-1. Loyola easily clinched the regular season Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship.
In the tournament, they started with a heart attack game, beating Northern Iowa by only four points. They steamrolled past Bradley 62-54 and then Illinois State, destroying them 65-49 in the conference title game!
Onto March Madness!
When Loyola entered the tournament, most people didn’t know about their awesome season and barely remembered the Florida upset, so they favored the next big-time Florida team, the sixth-seeded Miami Hurricanes. Much to everyone’s surprise, they went blow for blow with Miami and with seconds remaining were down 62-61. No doubt due to the blessing of Sister Jean, Donte Ingram made the buzzer-beating three-pointer to win 64-62, officially clinching the 11th seed and upsetting the 6th seed.
The miracles didn’t stop there, though, as the 11th seed marched on to face the 3rd-seeded SEC team, Tennessee. To the shock of many, Loyola dominated the SEC team early on, but Tennessee wasn’t going down easy. They staged a comeback late and started to eat away at the lead.
Loyola had their own fight back, however, and with seconds left, they were down 62-60. The clutch spirit surging through Clayton Custer proved to everyone that Loyola could do it again. He hit another buzzer-beater for the team to advance to the Sweet 16!
Surge Into Superstardom!
Overnight, this turned the university from completely unknown to anyone that isn’t Catholic into every American’s favorite team! The 98-year-old Sister Jean became America’s darling. Nevada didn’t care about any of this, however. The team matched each other shot for shot, with Loyola maintaining a slim lead for most of the game. This time, the defense would hold off the wolfpack, clinching another one-point win, 69-68. For the Elite 8, they would face fellow underdogs, ninth-seed Kansas State. They would easily beat them 78-62.
Final Thoughts
A consistent pattern in most Final Fours is that the bright lights are too much for the Cinderellas to handle. A trend Loyola would become a victim of, too, losing to the historic Michigan Wolverines 69-57. Despite the result, the run should be remembered for the mental fortitude and self-belief they showed even when the world doubted them. Thanks a bunch for reading!
