Loyola-Chicago Basketball: How the Ramblers reached the Final Four

ATLANTA, GA - MARCH 24: Head coach Porter Moser of the Loyola Ramblers celebrates after defeating the Kansas State Wildcats during the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament South Regional at Philips Arena on March 24, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. Loyola defeated Kansas State 78-62 to advance to the Final Four. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

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ST. LOUIS, MO – MARCH 4: Members of the Loyola Ramblers hold the Missouri Valley Conference Champions trophy after beating the Illinois State Redbirds during the Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tournament Championship at the Scottrade Center on March 4, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

Season review for Loyola-Chicago

Teams who bring back most of their talent from the previous season tend to have an advantage in November. The Ramblers benefitted from that to win their first seven games of the season. The most impressive came in a neutral site game against UNC-Wilmington, where they dropped 102 points on them.

Loyola-Chicago’s positive momentum came to a screeching halt in Idaho, where they fell to Boise State by 34 points.

Once conference play started, the Ramblers started out slow, before winning 14 of 15 games to end the regular season and winning the regular season title outright. The one loss came on the road at Bradley.

Loyola-Chicago was the one seed in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament but had a rough path to the auto-bid. Their quarterfinal opponents were Northern Iowa, who tends to do their best work in March. The game was close, but the Ramblers survived 54-50.

The semifinals were against that same Bradley Braves team that already had a win against them, and were intent on doing the same. But an eight-point win allowed to advance to the finals, versus an Illinois State squad whose hearts were broken at the same point last year.

In the end, the Redbirds couldn’t score on the Ramblers and Loyola-Chicago advanced to the NCAA Tournament, representing the Missouri Valley.

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