Loyola-Chicago Tops Nevada in Another Thriller

Kansas State has been an afterthought through the NCAA Tournament – until now. The victor advances to the Final Four March 31 and April 2 in San Antonio. “We played our hearts out, came up a basket short or a point short”.

The ninth-seeded Wildcats are indeed making a point.

All four games in the NCAA Tournament to be played Thursday night involve at least one team seeded seventh or lower.

The other two matchups are in the West, where No. 7 Texas A&M (22-12) meets No. 3 MI (30-7), and No. 9 Florida State (22-11) takes on No. 4 Gonzaga (32-4) in Los Angeles. An up-tempo team with an elite offense vs a slow-it-down team with a stingy defense. They don’t back down.

“I think Marques Townes WAs the best player on the court tonight”, said Loyola guard Clayton Custer. “We’ve got our foot on the pedal”. Defensively, Kansas State yields 66.9 points per game against the opposing teams.

Instead, he signed with Iowa State for basketball.

“He was a warrior”, said Loyola coach Porter Moser.

“I should have denied the catch”, Martin said of the pass to Townes. “I think everyone had that confidence today”. He’s been the leader. Mississippi State had to defy a court injunction to play the Ramblers in the regional semifinal, sneaking out of the state to play. We’ve convinced him of that. They put the Loyola-Kansas State game in the early time slot on Saturday in the Elite Eight, and I’m not even sure that’s the right call on picking up the value of this run.

And the Ramblers came through again Thursday night on the shoulders of their latest hero.

Marques Townes led the Ramblers with 18 points, but more importantly, he hit a 3-pointer with 6.8 seconds left to give Loyola-Chicago an insurmountable four-point lead.

The win leaves the No. 11th-seeded Ramblers, the biggest surprise in a regional that has lost its top four seeds, one victory from a Final Four appearance. The Wildcats are trying to reach their first Final Four since 1964.

The next challenge is Kansas State on Saturday night. Kansas State is holding opponents to 66.7 points, good for 42nd in the country. Barrett, 88, had to wait a long time to see his Wildcats finally beat Kentucky.

5-1 ATS in their last 6 games against the Big 12. “We feel like we’re chasing, and we’re going to chase some more“. “And once we got it done, I knew he was so proud, was so happy. just hugging everyone”. Ball State finished with four service errors and 11 attacking errors, while Loyola finished with six service errors and three attacking errors.

While my Illinois Fighting Illini had a terrible rebuilding season, I can take solace in the fact a team from my state and my city has shown that even the littlest of guys can make their dreams come true. “I mean, it doesn’t really get any better than that”.

“I told the guys, you can’t look at the name, you can’t look at the league”, Weber said.

“He’s the guy you’ve got to go through”. Even if your heart was initially the only ally, your eyes would have been won over by now, following wins over Miami and Tennessee and Nevada. “It was getting pretty bad”.