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At the end of an NCAA Tournament that has been notable for the success of lower seeded teams, the Final Four will include not simply a double-digit seed, but a true mid-major Cinderella. Loyola-Chicago now stands at 32-5, the champions and lone representative of the Missouri Valley Conference in the Big Dance -- and in San Antonio.
Loyola joins George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011) as mid-major teams to make a Final Four run as a No. 11 seed, but both of those runs ended in a national semifinal loss. However, Loyola is not only a team that can make history by making the national championship game Monday, but also good enough to win it all.
Last summer, during the grueling offseason conditioning workouts that sowed the seeds for a selfless and dynamic style of play, head coach Porter Moser started using the phrase, "Why not us?" There is a sense of belief that's running through the program right now not because of NCAA Tournament success but because that attitude preached by Moser. Should it be that big of a stunner if a team that has won 32 of the 37 times it's been on the floor this year adds two more to its total in San Antonio? Why not Loyola?
Here's three reasons to believe in Loyola as a legitimate title contender in San Antonio:
"The winning gene" matters
Porter Moser used the phrases "hungry" and "greedy" to describe the insatiable appetite for success shown by his team this year, and that's been something that has grown from the inside to help Loyola reach this point. The Ramblers hadn't been in the NCAA Tournament in 33 years prior to this season's bid, and the roster includes transfers and junior college products that have come together to help make that history for the program. But the common thread through this group is what Moser has dubbed "the winning gene."
As high school teammates, Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year Clayton Custer and South Region Most Outstanding Player Ben Richardson won more than 90 games and two state titles across four years. They are two of seven players on this roster who won state titles in high school, and Moser says assembling players with that kind of experience was absolutely "by design."
Selflessness translates to versatility
Watching Loyola play basketball is a joyous endeavor. The team doesn't wow you with overwhelming size or speed when it walks off the bus or out of the tunnel, but the ball moves faster than any player and no one passes the ball better than the Ramblers. There isn't a bad passer on the team, and any one of the rotation players has the potential to to be the team's primary offensive threat on a given night.
There is no better example of that than in the Elite Eight, when Ben Richardson, primarily known as the team's best defender, got hot early and led the way with a career-high 23 points.
"I was ready for my number to be called," Richardson told CBS Sports after the game. "We've got so many guys that can go off, make plays and score. Tonight it happened to be me, I was in a rhythm and my teammates were finding me. I just gotta give credit to my teammates. It's so special we have such an unselfish group, there's so many playmakers and I think that's why we're so dangerous."
Loyola is the most clutch team in the NCAA Tournament
Loyola's previous season left scars from close losses that fueled an investment from the players and coaches in making 2017-18 different. The players hold up four fingers when it's time for the final four minutes of play, a physical sign for the season-long dedication to winning basketball in the closing minutes.
So when Loyola's first three wins in the NCAA Tournament came by a combined four points, the players pointed to that season-long concentrated effort on being better in the clutch as a big reason for their success.
Take the ability to out-executive opponents at the end of close games, the consistency and high level of play the Ramblers of shown during the entire season (which includes wins against Florida, Tennessee, Miami, Nevada and Kansas State), and it's easy to start echoing Porter Moser's sentiment, "Why not Loyola?"