(Nashville, TN) – The nation is waking up to what we’ve known all along, there is something special being built on the north shore of Chicago. Loyola’s basketball program has been being built brick, by brick, by brick. The architect, head coach Porter Moser has applied lessons learned from mentors Tony Barone and Rick Majerus and has tirelessly formed a winning and family culture at Loyola Chicago.
Basketball fans know, you don’t win without talent, and we all know talented players don’t just wander on to your campus. Moser has looked far and wide for good players, that play the ‘team-first’ kind of basketball he wants. He looks for players that win and players that are efficient. And he’s looking for players from Chicago, Illinois.
Moser says getting Chicago kids to stay home is huge, but he, Aundre Jackson and Clayton Custer all say the passion and vision Moser has for Rambler basketball is contagious and growing.
Custer, the Missouri Valley Conference’s ‘Player of the Year‘ transferred to Loyola after his freshman year at Iowa State. His high school teammate Ben Richardson was already there. The two have won State Championships together and now an MVC title and tournament title. He and Moser explain the closeness of the two players from Overland Park, Kansas.
Loyola’s next challenge is today (5:10 pm Central Time) when they battle Southeastern Conference Co-Conference Champion Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Like Loyola, the Volunteers were conference champs, boasted of the ‘Coach of the Year‘ (Rick Barnes), ‘Player of the Year‘ (Grant Williams) and the best defense in their league.
Tennessee is a long and athletic team that could pose problems for Loyola. They are deep and they are young. Four of their top six scorers are sophomores. Williams, a 6’7 sophomore averages 15.3 points per game and over six rebounds per game and Moser has a healthy respect for the player that he says is fundamentally sound and has the best ‘duck in move’ in the country. Moser says his own big men will have to play their best post defense game of the year to have a chance to win.
Freshman Cameron Krutwig and the senior Jackson must perform at a high level on the national stage, but it may be the other pieces that make the biggest difference. After a very uneven Arch Madness performance for Custer, even the first half of the game with Miami wasn’t electric, but he was special during that game-winning second half. Senior Donte Ingram, Arch Madness MVP and game winning shot maker of round one, seems to elevate his game at the most pivotal times.
We Missouri Valley Conference watchers have known that Moser was building something special, and even if they lose today, they will have accomplished more on the North Shore than any team since 1985 or maybe even since the historic team of 1963.
What’s at stake is a Sweet Sixteen trip to Atlanta.
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
