Atlanta’s Elite Encounter

(St. Louis, MO) – Loyola’s magical run to the Elite Eight is also an historic one. When the Ramblers and Kansas State meet on Saturday, it will feature the first-ever meeting of two so lowly seeded teams in an Elite Eight competition.

The eleventh seeded Loyola Chicago (31-5) and ninth seeded K-State (25-11) meet Saturday at 5:00 p.m.

Loyola has won 13 straight games and their three tournament games by a total of four points. During their six postseason games (including Arch Madness), four different players have led them in scoring, four different players have hit (essentially) game-winning shots, four separate players have led the Ramblers in rebounding and four have led in assists.

A team that averaged 15 assists per game in the regular season is averaging 16, despite never reaching their typical team scoring average of 72 points per game.

How did Loyola go from being a very good Missouri Valley team to a quarterfinalist in the national tournament? Head coach Porter Moser says winning at Florida was a turning point and Illinois State coach Dan Muller says he could see a change in the Ramblers after they defeated his Redbirds in Normal.

 

 

After the Florida win where Clayton Custer was injured, the Ramblers lost three of five games without the eventual ‘Player of the Year’ in the Missouri Valley Conference. A win at Northern Iowa and then that win at Illinois State were the beginning of the 13 game stretch.

Now the Ramblers find themselves in a quarterfinal showdown with a Kansas State team that was a even less likely entrant than Loyola. In late February the Wildcats stood at 20-10 having lost two straight games and they finished in the middle of the Big 12 pack at 10-8 in conference play. Their tournament wins were not near as dramatic as the Ramblers’, but a season-defining win over Kentucky has brought Bruce Weber’s team to this elite level.

K-State played the second half of the Kentucky game without leading scorer Dean Wade (16.2 points per game) and his status for Saturday’s game is questionable. In his absence St. Louisan Xavier Sneed (11.0 ppg) has arisen as the front court force and guard Barry Brown (16.0 ppg) has emerged as something of the emotional force and scoring leader.

In Wade’s absence (he missed the first two games of the NCAA Tournament and played eight minutes against Kentucky), Brown scored 18 points against both Creighton and UMBC. Sneed scored just eight points against UMBC, but six of those in the pivotal final moments the Wildcats’ 50-43 victory, then the sophomore exploded with 22 points against Kentucky.

The Wildcats are an early one-point favorite in this historic match up.

Lucas Williamson, Donte Ingram, Clayton Custer and Marques Townes have all made game-winning shots. Ingram, Townes, Custer and Jackson have been leading scorers. Moser’s postseason comments were about how different players arise on different nights. Here are those game-winners courtesy of NCAA March Madness.

 

 

Loyola defines ‘team’ and it will take a team effort to defeat Kansas State in this Elite Encounter.

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