Inspiration Abounds in Final Four

(St. Louis, MO) – Loyola has been playing with ‘house money’ for a while now, so the nationally asked questions have been, ‘This has been a nice little story, but when do the Ramblers come back to reality?’ ‘We all love Sister Jean, but when does the bubble burst so we can get back to talking about the teams that really matter?’

Coach Porter Moser and Sr. Jean have become media darlings, but with just a little bit of ‘aren’t they cute?’ mentality. Let us not forget that Moser’s band of over achievers have won 14 straight games and in the four NCAA Tournament contests have eliminated teams from the ACC, SEC, Mountain West and Big 12 conferences.

Can we have some real respect here?

Before we move on to the battle with Michigan, let us look back at the three dramatic wins of Loyola’s magical March Madness run.

 

 

Will we EVER forget this amazing season? I don’t think so.

Every spring, the media are looking for interesting and different human interest angles, so Sr. Jean has captured the nation’s attention. She’s been at this a long time. When Porter Moser first arrived at Loyola seven years ago, she broke down the roster for him, so that he’d have a good scouting report on the players he inherited. She continues to lend a hand today.

After missing early season games due to a hip replacement, Sr. Jean returned to ‘game action’ on February 3rd and as the NCAA Tournament has moved forward, she has become, as she should be, more and more of a national story. By-the-way, the Ramblers 14-game winning streak started the day of her return to the Loyola contests.

Some of the stories are heart-warming and relate the true value this woman of God brings to the basketball program and the Loyola Chicago campus, and some, well, they’re just fun! I recently stumbled across this on twitter.

 

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#LoyolaChicago pic.twitter.com/pLkNTdQZ2e

— JP (@J_Preston44) March 23, 2018

 

Michigan has it’s own inspirational story!

Michigan, obviously will be a legitimate foe, with real talent and a superb coach. John Beilein is one of the best in the business and like Moser, is one of those leaders with his heart in the right place. Michigan’s inspirational story comes from that of Austin Hatch who survived two fatal plane crashes and yet is part of the Big Blue basketball program.

Numerous stories have been written, documentaries filmed concerning this inspirational story, but Hatch who signed with Michigan as a 16-year-old recruit out of Fort Wayne, Indiana was a surviver a 2003 crash that killed his mother and others in his family. Subequently, he was involved in a second fatal plane crash (2011) just days after signing his letter of intent to play for Michigan.

Hatch survived, barely, but lost his father and step-mother in that accident. He was placed in a medically induced coma and after ‘recovery’ had to relearn everything. Walking, talking, eating, everything had to relearned.

With no possible future as a basketball player, Beilein honored his scholarship offer and this Spring Hatch, who is an under graduate student assistant with the Wolverine program, will graduate from the Ann Arbor-based university and immediately step into a job with Dominos, and in June will marry Michigan volleyball player Abby Cole.

Hatch, who Beilein worked with the Big 10 to allow him to suit up for warm-ups at Michigan’s senior day, says he is fortunate and living out his dreams. He told mgoblue.com he is truly grateful and happy with his life.

“Given everything that’s happened — it’s been horrific, tragic, I’ve lost so much,” said Hatch. “But sometimes I have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Do you really have it this good?’ With all the great people I have in my life: Abigail, her family, my family, all my friends, Coach (John) Beilein, the rest of the staff, everyone here. It’s hard to believe.

“If you would’ve told me six and a half years ago when I was in a hospital and couldn’t walk that I would be getting ready to graduate from Michigan, that I was getting married to the woman of the dreams, that I would’ve had an incredible experience in four years at Michigan … If you would’ve told me that, I’d have been like, ‘You’re crazy.’ I’m here to tell you it’s been better than I even could’ve imagined.”

Why do we love college basketball, the Final Four, March Madness and leaders like Moser and Beilein? It is because of stories like this. Overcoming the long odds of an 11-seed from a mid-major conference making it to the Final Four gives us hope that we can over achieve and do something special. The miraculous recovery and story-book ending of a young man who survives and now thrives after enormous tragedy remind us that miracles still happen.

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