I was mostly just looking forward to the next stage in the season until I saw the video of Krutwig hugging Moser for an extended period after the game. Ouch!! What an emotional gut punch.

My favorite player from the 2018 Final Four team was Done Ingram. He was my favorite because he WANTED to go to Loyola as a pretty good downstate high school sophomore who had a cousin who played at Loyola. He engineered things so he could go to Simeon, and became the very effective sixth man there. That's the story I've created in my head, and the myth that makes me feel great.

Sometime in the late summer/early fall of 2017 when I was living downstate, I came up to Chicago for something or another and stopped for an hour or two to walk around Rogers Park. I went on campus and saw Cameron Krutwig for the first time, walking next to me about eight feet away. That was the first time I thought big things could actually happen for us-- I mean BIG things-- like conference championships and NCAA appearances, and maybe even a first round win in the tournament if everything went our way.

Later that year, I was up in Chicago for a doctor's appointment, and stopped by the Loyola soccer park on September 1, 2017 for a game between Loyola and Valparaiso. It was a contentious game, and Valpo won with a goal late in regulation. It might have been the first MVC game in any sport that Valpo won in their first year in the conference. All the Loyola fans were pretty salty about the Valpo players' trash talk and post game celebration vibes. Most of the men's basketball team was in attendance, and Donate Ingram came down from the bleachers and stood next to me as we watched Valpo celebrate their victory. I turned to Donate and said, "We have to teach them a lesson on the basketball court this year."

Ingram kept his gaze on the Valpo players, celebrating after a mouthy trash-talky win, and said "Don't worry about that....". Custer and Townes and Jackson and (I think) Williamson were all there at that game... Can't remember if Krutwig was among the 8 or 10 men's basketball players who all showed up with Moser. But that was memorable in the long, slow scheme of building a great program. A little over six months later, the same guy who stopped at the railing of the soccer bleachers to talk to me was hitting a three-pointer that became one of the defining moments of the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

We have a bunch of great guys... they come in as kids, and leave as men with great values and winning attitudes and decision-making skills and teamwork and achieving at a high level. I love winning basketball games for our school. But seeing a class of students-- who also happen to play basketball-- pull together to make a team that rivals others with NBA bodies, superior recruiting pedigrees, bigger budgets, and multi million dollar coaches.... That makes me very, very proud.

Awesome thoughts and memories. Although, just to clarify... DaJuan Gouard is Donte Ingram’s brother, not cousin, right? I was working a lot in Danville when Donte transferred up to Chicago. It wasn’t too popular down there when it happened, but there’s no question it was the right move. Great guy and family.

May be so... Can't remember the actual relationship (now that you remind me, brother seems right), but I know Gouard became a coach at Danville CC about the time Donte moved to Chicago.

I echo that sentiment. Thanks for sharing JCT.

This is an excellent post. Living in the moment can be hard as it is human nature to always think "OK, now what? What's next?"

The long embrace between Porter and Krut hit me hard too. Lot of emotion poured out for them, it seemed. And for fans too (at least me). Truly enjoy every second Krut, Lucas and the other seniors are on the court this March.

Interesting, that FINAL 4 team I just sat in amazement at how good they were, how proficient. seemed like every game was a clinic on how to play basketball. I remember one game against UIC that if I remember correctly we had 24 assists on 27 baskets.....and how unselfish.
With this team it has been how hard they play. There have been bumps etc but they just keep playing hard....so the two common characteristics i enjoy form both those teams is unselfishness and not blinking,,,,It has been great and I cannot wait to get back to watch these guys in person....
Valley Champs!!!!!!!! got a nice ring to it.

The UIC game that year will forever stand out to me as the game everything started to look different for this program. If I remember correctly, it was the first game we played after getting run out of the gym at Boise State, and the game before we went down to win at Florida. One of my favorite pictures from that year is from right before the game started, with a lot of empty seats in the background. We responded to a terrible game by absolutely obliterating a UIC team that wasn’t terrible. The final score of that game doesn’t even reflect how dominating that performance was. The first of many “wows” that year, and I think that game gave us confidence back to set the stage for the Florida game. That stretch of games, including soon after vs Milwaukee, also should serve as a reminder of how even that team struggled some games.

This is a nice Feel Good thread!

Thanks for starting it JCT and all who contributed.

I'm still blown away that in conference play over the last 4 years in Gentile, we are 34-2. Our only losses are a 4 point loss to Indiana State on January 3, 2018, and a 4 point loss to Missouri State on February 17, 2019. THAT WAS IT. It's nearly impossible for a Valley team to get a road win in our building. That is huge.

I'm really impressed that this year we didn't have the typical Loyola "clunker" game we've become used the last 3 years ("The Boise State game" in 2018, Getting doubled up by Missouri State, 35-70 in 2019, The 39-68 loss to ISUb in 2020). I don't think any of the 4 losses we've had were "bad."

I'm enjoying the moment, but I'm extremely concerned about our shooting going into Saint Louis... Shooting 3s in an empty, cavernous, NBA style arena isn't going to make things easy for our long-range shooters. I want Clemons, Norris, and Cooper to have the greenlight to fire from 3 in the first game; but I want to see Williamson, Kennedy, Hall, and Uguak shot-faking, getting their defender in the air, and driving to the rim.

I'm not sure what kind of practice time in the arena we get before the tournament starts (if any), but if we do, I hope we give our shooters a ton of time on the court to acclimate to the sightlines and background depth.

I'm going to be paying very close attention to the three point shooting in the Bradley-SIU game. Sure, we're going to get either of them on short rest, but either of those two teams are going to get the benefit of 40 extra game-time minutes and shoot-arounds to acclimate to the rim and sightlines from distance.

Wow! Porter just tweeted something interesting and fun about krut and Williamson!

Referenced he would share more about them at the senior banquet... “whatever year that is.”



Could they be coming back?!!!!!