01grad wrote:
...A low point for me was sitting at a games at Gentile where opposing fans outnumbered Loyola fans. A specific game against Illinois State in either 2016 or 2017 (I think) sticks in my memory. Oh how times have changed since then.
That ISU game was a low point for me too. But it was the impetus to begin discussion of reconfiguring seating in the arena which has made a huge difference.
The Valley highs and the lows are all woven together. A high point was our first MVC victory, an 89-57 beautifully executed beat down of Missouri State (11-2) at Gentile in 2014. Before that I didn't really know if we could compete in the Valley, although from there we won only three more conference games.
A little more than a year later we had a 24-win season and a CBI championship. Two years after that the 2016-17 season had started 10-2 including a near miss at North Carolina State, but ended with maybe the lowest low for me, looking awful losing to a mediocre SIU for the third time that year in the first round Arch Madness with Milton due to graduate. Coming home on the longest train ride of my life, I recall one of our most stalwart fans quoting Larry Farmer to me, "It's never going to happen at Loyola."
A little more than a year later, it really did happen.