Loyola Chicago opens its season with a Final Four-worthy banner and buzz

CHICAGO _ Sister Jean was courtside. Fans wore their gold and maroon scarves. Just as Loyola's tradition has been for some time.

But this was different.

The Ramblers tipped off against Missouri-Kansas City on Tuesday night, taking the court for the first time since they lost to Michigan in a national semifinal at the Final Four _ a historic night for the unheralded program that won the national championship in 1963 but had fallen far from the forefront of college basketball.

Coach Porter Moser, who has long campaigned for more students to attend games, spent the offseason wondering how fans would respond to the team's unexpected success.

He had to be pleased with Tuesday night's campus buzz.

Fans took their seats early at Gentile Arena and stood while making plenty of noise as the Ramblers took the court. A line of students snaked outside the student center, shrugging off a chilly drizzle as they waited to come inside and celebrate.

Vince DiVenere, a sophomore from Glen Ellyn, Ill., who's on the track team, said he could see Loyola basketball had reached a new level. He and his fellow runners no longer could sneak in a side door to the arena. The new reality includes security, bag checks, lines.

"It's being treated like an actual sports school would treat a team," he said.

"It's a big 180 since my freshman year," Regan Todhunter, a senior from Rock Falls, Ill., said from his seat in the first row. "My freshman year you wouldn't have seen an eighth of the people here at a game. It's fantastic."

Players stood in an arc facing the basket as a video board played highlights from their stunning run as bracket-busters in last season's NCAA Tournament. A smoke machine released fog as a maroon 2018 Final Four banner was raised to the ceiling opposite the one that hangs on the other end of the court from 1963.

Before the banner was fully raised, the Ramblers ran into the locker room. With the crowd still abuzz, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who became a national media sensation during the Ramblers' run, was rolled in her wheelchair to the sideline at center court to deliver her traditional pregame prayer.

But first she said: "Thank you all for coming. When I see a crowd like this in Gentile I know we all want the same thing tonight, so go Ramblers."

The Ramblers experienced their first sellout since 2003 in last season's regular-season finale against Illinois State. Earlier on Tuesday, the ticketing office was about 500 fans shy of a sellout. The team has already has announced sellouts for games this season against Illinois State and Nevada.

Loyola didn't blow out UMKC early, working to figure out its new parts. Stars Donte Ingram, Ben Richardson and Aundre Jackson are gone from last season's run. Freshman Cooper Kaifes hit two first-half 3-pointers off the bench. Transfer Aher Uguak swatted a block in the first 30 seconds.

Loyola led only 11-8 seven minutes into the game, but it held the Kangaroos scoreless for more than five minutes, took control with a 12-0 run and increased its lead to 40-18 at halftime.

A dunk by Christian Negron as Loyola found its groove brought the crowd back to its feet.

In the opening minutes, Loyola's Marques Townes dished passes to Cameron Krutwig under the basket and found Lucas Williamson open for a 3-pointer.

Townes flexed toward the crowd a minute into the game and roared after a UMKC turnover like it was March.

Maybe not much has changed after all.