During Saturday's game between two teams bound for the lottery in the Chicago Bulls and the Brooklyn Nets at United Center, members of the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers men's basketball team were honored during the first half for their historic run to the Final Four of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
In an article written by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, Fred Hoiberg opened up about Loyola's amazing tournament run.
“It’s such a cool story,” coach Hoiberg said. “That’s something these guys will always have such great memories of. They’ll have reunions for this team 20, 30, 40 years down the road.
Hoiberg admired the substantial amount of heart and determination the Ramblers showed as a huge underdog to make it all the way to the Final Four.
“It’s such a great story when you have a Cinderella like that, a double-digit seed, do something special like those kids did. They did it with heart and determination. They did such a good job of playing unselfishly and with confidence. I’m really excited to see those guys. Just the way the city rallied around them was a fun ride to watch,” Hoiberg said.
Nets reserve shooting guard Milton Doyle, who played eight minutes against the Bulls during Saturday's game, played college ball at Loyola and was extremely happy for the Ramblers men's basketball program.
“It was like watching my family,” Doyle said. “I didn't get to watch a lot of the games, just because we played a lot of the time.”
“But I went back and watched a lot of the clips and talked to those guys after every game. It was a great feeling seeing all their success.”
“I knew they were going to be pretty good, just because I was the only one to leave. So I knew with the juniors we had, the leadership that was going to be going on this year and the freshmen that came in, they were probably going to be big for the program.”
Although Loyola's storybook run came to an end with a 69-57 loss to the Michigan Wolverines, their four wins throughout the tournament as an underdog No. 11 seed will be memories their players and fans can cherish for a lifetime.
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