Loyola 78, Kansas State 62: Ramblers blast on through to the Final Four

ATLANTA — Loyola senior Ben Richardson was fouled while making a three-point shot early in the second half of the South Regional final Saturday against Kansas State. He plopped down on his back, smiled like a guy who knew something — and darn it if he didn’t do a little snow-angel maneuver right there on the court.

Richardson completed the four-point play to give the Ramblers a 15-point lead with nearly 17 minutes to go, but maybe that was it right there. Maybe this Elite Eight no-contest was over.

Maybe it was over before it even started. Loyola destroyed the major-conference Wildcats 78-62. The Ramblers toyed with them, messed with their minds, stole their souls.

By God, Loyola — for the first time in 55 years — is going to the Final Four.

‘‘Chicago, you can be really proud,’’ coach Porter Moser said from the postgame stage at halfcourt, confetti falling.

Proud, yes, and thankful, too. Chicago is something of a basketball wasteland nowadays without the 32-5 Ramblers, owners of the most victories — by three and counting — in school history.

Save the tank talk about the Bulls. Let Northwestern and Illinois fight over the right-now-meaningless moniker of ‘‘Chicago’s Big Ten Team.’’ The Ramblers are Chicago’s Big-Time Team. They’re national darlings. They darn sure deserve to be local treasures.

‘‘Oh, my gosh, yes, these guys deserve that,’’ said a beaming Jerry Harkness, 77, the star of Loyola’s 1962-63 national-championship squad, as players younger by two generations cut down the nets. ‘‘These guys are awesome. I am so proud of them and so happy that I got to be here for this.’’

Les Hunter, 75, the center on that great Ramblers team, shook his head in bewilderment.

‘‘I was hoping they would make another run like this in my lifetime, but I didn’t think I’d see it,’’ he said.

Who could have seen all this coming?

But the better team — the much better team — punched its ticket to San Antonio on a Saturday instantly seared into Ramblers lore.

Kansas State coach Bruce Weber wrote two words on the grease board in his locker room before the game: ‘‘toughness’’ and ‘‘discipline.’’ A fat lot of good that did him.

‘‘They were tougher than us from the get-go,’’ Weber said. ‘‘They were physical, very disciplined.’’

They were the team they’ve been all season.

Let it be known that Moser’s famous jacket came off sometime in the second half and that Sister Jean, the 98-year-old nun and team chaplain, was her lovely, cheerful self before the game. But let’s dispense with the romance for a moment and ponder what once was unthinkable: Loyola isn’t merely back in the Final Four; it has a chance to hold its own there and even run away with the trophy.

Have you been watching this tournament? If you have, then you know anything is possible.

The Ramblers are going back to Texas, where this incredible Big Dance started. Against Kansas State, they went back to the way they’d started in the first round against Miami: by jumping out to a nice lead and announcing to the world that they belonged and to their opponents that the next two hours were going to be hard as hell.

Not even five minutes into the game, the Ramblers led 12-5 and all five starters — Clayton Custer, Marques Townes, Donte Ingram, Cameron Krutwig and Richardson — had scored. All game long, they drove and shot with the sort of decisiveness and alacrity that 300 Division I coaches only wish they had on their squad.

Another close call? Not a chance. After winning their first three tournament games by a combined four points, the Ramblers said enough. It was time to make an opponent from the big-boy Big 12 suffer.

‘‘We had no answer for them,’’ the Wildcats’ Cartier Diarra said. ‘‘So all credit to them. They are a great team, and hopefully they make it all the way.’’

Next up is Michigan at the Alamodome next Saturday. Chicago’s Big Time Team will be ready.

‘‘When it’s time to lock in, they are locked in,’’ Moser said. ‘‘It’s because they want to win; it’s in their genes. They are winning young men.’’

And they’ve won over their city. Moser was sure to give a tip of his Final Four cap to the school paper, which has been there from the

beginning.

‘‘It’s been quite a metamorphosis,’’ he said, ‘‘because the Loyola Phoenix was the only one in the press conference for about 20 games.’’

We’re all here now. And San Antonio can’t get here soon enough.

Follow me on Twitter @SLGreenberg.

Email: sgreenberg@suntimes.com