Two major celebrities just hopped on the Loyola bandwagon and some of the Ramblers appeared to be starstruck by their support.
Thunder guard Russell Westbrook and rap superstar Drake have officially pledged their allegiance to Loyola, with Westbrook encouraging some of the Ramblers to “win it.”
This comes after other celebrities including Chance the Rapper have voiced support for the Ramblers.
Westbrook and Loyola’s paths crossed Wednesday with both the Thunder and Ramblers staying in the same hotel in San Antonio. The Thunder are scheduled to play the Spurs Thursday night. And the Ramblers are in San Antonio preparing for their Final-Four duel against Michigan Saturday.
Aundre Jackson told ESPN that Westbrook got out of a black Escalade and agreed to take pictures with some of the college players.
“When we saw Russell Westbrook, a few of us took pictures with him,” Jackson said. “He just said, ‘What’s up?’ He was like, ‘Good luck, go ahead and win it.’”
Loyola also caught the attention of Drake, who followed Loyola guard Donte Ingram on Instagram and Twitter.
Drake reportedly slid into Ingram’s direct messages on Twitter wishing Loyola “good luck” in the rest of the tournament. Drake also told Ingram he wanted to attend this year’s Final Four, but couldn’t fit it into his schedule, according to ESPN.
Loyola with the help of its 98-year-old team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt miraculously made it to the Final Four and has caught a lot of media attention.
As of Thursday, Sister Jean alone has generated more than 36,000 media hits since the first round of March Madness, which is worth more than $200 million in free publicity value for Loyola, according to CHARGE president Ken Ungar. In total, Loyola has had more than 70,000 hits and those are worth more than $400 million, Ungar said.
Maybe it’s all in God’s plan.
