There’s a Final Four contender from the state of Illinois moving on to the NCAA tournament’s second weekend.
It just isn’t the one most would have predicted.
In a highly anticipated second-round battle between the Land of Lincoln’s flagship school and its most successful mid-major basketball program, Loyola Chicago emerged with a convincing 71-58 victory over top-seeded Illinois. This was no fluky aberration either as the eighth-seeded Ramblers never trailed and led by six or more for the game’s final 26-plus minutes.
Loyola’s victory adds to the mountain of evidence that this Ramblers team is better than the 32-win squad that made an improbable Final Four run three years ago.