SAN ANTONIO -- On Saturday afternoon along the San Antonio River Walk, a young man descended an escalator wearing a Cinderella ball gown, topped with a maroon and gold Loyola-Chicago scarf around his neck.
It had been that kind of NCAA tournament -- a little bit wild, a lot unexpected. Then afternoon turned to evening, and the Final Four fell back toward normalcy, in a basketball purists' sense, anyway. UMBC, then Loyola-Chicago and Sister Jean, had allowed us to revel in the underdogs, in the idea that anybody could truly beat anybody no matter the resource divide.
This is what makes college basketball more egalitarian than its football counterpart: Loyola-Chicago can live in this world, and be loved in this world.