Loyola-Chicago’s improbable ride ends in heartbreak at the Final Four
April 1, 2018 by admin
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas — When the magic ended Saturday for Loyola-Chicago, the young men who had been draped in glory throughout the most unforgettable month of their lives retreated to the locker room to collect themselves. Senior Ben Richardson — red-eyed and sniffling — leaned on head coach Porter Moser, who put his hand on Richardson’s shoulder.
At the moment, it was all too soon. Too soon to ponder how a Michigan team the Ramblers led by double-digits early in the second half managed to mount a furious rally to seal a 69-57 win. Too soon to consider what’s next for this collection of underdogs. Too soon to look back and remember how this wonderful journey unfolded.
This bunch could feel only destiny’s punch in its gut, a first for the Ramblers in a fortuitous postseason.
On Saturday against the Wolverines, the Ramblers were headed for late drama after seizing a double-digit lead. It seemed as though the modest Jesuit school in Chicago, cheered on by a famous, 98-year-old nun named Sister Jean was headed for another “Is this really happening?” victory.
It felt like another scene in Loyola-Chicago’s Disney movie, but Michigan had no concern for cute storylines. The Wolverines launched a remarkable run and sent the Ramblers back to the Windy City.
“The ball wasn’t really bouncing our way,” said Townes.
In the locker room after the game, the Ramblers’ heads were heavy, bent down and angling toward the floor. They spoke of missed shots and blown opportunities. Townes focused on the cramps he endured in the second half and wondered if he’d consumed enough liquids before the loss. Donte Ingram, solemn and fatigued, stood alone on a wall outside the locker room, waiting for the shuttle to carry him to the postgame interview room.
Moser shook hands with a few folks in the Alamodome corridor and shook his head as he walked. As a school official pushed her wheelchair past reporters, Sister Jean said nothing.
“I didn’t really notice a turn,” Dinardi said. “It never really sank in that we were going to lose this game until there were 30 seconds left.”
The Ramblers needed help. They struggled to reflect on the significance of their achievement in the minutes after the loss to Michigan, so they had to be reminded of their path.
A decade ago, Illinois State fired Moser. He bounced back after a stint at Saint Louis under Rick Majerus. In 2011, Loyola-Chicago, a school seeking its first winning season in five years, hired him. The team he assembled had no promises. No big-time scholarships. Moser had no five-stars in his locker room. Mostly no-stars.
So how’d the Ramblers get to the Final Four? A better question might be how they even got to the NCAA tournament?
In December, they lost to Milwaukee by double digits. Losses to Missouri State, Indiana State and Bradley would follow. They’re ranked 229th in average height on KenPom.com. They were the only team in San Antonio without a player listed in ESPN’s 2018 mock draft.
To get here, Loyola-Chicago beat a Miami squad with a potential lottery pick (Lonnie Walker IV). It beat the SEC champion (Tennessee). It beat one of the hottest offenses in America (Nevada). It beat the Kansas State squad that eliminated Kentucky. The Ramblers had Michigan, winner of 13 in a row entering Saturday’s game, on the ropes and desperate in the second half of a national semifinal matchup.
As reporters asked Ramblers players about the meaning of the moment, their tears dried up. They began to speak of the future and history, which will always highlight their success in the 2017-18 season.
They were praised by Chance the Rapper. Drake apologized for not being able to attend Saturday’s game. They met Russell Westbrook. They were on national television multiple times. They stayed in five-star hotels and couldn’t walk the streets without autograph requests.
They might never be able to navigate the Loyola-Chicago campus again without causing chaos.
“It was the best time of my life,” Custer said, “so I’m sad it has to be over.”
Yes, the loss hurt. But the Ramblers left the Alamodome as heroes.
“This season right here will be remembered forever,” Townes said.
And the agony of the loss, the emotion they couldn’t shake after the game, will soon fade and give the Ramblers a clear view of everything they accomplished, every unbelievable chapter of the most magical ride of the 2017-18 season.
“In a couple of weeks, a couple months,” freshman Cameron Krutwig said, “the memories are certainly going to outweigh the pain of this.”
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Fact check: Trump administration departs from reality on wall, census, Amazon
April 1, 2018 by admin
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President Donald Trump hailed the start of his long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall this past week, proudly tweeting photos of the “WALL!” Actually, no new work got underway. The photos showed the continuation of an old project to replace 2 miles of existing barrier.
And on Saturday, he ripped Amazon with a shaky claim that its contract with the post office is a “scam.”
Trump and his officials departed from reality on a variety of subjects in recent days: the census, Amazon’s practices and the makeup of the Supreme Court among them. Here’s a look at some statements and their veracity:
TRUMP: “Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!” — tweet Wednesday, showing photos of workers building a fence.
TRUMP: “We’re going to be starting work, literally, on Monday, on not only some new wall — not enough, but we’re working that very quickly — but also fixing existing walls and existing acceptable fences.” — Trump, speaking the previous week after signing a bill financing the government.
THE FACTS: Trump’s wrong. No new work began on Monday or any other time this past week. And the photos Trump tweeted were misleading. They showed work that’s been going on for more than a month on a small border wall replacement project in Calexico, California, that has nothing to do with the federal budget he signed into law last week.
The Calexico project that began Feb. 21 to replace a little more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of border wall was financed during the 2017 budget year. A barrier built in the 1990s mainly from recycled metal scraps is being torn down and replaced with bollard-style barriers that are 30 feet (9.1 meters) high.
Ronald D. Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, defended the president’s statements, saying Friday “there’s construction” underway.
U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation and the contract that has the post office deliver some Amazon orders. Federal regulators have found that contract to be profitable for the Postal Service.
People who buy products sold by Amazon pay sales tax in all states that have a sales tax. Not all third-party vendors using Amazon collect it, however.
As for the post office, package delivery has been a bright spot for a service that’s lost money for 11 straight years. The losses are mostly due to pension and health care costs — not the business deal for the Postal Service to deliver packages for Amazon. Boosted by e-commerce, the Postal Service has enjoyed double-digit increases in revenue from delivering packages, but that hasn’t been enough to offset declines in first-class letters and marketing mail, which together make up more than two-thirds of postal revenue.
While the Postal Service’s losses can’t be attributed to its package business, Trump’s claim that it could get more bang for its buck may not be entirely far-fetched. A 2017 analysis by Citigroup concluded that the Postal Service was charging below-market rates as a whole for parcels. The post office does not use taxpayer money for its operations.
Trump is upset about Amazon because its owner, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post, one of the targets of his “fake news” tweets.
TRUMP: “Because of the $700 $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!” — tweets Sunday and Monday.
THE FACTS: Trump is floating the idea of using “M” — the Pentagon’s military budget — to pay for his wall with Mexico. Such a move would almost certainly require approval from Congress and there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about the notion of diverting military money for this purpose.
Only Congress has the power under the Constitution to determine federal appropriations, leaving the Trump administration little authority to shift money without lawmakers’ approval.
Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood referred all questions on the wall to the White House. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to reveal specifics, but said Trump would work with the White House counsel to make sure any action taken was within his executive authority.
DAVID SHULKIN, citing reasons Trump fired him as Veterans Affairs secretary: “I have been falsely accused of things by people who wanted me out of the way. But despite these politically based attacks on me and my family’s character, I am proud of my record and know that I acted with the utmost integrity.” — op-ed Thursday in The New York Times.
THE FACTS: His statement that he and his family were subjected to politically based attacks is disingenuous, though politics contributed to his dismissal.
White House support for Shulkin eroded after a blistering report in February by VA’s internal watchdog, a non-partisan office. The inspector general’s office concluded that he had violated ethics rules by accepting free Wimbledon tennis tickets. The inspector general also said Shulkin’s chief of staff had doctored emails to justify bringing the secretary’s wife to Europe with him at taxpayer expense.