Late March, 2018. San Antonio bustled as it does every few years. The Final Four was in town for the first time since Mario Chalmers and Kansas sank Derrick Rose and Memphis back in 2008. The Jayhawks were back. So too was Villanova, and Michigan. But in a city known for "remembering," the name no one would forget was completely off the radar nationally just three weeks prior: Sister Jean.
That served as several college basketball fans' introduction to Loyola Chicago. How many Loyolas are there in this country anyway? This one would be easy to remember because, of course, most people know Chicago. Most people didn't know that three years later, Loyola would again be in position to ramble on to college basketball's holy grail.
Mark Few was in San Antonio that weekend. I know that for a fact, because I snapped a picture of him and Mark Turgeon enjoying a meal together on the Riverwalk (which is beautiful, by the way). Few's Gonzaga team had lost to Florida State in Los Angeles the weekend prior in the Sweet 16, so he had the day off. In Spokane, Sweet 16 appearances appear to grow on trees. The Zags have made 11 of them since Few took over in 1999. And while several "mid-major" programs since have ventured into the magic of the NCAA Tournament's second weekend, none have been able to stick like the glue that is Gonzaga. The Bulldogs stand alone on the pyramid of non-Power 5 powerhouses. Will they ever need to make room at the top? And could it be Loyola that joins them?
Now, there's work still to be done for Loyola to ascend mid-major basketball's Mt. Olympus. But the Ramblers have already accomplished more in just a three year span than most of the other mid-majors that have any right occupying the same sentence as Gonzaga. Looking at every NCAA Tournament since 1999, 29 different mid-major programs have made the Sweet 16 (excluding the likes of Butler and Xavier, since they now play in the Big East). Of those 29, only three programs have done it twice in a three year span: Wichita State ('13,' 15), Memphis ('06, '07, '08, '09), and Temple ('99, '01).
Wichita State has won as many games in the NCAA Tournament since 2015 as Loyola has won in this year's tournament: two. Memphis, a program that had its run to the 2008 National Championship game vacated by the NCAA, has won as many games in the NCAA Tournament since 2009 as Loyola has won in this year's tournament: two. Temple has won as many games in the NCAA Tournament since 2001 as Loyola has won in this year's tournament: two. For comparison's sake, since 1999, Mark Few has led Gonzaga to 33 NCAA Tournament victories.
There have been outliers, of course. VCU and George Mason each made Final Four runs, the Rams in '11, the Patriots in '06. Dayton made the Elite 8 in 2014. St. Joe's, a program that flirted with perfection in 2004, made an Elite 8 appearance the same season. Doing it once, albeit difficult, is not the issue. But few in history have done it like, well, Few.
Mark Few is a unicorn. Of all those programs listed that have had any luck with NCAA Tournament victories, only John Chaney (RIP) retired at the school he had success. Gregg Marshall resigned from Wichita State this past November in the wake of scandal. You may have heard, John Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky. Shaka Smart bolted VCU for Texas, Jim Larrañaga left George Mason for Miami, and Archie Miller departed Dayton in favor of Indiana. Of course, it's difficult to blame any of them for moving onto different pastures. Every single one of their new jobs was higher profile than their old jobs. Which brings us to perhaps Loyola's best shot at staying where they are: Porter Moser.
It's hard to argue there is one single factor more important to Gonzaga's success than Few. He has been the constant, the way Moser has been the constant for the Ramblers these past few years. If you think there haven't been opportunities for Few to leave over the years, you're being naive. If you think there won't be opportunities for Moser to leave in the near future, that's also naive. And Moser may jump at them. I imagine it would be difficult to turn down Indiana, if they inquired. Perhaps Marquette looks at Moser highly, sees he's run a top program at a Jesuit school, and makes an offer. Or, perhaps Moser, who has now been at Loyola for 10 years, decides he's comfortable and he doesn't go anywhere. That, to me, is Loyola's best shot for entering into the Gonzagasphere.
Few is a northwest guy by trade, growing up in Oregon. He's recruited the greater northwest with the precision of a Corey Kispert three-ball (Kispert is from Washington state, by the way). Names like Dan Dickau and Adam Morrison are both northwest guys. So it helps to have those relationships and that footprint in an area you're accustomed to recruiting. Moser is from suburban Chicago. He's coached in either Illinois or Missouri since 2003. And no disrespect to the northwest, but when we're evaluating talent-rich basketball cities, Chicagoland has produced just a little bit more talent over the years (Cameron Krutwig and Jordan Williamson, Loyola's two best players, are both from the greater Chicago area).
It would be a reasonable progression for Loyola to recruit at a higher level than they already have. Two Sweet 16's in three years should allow access into a few more living rooms than in the past. And while coaches dish out praise to players like John Stockton dished out assists (no article about Gonzaga is complete without one Stockton reference), I can't imagine it's Loyola's rich tradition that is attracting players, seeing as not one current player was alive the last time the Ramblers made the tournament before Moser (1985). High school athletes choose schools to play for coaches. It may be different at places like Kentucky or North Carolina, where it doesn't matter who is on the bench cause 5-star's want to play there anyway. But it definitely matters in the Missouri Valley, a conference where Loyola has won three of the last four titles.
In one respect, Moser has Few beat. It took Few 18 seasons to reach his first Final Four. Moser accomplished that feat in just seven seasons (with Loyola). Since Gonzaga's lone Final Four appearance in 2017, the Bulldogs are 124-11 overall. They've lost 11 games in four years. Two of those losses came in conference play.
That may be the last hurdle for Loyola. To win games in the NCAA Tournament and earn staying power, you have to actually be in the NCAA Tournament 95% of the time. Since Few took over Gonzaga in '99, the Zags have won the WCC every year but two. And in the two years the Bulldogs didn't win the conference? NCAA Tournament berths with at least one win in both instances. With conference domination comes gaudy win numbers. Loyola is 26-4 this year, and that is outstanding. But last year the Ramblers were 21-11. The year before that they were 20-14. Mark Few hasn't lost more than eight games in a single season at Gonzaga since 2011, when the Zags went a ho-hum 25-10. Loyola is taking the right steps, but as far as cliches go, "it's a marathon, not a sprint," seems pretty fitting.
The Final Four is scheduled to return to San Antonio again in 2025. It would be wonderful to see Sister Jean as the center of attention again, but that would put her at 105-years-old. The team she cheers for 105% of the time though? Johnny Cash once wrote, "Hey Porter! Hey Porter! Please get my bags for me!" If Porter's bags stay in Chicago, the Ramblers might just mosey on to a Gonzaga-like run.