Loyola wants to join SIU-E, Illinois in March Madness: Why the Ramblers can this year
Loyola's Drew Valentine talks the Ramblers' 24-point win over St. Bonaventure
The Ramblers' beat down over St. Bonaventure is Loyola's biggest Atlantic-10 win yet. Drew Valentine talked about the win after the game.
On Sunday, Illinois' chance of having three teams in the NCAA Tournament took a hit.
Bradley fell to Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference championship game; The Peorians are most likely headed for the NIT. Northwestern most likely needs to win the Big Ten title to head back to the dance. Illinois has an at-large bid locked up. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville won the Ohio Valley Tournament title, meaning they're in the dance.
That brings us to Loyola. The Ramblers will also probably need to win the Atlantic-10 Tournament to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, too.
But, the Ramblers have a better shot at that title this year than last year, when Loyola was the regular-season co-champion.
Gauging Loyola's chances at a NCAA Tournament berth
At 21-10, Loyola is the No. 4 seed in the A-10 Tournament. VCU, George Mason and Dayton are ahead of the Ramblers, with VCU claiming the top seed in the conference and the regular-season championship.
Getting to the A-10 title game would leave Loyola with a 23-10 record, which isn't good enough to be on the bubble.
But, the Ramblers have a chance because they're on a roll.
Since the turn of the new year, Loyola has an 11-5 record. The Ramblers are 9-2 in their last 11 games. They're 7-1 in their last eight games, which included a five-game winning streak. Saint Louis snapped that winning streak with a 98-67 win over Loyola in St. Louis. But, it's hard to piece together big winning streaks in basketball.
Loyola head coach Drew Valentine acknowledged that.
"There are games every year where it's just not there," head coach Drew Valentine said after the SLU loss, according to Loyola athletics.
The Ramblers rebounded with a win over Dayton and a season-finale road win over UMass.
The win over UMass was a polar opposite of the SLU loss. The Minutemen led 10-3 after an 8-0 run at the start of the game. Loyola calmly responded and left Massachusetts with a 74-51 win.
"There’s three or four games a year where you know you are going to win no matter what happens and that was clearly today for us," Valentine said, according to Loyola athletics. "UMass came out and jumped on us early forcing me to call a timeout. We needed to get focused and do a better job defending the glass. Jalen DeLoach and Francis Nwaokorie did a really good job stabilizing us in that moment and we took off from there."
The Ramblers have been tested. They've recovered from heartbreaking overtime road losses to George Mason and Dayton, coming out the other end strong. But, there's another reason they'll have a better chance in 2025 than in 2024.
Why Loyola's postseason will be different in 2025
The biggest facet with the Ramblers is quite simple.
They're healthy.
Not entirely true injury-wise. They've suffered a few injuries and few teams are operating at 100% near the end of the season. This year, Loyola won't be sick at the worst time
Last year in the 2024 A-10 Tournament, Loyola was battling a sickness which hampered a handful of players against St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies won 75-74 in double overtime and Loyola played Bradley in the NIT. It's not an excuse – the Ramblers made one 3-pointer in the second half and both overtimes combined – but it was an uncontrollable variable that struck in the worst possible way.
This year, Loyola is hungry and has hit its stride at the perfect time. It's hard to prepare for the tournament, but this staff has done it at a high level before. It starts with understanding the position the Ramblers are in, which means they'll play one
"You can play three different teams," Associate head coach Sean Dwyer said on Monday.
Dwyer, standing in for Valentine who was at the hospital with his wife Taylor as they were expecting the birth of their son, talked about making sure the team plays disciplined.
Not every play will be perfect, but the one mental aspect of the game Loyola has improved on is shaking out of slumps mid-game. A good example is the win over UMass. Another example is Jayden Dawson starting 0-6 from 3-point range against St. Bonaventure before finishing 4-11, shooting 4-5 in the second half.
"Just making sure our habits are right," Dwyer. "The things that come up every game, we'll need to be solid on. We'll be focusing on that stuff as well.