Opinion: Porter Moser has Loyola-Chicago busting brackets again, but this time it’s no surprise

INDIANAPOLIS — The first time a mid-major turns everybody’s bracket into confetti, it’s a sweet story. Plucky underdogs who everybody can get behind. All the better if a nun who’s pushing 100 and providing the team with scouting reports is along for the ride.

When it happens again three years later, it ceases to be a gimmick. Still a good story, but one that needs to be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Just ask top-seeded Illinois.

Loyola-Chicago served notice that its Final Four run in 2018 was no fluke, upending the Illini – a trendy pick to make the title game, if not win the whole NCAA men’s tournament – in decisive fashion Sunday afternoon. Given the upheaval that’s already occurred – this is the first time four teams seeded 13 or worse have reached the second round – there’s no reason Loyola can’t find itself among the last teams standing.

The eighth-seeded Ramblers play the winner of Oregon State-Oklahoma State next weekend in the Sweet 16.

“We feel like we’re one of the best teams in the country, and I think we showed that these last two games,” Cameron Krutwig said after the 71-58 victory. “You can't not think that you're one of the best teams in the country. You've got to think that and you've got to play like that, and we're excited to get to the next one.

“We definitely think we’re one of the best teams in the country, but you’ve got to back it up with your play.”

No problem there.

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