Briefly departing from Facebook (
https://www.facebook.com/michael.gaichas.3) and Twitter (
https://twitter.com/mikegaichas), where I usually am these days as several of you know, I come here to say that the realization that our Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team has won a regular season conference championship has yet to sink in. While we knew the Ramblers were an improving team, this 25-5 season seemed to come out of nowhere and exceeded all of our expectations. The upset win over Florida earlier in the season turned out to only be a sign of what was yet to come. For the past several years, my work schedule has made being a season ticket holder unfeasible. However, I do make it out to two or three games each year. I attended the Missouri State game on February 3 and yesterday's victory over Illinois State. The sight of Porter Moser giving that postgame speech on the floor along with the MVC trophy presentation and Ramblers cutting the net in the east endzone nearly brought tears to my eyes. It's something I was not sure I would ever see, and I'm only 48 with hopefully several decades of LU basketball yet to see.
Of course, there is much more work to do this season. Our team now travels to Saint Louis as the No. 1 seed in Arch Madness. Our No. 1 seed does not guarantee a thing. In a conference where any team can beat any other team on any given day/night, this will not be easy for us. Let us pray and hope we are the last team standing. If we keep doing what we have been doing, we WILL be the last team standing. I'll be following the action from here at home, and I hope those of you going to St. Louis for Arch Madness have a safe and fun trip!
Go Ramblers! #OnwardLU