NU '95 Rose Bowl vs. Loyola '18 NCAA Run

[Jonny2TheP]

The Loyola run has been magical and one that not even the most fanatical Loyola fans saw coming. Seeing those long time Loyola fans and current students soaking it all up has been fantastic...and reminds me a lot of a certain purple fan base going back about 22 and a half years.

To me, there are a lot of parallels between the NU '95 Rose Bowl run and Loyola's 2018 basketball run.
* Chicago area private schools
* Programs that had good/great success long ago
* Programs that had fallen on really hard times over the past 20-30 years with really no success at all and years of truly pathetic futility
* A younger energetic coach
* Each team had shown improvement in recent years and anyone really paying attention to the program could see that a good year could be had...but no one in their wildest dreams could expect a Rose Bowl or Final Four berth

Seem to be a lot of parallels for me- and hopefully the ending for Loyola is a little sweeter than NU's Rose Bowl loss that year.

So, LoyolaCat, if you're reading, I ask you...which run was/has been better? Of course Loyola's is still in progress and who knows, maybe it gets even more magical and ends with a national title, but as a fan of both teams, I wonder which one you enjoyed more. Not an easy question since one is in progress and one was nearly 23 years ago, but just curious.

 

[Alaskawildkat]

ESPN Sports Center agrees with you. Just after the Rambers secured a berth in the Final Four they ran a feature highlighting Northwestern's run to the Rose Bowl as the only thing that matched this year's excitement in Chicago. Several vintage shots from that time period were included.

 

[Catreporter]

Cats run was almost season long, whereas Loyola's caught on very late, otherwise very similar.

 

[pawildcat]

Cats run was almost season long, whereas Loyola's caught on very late, otherwise very similar.

Agreed. The win over Notre Dame brought early attention to the Cats. The buildup for Loyola didn't mount until they went on their long winning streak and reached the NCAA tourney.

 

[SmellyCat]

I'm biased as an NU fan, but I think the NU run was far more amazing and magical. For those that lived through the Dark Ages (and I came in at the tail end - I wasn't there for the late 1970s/early 1980s period), they weren't just not winning, they were historically bad. People who had heard of Northwestern University knew them more as a bad football team than as a world-class university. Coming back from THAT is nothing like what Loyola is doing. Sure, there are some superficial similarities, but nothing more.

That said, I'm pretty excited about the Ramblers.

 

[Jonny2TheP]

I'm biased as an NU fan, but I think the NU run was far more amazing and magical. For those that lived through the Dark Ages (and I came in at the tail end - I wasn't there for the late 1970s/early 1980s period), they weren't just not winning, they were historically bad. People who had heard of Northwestern University knew them more as a bad football team than as a world-class university. Coming back from THAT is nothing like what Loyola is doing. Sure, there are some superficial similarities, but nothing more.

That said, I'm pretty excited about the Ramblers.

Understand the comment and you are right that the depths of NU futility were deeper, but Loyola went through a hell of a bad stretch. From 1987 until the 2016-17 season, they were over .500 in conference a whopping three times, and this was primarily playing in the lowly Horizon League.

I think the similarities are far less superficial than two smaller private schools geographically located near each other. Of course I’m biased and that NU Rose Bowl run tops all in my book, but the vibe of this Loyola run sure has a very similar feel to me.

 

[pawildcat]

Understand the comment and you are right that the depths of NU futility were deeper, but Loyola went through a hell of a bad stretch. From 1987 until the 2016-17 season, they were over .500 in conference a whopping three times, and this was primarily playing in the lowly Horizon League.

I think the similarities are far less superficial than two smaller private schools geographically located near each other. Of course I’m biased and that NU Rose Bowl run tops all in my book, but the vibe of this Loyola run sure has a very similar feel to me.

They both are amazing runs in that I never thought I'd see Northwestern in a Rose Bowl in my lifetime, and I certainly didn't think I'd see Loyola in another final four. Loyola in 1963 was one of the last winners of what I'd call the old-era NCAA tourney — fewer teams qualifying, few games televised, smaller budgets etc. Teams such as Loyola, Bradley, Penn, LaSalle and others could be big players back in the day. When the television money started flowing in and the Power conferences took sway, a lot of the charm went out of the tournament as far as I'm concerned. I think the founding of ESPN saw a fundamental shift in the balance of college BB as its location in Conn. made televising the Big East and the ACC a natural. The ACC was always a good conference, but check its number of final fours, titles etc. pre-ESPN with what occurred after. The B1G, and to a greater extent the western conferences, have been playing catch-up ever since.

While we see upsets in the tourney nowadays, the upset sweethearts are usually short-lived. Loyola has reached the Final Four and pushed things a little, but every 11 seed that reached before them has lost in the semis. We'll see if they can change the narrative. If not, a top-three seed will win as usual.