Suburban connection highlights Loyola's second-round matchup

Loyola and Tennessee will be playing for the first time ever when they meet up Saturday for a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Dallas.

But there is history between some of the players, since Tennessee's second-leading scorer Admiral Schofield attended Zion-Benton High School. He's played against Loyola's Donte Ingram, the hero of Thursday's last-second win over Miami, and freshman center Cameron Krutwig.

The first Krutwig-Schofield battle happened in the third-place game of the 2014 Hinkle Holiday Classic at Jacobs High School in Algonquin. It was hardly a fair fight individually, since Krutwig was a sophomore coming off a broken foot and the 6-5 Schofield looked about the same as he does now, barrel-chested with the arms of a bodybuilder. Zion won the game by 3.

“Admiral had 21 and Cam had 6,” Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts said. “It was in the third-place game so you had a couple of teams that were disappointed they're not in the first-place game. It ended up being a good game.”

Roberts said he used Kenton Mack, now playing at Northern Michigan, to defend Schofield that night.

“It wasn't a situation where Admiral and Cam were matched up head-to-head,” Roberts said. “They played different positions. I don't know how much they'll be matched up Saturday.”

Schofield, who averages 13.9 points and 6.5 rebounds for the No. 3 seed Volunteers, told reporters in Dallas on Wednesday he watched Ingram's game-winning 3-point shot while dining at Shake Shack.

He also explained why he spurned interest from Loyola and other area schools to play at Tennessee.

“The biggest thing for me was I wanted to get out of the cold and snow,” Schofield said. “I was tired of shoveling every winter. I love coming home, love the deep dish pizza, love being downtown.”

While No. 11 Loyola had America buzzing with its exciting victory over Miami, Tennessee had an easy time with Wright State in the first round.

Ramblers coach Porter Moser talked about the challenge of having to come down to Earth quickly and focus on Saturday's second round.

“You can't prepare yourself, especially at Loyola, for the national scope of what happened (Thursday) night,” Moser said. “These guys were back at their hotel rooms watching themselves all night. The social media was berserk. I'm one of those guys where I wanted them to enjoy the moment. This is how hard they worked for.

“I can do that because this is a mature group. Every time that it's time to do business, this group is completely locked in.”

As usual, the Ramblers will be outsized by Tennessee. Moser called Volunteers top scorer Grant Williams (6-7, 241) the best duck-in guy in the country. Schofield, meanwhile, had 15 points and 12 rebounds against Wright State.

“We're going to need a tremendous effort on the glass,” Moser said. “We're going to have to have a tremendous effort post defense-wise. They pound it inside, they duck you in. You've got to do your work early, you can't just sit there and let them post up. We're going to have to have our best rebounding and post defensive effort of the year

Loyola had its usual balanced scoring against Miami. Point guard Clayton Custer led with 14 points, followed by Ingram with 13, Andre Jackson with 12 and Krutwig with 11.

“I think we can play better than we played (Thursday),” Custer said. “We kind of got that first game under our belt now, now we feel a little but more comfortable just playing on the court. I think we'll feel more comfortable out there shooting.”