Welch, Loyola poised to make another run in NCAA tournament
Coming out of Naperville North High School in 2018, Tom Welch had multiple offers to play college basketball.
The 6-foot-8 forward was also a star goalie and, after leading the Huskies to three straight Class 3A state titles, he could have continued playing soccer at the next level.
Looking back now, Welch has zero doubts he made the right decision.
"This is where I want to be," he said.
Choosing Loyola and presented with an opportunity to compete in both sports, Welch dropped soccer and devoted all of his attention to playing basketball for the Ramblers, a mid-major power.
For the third time in four years - not counting 2020 when COVID-19 canceled March Madness - Loyola is playing in the NCAA Tournament.
After stumbling a bit down the stretch, the Ramblers (25-7) regrouped and beat Bradley, Northern Iowa and Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference tourney to secure an automatic bid.
They will open NCAA South Region play Friday in Pittsburgh as the No. 10 seed and face Ohio State (19-10), the No. 7 seed.
Loyola is again rolling at just the right time, having won their three games in the MVC tourney by an average of 15 points.
"It definitely feels good, how dominant we were in some of those games," Welch said. "That got our confidence going heading into March Madness. I think it's just the whole March thing, man. When the tournaments come around and the stakes are a little bit bigger, our team does a great job of really locking in and taking every possession seriously, knowing every detail matters."
While the Ramblers were positioned to secure an NCAA invitation even if they lost to Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference final (they won 64-58), Welch and his teammates were taking nothing for granted.
"The mindset in the locker room was, 'We don't have an at-large bid, we need to win out,' and every game was kind of a win-or-go-home situation," Welch said. "There was speculation we might get something, might get lucky. But I felt like in everyone's heart, it was win or go home. If we didn't win those three games in the (MVC) tournament, we wouldn't be going to March Madness."
Heading into the season, Loyola was thought to be a little down after coach Porter Moser left for Oklahoma and star center Cam Krutwig, a Jacobs High School product, headed to Belgium to play pro basketball.
Assistant Drew Valentine made a seamless shift to head coach and Lucas Williamson and three other returning starters kept the Ramblers on a winning track.
After advancing to the Final Four in 2018 and taking down No. 1 seed Illinois and making it to the Sweet 16 last year, Loyola is ready for another run.
"Overall, I think the team had a great season," Welch said. "We had a few bumps in the road but we've believed in ourselves since the beginning of the season. We knew we wanted to do something big this year. We have so much talent and so much passion, we believed we could do something big."
Welch plays an important role off the bench, and the junior is averaging 3.6 points and 1.6 rebounds per game.
Before scoring a combined 15 points in the first two games of the Missouri Valley tournament, he had 10-point games vs. Illinois State on Feb. 21 and Valparaiso on Feb. 16.
"I don't know what's gotten into me," Welch said with a laugh. "Nothing's really changed. I feel the same, my stats are just looking a little better. I think it's the whole team thing. As the end of the year gets going, the games matter a little more and I've just been locked into this team.
"This group of seniors and the guys above, they pour their hearts into this program and that's motivated me to do everything I can to make sure they have the best year possible."