What's next for Loyola? Well, next season could be another good one
Go back approximately one month and Loyola earning its first NCAA Tournament berth in 33 years was a nice, pleasant story.
At the time, reaching the Final Four seemed like an absurd dream.
Now that it happened and the Ramblers captured the interest of college basketball fans everywhere, one question is, what will Loyola basketball look like next season?
First of all, let's assume everyone who can return will return, including coach Porter Moser. If that happens, the Ramblers should be very good.
Of their top seven players this season, four will return. It's not a stretch to suggest Loyola's three best players will all be back - junior point guard Clayton Custer, junior shooting guard Marques Townes and freshman center Cameron Krutwig.
Krutwig certainly opened some eyes by scoring 17 points in the semifinal loss to Michigan on Saturday. Custer was named Missouri Valley Conference player of the year.
So that's a good start, and Townes might turn out to be the team's most talented player when he spends a second season at Loyola after transferring from Fairleigh Dickinson.
Townes sent out a tweet about next season not long after Loyola's 69-57 loss.
"Incredible run with a very special group that I call my brothers," Townes wrote. "We put the whole world on notice on who the Loyola Ramblers are. We will be back next year."
Back in the Final Four? Well, that remains to be seen. But Loyola likely will be favored to repeat as Missouri Valley champs.
"There is going to be a target on our back now," Krutwig said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. "People are going to respect us, but they are going to want to beat us. So next year we are going to have to up it even more than we did this year, and I have no doubt that we will."
So next year's starting lineup appears mostly set with Custer, Townes, Krutwig and freshman guard Lucas Williamson, who played at least 21 minutes in all five of the NCAA Tournament games.
Two players who seem fairly certain to move into the rotation are 6-foot-4 sophomore Cameron Satterwhite and 6-7 transfer Aher Uguak. Sophomore shooting guard Bruno Skokna from Croatia also returns.
Satterwhite was a regular all season but was on the fringes of the rotation. A highly touted recruit out of Arizona, many schools backed off after Satterwhite missed his senior year of high school with a knee injury. Moser took a chance, and Satterwhite could be an ideal replacement for Aundre Jackson as one of those versatile 6-4 guys who fill Loyola's roster.
Uguak sat out this season after transferring from New Mexico, so he practiced with the team all year. Uguak grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, after his parents emigrated from South Sudan, and he's a cousin of former Bulls forward Luol Deng.
Moser called Uguak an "ultra-athletic, inside-outside mismatch like (senior) Donte Ingram."
A player to watch is 6-7 freshman Christian Negron from Elgin Larkin High School.
Like Satterwhite, he missed his senior year of high school with a knee injury and should be fully recovered when next season begins.
Junior-college transfer Adarius Avery played early last season before dropping from the rotation.
Loyola signed three newcomers in November - 6-9 Franklin Agunanne from LaLumiere Academy in Indiana; 6-3 Isaiah Bujdoso from Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, a native of Hamilton, Ontario; and 6-3 Cooper Kaifes from Shawnee, Kansas.
Agunanne could help with the interior defense. Bujdoso is a point guard who could be Custer's eventual replacement and Kaifes appears to be an outside-shooting specialist with pretty good all-around skills.
The schedule will be something to watch, since Moser used the national platform to complain about how difficult it has been for Loyola to get schools from the Power Five conferences to agree to play.
As for Moser himself, he's bound to get offers from other schools. But, keep in mind, Moser, 49, isn't really a young up-and-comer. He had that phase and stumbled as a young head coach at Illinois State. Loyola took a flyer by giving him another chance, so he has reason to stay loyal to the Ramblers.
Moser has spoken all season about wanting to become the Missouri Valley's next Wichita State, the school that can expect regular NCAA appearances and compete with more well-known opponents.
But Wichita has filled a big arena for years. Loyola has never consistently filled the Gentile Center, so that will be one of the first goals.
Then it will be a matter of Moser competing for better recruits, who may have tuned in to Loyola's thrilling tournament run and appreciated the Ramblers' fundamentally-sound, free-flowing style.