O'Donnell: Can Loyola return to Final Four? It doesn't look likely
Bouquets, brickbats and other pertinent scraps from a cluttered notebook, in tribute, thank you Gary Deeb:
ARCH MADNESS in St. Louis will begin March Madness for the Loyola Ramblers Friday (NBCSCH+, noon). They'll play struggling No. 9 seed Valparaiso - 4-11 since January 15 but a 77-55 winner over No. 8 Indiana State Thursday night.
The good news for Porter Moser and his after-midnight group is that Thursday winners are 0-38 on Friday in the new millennium at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
The bad news begins with the fact the Valley has been awful this season. The MVC co-champions — the Ramblers and Drake — both finished with six conference losses. That's the most for a titlist in the 112-year history of the league.
It also suggests the Valley's designation could be dropped from “mid-major” to “low mid-major” or “high low-major.”
Loyola also needs a seven-game win streak to match last year's miracle blast to The Final Four. Moving into the 2018 MVC tourney, the Ramblers had three seven-game streaks during the regular season. This winter, they had none.
Even if Loyola wins it all — which would include a Saturday semi (CBSSN, 2:30 p.m.) and Sunday's finale (CBS, 1 p.m.) — some dismaying bracketology could await.
That's because credible NCAA tournament projectionists have LU as a No. 15 seed. One click lower could mean a play-in weeknight in Dayton, hopefully at least with double Marriott points.
And if Moser somehow coaxes a return to The Final Four, forget about renaming it The Gentile-Moser Arena in his honor.
The Pride of Naperville should simply be given Joe Gentile's old Chrysler dealership in Barrington.
BULLS DREAMERS WILL BE paying much more attention to Murray State's Ohio Valley Conference semifinal Friday (ESPNU, 9 p.m.). That hidden nugget will showcase Ja Morant, the 6-3 bounding blur who still could wind up in Chicago's range on NBA Draft Night in June.
Morant is an intriguing all-court player who is averaging 24.1 ppg along with 10.3 apg. He's on pace to become D-I's first 20/10 finisher since the assist became a continuing official stat in 1983.
Long, long ago — way back in 2014 — Morant also played on a modest AAU team in South Carolina with Zion Williamson that was coached by Sharonda Simpson, Williamson's mother.
His pro game still needs to be tightened. But proven analysts have him going anywhere from No. 1 to No. 4 June 20. And if the Bulls package their No. 1 along with Zach LaVine, who knows?
If the Racers win Friday, they return for the OVC championship and an automatic NCAA bid Saturday (ESPN2, 7 p.m.), most likely vs. fabled Belmont.
YOUNG MIKE DEFABO recently pulled off a remarkable feat in the 2019 Associated Press Sports Editors writing competition. Covering Purdue athletics for a 13-newspaper syndicate based out of the Anderson (Ind.) Herald Bulletin, DeFabo went a perfect 6-for-6 in Class C, capturing major honors in all primary word crafting categories.
That's yard.
DeFabo's already moved up to the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal. Meticulousness and flair must run in his family: sister Maria DeFabo-Akin is director of scenic paint and props at The Lyric Opera; brother-in-law Brad DeFabo-Akin is executive director of “Step Up Chicago Playwrights.”
STREET-BEATIN': Jim Delany's legacy as commissioner of The Big Ten will be complex: He lifted the profit levels of the spandexed conference to remarkable levels while destroying much tradition and inadvertently made it clear that student-athletes in the money games of football and men's basketball should be paid. … ESPN management reportedly wants to promote Louis Riddick as its new analyst on “Monday Night Football” but fears he lacks the marquee ju-ju. Joe Thomas would be a safe pick, Brett Favre would have been better in the front porch scenes on “Hee Haw” and biggest question about Christine Brennan is: Does the versatile journalist really want to voluntarily get involved with this dusky jewel? …
News that stagnant WSCR-AM (670) packed a den of drones into a rented home near the Cubs spring training complex in Arizona begged the question: What would the most popular parlor games be? Among the leading candidates: “Back Patio Sumo Wrestling,” “Scratch 'n Sniff” and the doink-house classic “Whose U-Trou Is It Anyway?”…Speaking of “The Score,” facile Phil Rosenthal would be a most energizing new operations director. He's a superb conceptualist, keen creator of both audience engagement and mirth and clearly familiar with navigating kooky tides of tedium these days. … At The Big Ten Network, reporter/analyst Elise Menaker comes with an impressive broadcast pedigree. Uncle Adrian Sakowicz was one of the most promising young sports voices in Chicago before opting for love, marriage and a long run as chief of media relations at Brunswick Corp. …. And the growing wasteland of “gambling” media is making more sophisticated sports speculators do nothing but chortle. As the great Simon “Memphis” Frank — long a supervisor of tout-sheet sales at Chicago-area tracks — told an acolyte in Phil Georgeff's booth one carnie day: “Son, you don't need nobody else to tell you how to lose your money.”
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