Loyola Chicago Wins The Atlantic 10 Regular Season Title In Just Their Second Year Since Joining
The 2023-24 regular season ended today with Loyola cutting down nets at a sold-out Gentile Arena as Atlantic 10 Conference champions! The Ramblers clinched their first A-10 title in just their second year in the league by beating La Salle, 64-54.
Loyola wraps up the regular season with a 23-8 overall record and a 15-3 mark in the A-10, where they finished in a first-place tie with Richmond. Loyola will take the No. 2 seed into the conference tournament, which begins next week in Brooklyn.
I'm not going to lie. It's been a roller coaster season for this squad. Thinking back to November's Barstool Invitational, and watching them get waxed by FAU, it looked like this was going to be a long season for Valentine and Loyola Chicago. But fast forward to February and the team was flying. They won 8 out of 9, really gelled as a team, and most importantly, pg Braden Norris stepped into his roles as leader of this team and long-distance sniper.
LoyolaRamblers.com - Loyola Chicago clinched a share of the Atlantic 10 regular season title Saturday afternoon with a 64-54 win over La Salle in front of a sold-out Gentile Arena. The Ramblers clinched the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and will have a two-round bye into the quarterfinals.
With the win, Loyola finishes the regular season at 23-8 overall and 15-3 in the A10.
"At the end of last year, there weren't a lot of people who believed that this was real, but people in that locker room did," said head coach Drew Valentine. "Whether they were newcomers, freshman, transfers, or returners, they believed this was possible and going to happen.
They made it happen. They had to be the ones to buy into what we're coaching. They had to be the ones to go out there and execute and make plays with toughness and intensity. This year was all about pride and being part of this university and being a proud representation of Loyola Chicago basketball."
Drew Valentine is the real deal. He’s not only filled the giant shoes of Porter Moser in a relatively short amount of time, but he took a 10-21 team last year to 23-8 this season. That is a 13 game swing and 11 more conference wins in year 2. Not too shabby for a program everybody said couldn’t hang in the new conference.
With the seeding, Loyola heads straight to the quarterfinals and awaits the winner of No. 10 La Salle/No. 15 George Washington vs. No. 7 St. Bonaventure.
Tipoff will be Thursday at 4 p.m. CT.
Let’s hope they win 3 in Brooklyn to win this damn thing so we can set our sights on a decent seeding in the big dance.
Congrats to Chicagos team, Illinois’ team- the Loyola Ramblers.
