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Final Four in San Antonio

Bartles

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Bartles

Bartles 769

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5:09 pm Central - Loyola Ill. vs. Michigan (Line: UM -5)

7:49 pm Central - Kansas vs. Villanova (Line: VU -5)

 

Alamodome - the court will be in the center this time, as opposed to the old half-stadium set up used in 2008 when KU won. Three Nike teams, Jayhawks the lone adidas lawbreakers. Go Ramblers & then Cats take it all again

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1 minute ago, SomeoneYouKnow said:

I'll be there for the semifinal games. Any tips on the scene or am I just to assume the Riverwalk is the place to go?

Riverwalk will be packed. I would avoid it. 

Randy Rogers Band will be out at Floore's (Helotes) on Friday and Saturday night.

Rockets play the Spurs at the AT&T Centeron Sunday

There are some decent breweries in town to check out.

 


 

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Shoxthemonkey

Shoxthemonkey 1982

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As long as Villanova beats KU I don't care what happens. Would be nice to see an MVC team take it all, I guess. I got to see WSU beat Loyola during the regular season in 1963, the year that the Ramblers won the Championship. Jerry Harkness vs Dave Stallworth was a fun game to watch. The  Shockers were a Top 5 team that year but only league champs went to the tourney. #1 Cincinnati won the MVC.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54296

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Shannon Ryan of the Chicago Tribune has been hitting tape measure homers every time she writes about Loyola.  This is her best:

Quote

As fourth-graders, Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer reached the pinnacle of their youth sports careers.

At Spiece Fieldhouse in Fort Wayne, Ind., the preteen teammates won a youth basketball national championship.

“We were going out on a national stage and beating a lot of really good teams,” Custer recalled. “Those were some of the coolest moments.”

Sound familiar?

Loyola teammates Richardson and Custer have been repeating that success since they were around 9. They won another national championship as sixth-graders for the Overland Park Huskies. At Blue Valley Northwest High School, they went 94-6 and won two Kansas state championships.

They topped all of those experiences together Thursday evening when they helped No. 11 seed Loyola upset No. 6 Miami in the NCAA tournament, propelling them to Saturday’s second-round matchup against No. 3 Tennessee.

“Every time me and Ben have played together our whole lives, we’ve been on winning teams,” Custer said.

They were in the same first-grade class, lived a mile from each other and began playing basketball together as third-graders.

When Richardson found Custer in the corner against Miami for a game-tying 3-pointer with 1 minute, 12 seconds to play, it was the greatest pass and shot combination of their lives.

But it was nothing new.

“We had a big game for a conference championship, and it came down to the wire,” said Ed Fritz, their high school coach. “Clay had the ball in his hands for the last shot, he drove, Ben came over to help. He found Ben for the layup and we won. He got fouled and (made the free throw) and we won by three points. They just have an innate ability with each other.”

NCAA tournament: Loyola 64, Miami 62

Photos from the Loyola-Miami game at the American Airlines Center on March 15, 2018, in Dallas, Tex.

Fritz and Richardson’s dad coached their youth team that won those national championships. Richardson credits Fritz’s intensity with them — even as youngsters — for their tenacity.

Fritz, who has coached Blue Valley Northwest for 16 years, got in his car Wednesday night and drove nine hours to Dallas to catch Thursday’s game. “I didn’t even bring clothes,” he said.

The duo told him after the game, “We played like we did when we played for you.” Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, is celebrating another state title Blue Valley Northwest won last weekend and is giddy about Loyola’s run.

Ramblers teammates joke that Custer, a redshirt junior, and Richardson, a senior, have some kind of telekinetic connection on the court.

“They do everything together,” guard Marques Townes said. “They’re like brothers. They should be brothers, actually. The connection they have on the court is amazing. Being out there with them and how they find each other on the court is just mind-blowing to me.”

Custer and Richardson combine for 8.2 assists per game — many to each other.

“I’ve had so many times people come up to me and say, ‘Wow, how did you know Clay was going to be there?’ ” Richardson said. “ ‘How he did he know you were going to come behind that screen and he was going to find you like that?’ It’s just chemistry we’ve worked on countless hours in the gym.”

They parted ways initially for college as Custer went to Iowa State and Richardson headed for Rogers Park. Custer played in only 12 games as a freshman with limited minutes and decided to find a program where he could make a more significant impact.

Before he even received his release from Iowa State, Custer confided in Richardson, who immediately started recruiting him.

“He was like, ‘You have to come on a visit,’ ” Custer said. “He basically said even if you don’t like Loyola, just come visit and we’ll have a great time.”

Coach Porter Moser saw Custer play in high school when he recruited Richardson. When Custer got his release, “it was game on,” Moser said. “It was the foot on the gas pedal.”

Custer committed to Loyola on that visit.

Three years later, Custer is the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year and Richardson the league's defensive player of the year.

After the Ramblers won the MVC tournament, the duo walked beside each other from the court to a media interview room. They told each other: “Man, can you believe this? We’ve won since we were in third grade.”

Moser watched the scene unfold with pride.

“It was the most genuine, little-kid moment of two grown guys just sharing it,” he said.

Richardson marveled at the experiences he and Custer have enjoyed together.

“There’s no way for it to set in now,” he said. “We’ve had countless lifelong memories already. This will go at the top of the list, I think. We’re not done yet. We want to make some more good ones.”

 

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Roofle

Roofle 273

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Does the Final Four tend to work like regionals do, in that you can hang out outside the arena after the Saturday game ends and practically be handed a ticket for Monday by fans of the losing teams? Thinking about going. Worst case, it looks like the get-in price Monday is $150.

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VolenteHawk

VolenteHawk 495

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58 minutes ago, Roofle said:

Does the Final Four tend to work like regionals do, in that you can hang out outside the arena after the Saturday game ends and practically be handed a ticket for Monday by fans of the losing teams? Thinking about going. Worst case, it looks like the get-in price Monday is $150.

Since they’ve gone full football setup, a Monday ticket is pretty easy. Approaching free for upper level, reasonable for decent seats. The few “good” seats in the place still demand somewhat of a premium.

And I may have a slightly tighter market view of reality, my one Final Four setup was New Orleans 2012 Kansas/Kentucky. As you might imagine, demand was high. There are just so many damn seats set up that way

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midtown

midtown 3346

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I had no idea they banned booze sales at the final four.  What a beating.  

Everything is going to be packed this wknd.  Try Alamo Brewing which is not far from the dome and short uber from almost anywhere.  If you're downtown the Pearl is also close.  You could even walk it along the river. Maybe not at night as its pretty sparse in some areas. 

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Roofle

Roofle 273

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7 hours ago, midtown said:

I had no idea they banned booze sales at the final four.  What a beating.  

Everything is going to be packed this wknd.  Try Alamo Brewing which is not far from the dome and short uber from almost anywhere.  If you're downtown the Pearl is also close.  You could even walk it along the river. Maybe not at night as its pretty sparse in some areas. 

Yup. All NCAA-hosted events are alcoholless.

Since the host institution of regular season games is the home team, they have discretion over alcohol sales. Sadly, all the fun goes away when the NCAA starts hosting come the tournament.

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Bartles

Bartles 769

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NCAA is going to allow beer/wine starting next year I think. There will be tons of beer vendors right outside in the fan zone which is open only to ticket holders. So you just have to suffer through the games themselves which take like 3 hours each. The fan zone closes when game 1 starts.

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Roofle

Roofle 273

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2 hours ago, Bartles said:

NCAA is going to allow beer/wine starting next year I think. There will be tons of beer vendors right outside in the fan zone which is open only to ticket holders. So you just have to suffer through the games themselves which take like 3 hours each. The fan zone closes when game 1 starts.

That’s beautiful about next year. I hadn’t heard that. After reading up on it, it sounds like this is the last year of suffering.

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Underdog

Underdog 28750

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Went to the FF in SA ‘98, hope it goes as well for Michigan this weekend as it did for UK back then, SA does an excellent job with the FF.   Jr is a UM fan and has tickets, hopefully he’ll get off work early enough on Saturday to enjoy some of the FF festivities. 

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