(670 The Score) There was a time when coach Porter Moser and his Loyola Ramblers were just happy to reach the NCAA Tournament. Having established themselves as a strong program, they’re long past that mindset. They now expect to be competing on this stage, and their desire is to put themselves in best position to have the most success they can once there.
Which is also why the Ramblers were puzzled Sunday evening when the selection committee awarded them a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They’re 24-4 and won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles. Loyola also finished 10th in the NET rankings, one of the primary tools the selection committee uses to create the bracket.
“I’m supposed to be political coach-speak dude, but like, when I’m on with you guys, I’ve been on with you enough, I don’t need to be,” Moser said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Tuesday morning. “I don’t need to be. I look at this, and I’m just not happy to be in. Like, sometimes people don’t care about their seed – ‘Oh, I’m just happy to be in.’ I want to compete and advance and be in. I want to win it. So the only thing I’ll really say is, I don’t know how many years ago, four or five years ago, they went to the NET. But what does the NET stand for? It stands for NCAA Evaluation Tool. They said, ‘We’re going to use the NET.’ So one through four in the NET got all the one seeds. Five through eight got all the two seeds. No. 9 (Loyola was actually No. 10) got the eighth seed.”
That eighth-seed designation has left Loyola with a tough path early, as it will face No. 9 seed Georgia Tech, which has won eight straight games and is coming off an ACC Tournament title. The winner of that game will likely face top-seeded Illinois in the Round of 32.
“Georgia Tech won eight ACC games in a row and won their tournament – it’s like, ‘Oh, here’s the reward for being 10 in the NET,” Moser said. “It is what it is. For our guys, we are fired up. Everything is about motivation about that. Our guys, we have a confident respect for Georgia Tech. We watched a lot of film. We saw them actually on TV, we were watching them, we saw them win the ACC Tournament and beat Florida State. You just got to go and play and do that. But some programs, you’re like, ‘I don’t care, I’m just happy to be in.’ I want to compete and be in. I want to fight the highest seed possible. I want to compete during the year to get the highest seed possible to put yourself in the best position possible to win the thing. Not just happy to be there. So there’s not much you can do. It’s totally out of your control. The only thing we can control is what we did during the season, and all the efficiency ratings, all the NET, the NCAA Evaluation Tool, said we were 10th. It becomes, you just have to roll with it.”