OK. Now this is just getting silly.
But, you know, the good kind of silly.
See, we're now halfway through the round of 32 in Da Tournament, and, hey, look at this, everyone's favorite national champ pick (Illinois) is done like dinner. And its goose was cooked by a 101-year-old nun and a kid who plays the harmonica and looks like the guy down at Al's Garage who says "OK, mister, try to start her now."
The nun, of course, is Sister Jean, who became a celebrity when Loyola made it all way to the national championship game in 2019. Now the Loyolas are at it again, knocking out the Big School downstate, which was a No. 1 seed and looked like an Illinois team that wasn't gonna fall short like so many other Illinois teams have fallen short.
Alas, Loyola almost perfectly executed an impeccable game plan, the aforementioned kid (Cameron Krutwig) went for 19 and 12 and proved once more how much appearances can deceive, and the Ramblers sent the Illini home by 13 points. They led by nine at the half and Illinois never got closer than six again.
But, wait, that's not all!
Move on to later in the day, and here was 11-seed Syracuse and that damn 2-3 zone confounding yet another team, this time 3-seed West Virginia. And was that 15-seed Oral Roberts doing it again, this time knocking out Florida?
Indeed it was. So now you've got Loyola in the Sweet Sixteen and Oral Roberts in the Sweet Sixteen, and all the Big Ten teams are gone except for Michigan, Iowa and Maryland, because it's Da Tournament and in Da Tournament Big Ten teams do Big Ten things.
Like, you know, lose.
It's all Big Crazy and it's absolutely wonderful, but it does make you think the selection committee tripped over a crack in the sidewalk this time. Oral Roberts looks nothing like a 15-seed, first of all. Loyola is a 4-seed disguised as an 8-seed. And Syracuse is no 11-seed.
Meanwhile, on we go. There are more games today, and in one of them 2-seed and SEC champ Alabama plays 10-seed and eighth-in-the-Big-Ten Maryland. And in two other games, 1-seed Michigan plays 8-seed LSU, and 2-seed Iowa plays 7-seed Oregon from the Pac-12 -- a conference which, unlike the Big Ten, hasn't lost a game yet.
The good news for Iowa and Michigan: No nuns.
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