By ADAM ZAGORIA
Ben Richardson and Loyola Chicago are crashing the Final Four.
Richardson went for a career-high 23 points, making 6-of-7 from beyond the arc, with 6 rebounds and 4 assists as the No. 11 Ramblers blew out No. 9 Kansas State, 78-62, in entertaining fashion to win the South Regional in Atlanta and punch their tickets to the Final Four. Richardson was named the region’s Most Outstanding Player.
Loyola (32-5), the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champion, wil face Michigan in one national semifinal next Saturday in San Antonio. The Wolverines beat Florida State, 58-54, in the West Regional final.
“We believed that we could do something like this, do something really special because we had such good chemistry and we had such a good group,” Richardson told TBS.
The last No. 11 seed to reach the Final Four was VCU in 2011.
“We’re a bunch of guys that everybody laughed at,” Loyola guard Clayton Custer told TBS. “Nobody thought that we could do any of this.”
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Sister Jean is geared up for the #FinalFour!#MarchMadness #OnwardLU pic.twitter.com/gn76uzUtth
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 25, 2018
How much would a Final Four run be worth to Loyola-Chicago in publicity? 12 years ago, a George Mason professor concluded his school’s run to the Final Four was worth $677 MILLION in free advertising.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 24, 2018
Loyola shot a remarkable 57 percent from the field to K-State’s 35 percent. New Jersey native Marques Townes, who hit the dagger three-pointer in Loyola’s 69-68 win over Nevada on Thursday, had 13 points to go with 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Townes said he heard from former high school teammates Karl-Anthony Towns and Wade Baldwin, after the Nevada win. Both Towns are Baldwin are in the NBA. Donte Ingram added 12 points and 8 rebounds for Loyola. But Richardson was the main storyline by leading the offense and entertaining the crowd with his long-range attack. “Ben Richardson was the best player on the floor tonight,” Custer said. Said Richardson: “It doesn’t really matter who it is, but we have a ton of guys that can make shots and have a good game. And the way this team is so unselfish, the ball usually finds the hot hand or the open guy. We’ve shown in the tournament everyone’s had a big night and the ball has really found that guy. And tonight it just happened to be me and I was up for the challenge.”Loyola Chicago is the 4th 11 seed to advance to the Final Four, joining LSU (1986), George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011) as the lowest seeds ever. However, Loyola Chicago is the lowest-seeded automatic qualifier to make the #FinalFour. LSU, GMU and VCU all lost in the semifinals.
— David Worlock (@DavidWorlock) March 25, 2018
Xavier Sneed had 16 points and 6 rebounds apiece for Kansas State, which was coming off Thursday’s 61-58 win over Kentucky. K-State star Barry Brown scored 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting.BIG BUCKET from Ben Richardson! ?
Loyola Chicago stops a 10-0 run by the Wildcats with the SWISH! #MarchMadness #Elite8 pic.twitter.com/Ihc9d0Vh90 — NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 24, 2018
Custer made the all-tournament team, as did Ingram, Sneed and Brown Jr.
Photo: @marchmadness