The rebuilding of Loyola’s basketball program may still be a work in progress, but the revival is accelerating.
The Ramblers moved to within one win of a College Basketball Invitational title with Monday’s 65-58 victory over Louisiana-Monroe.
Earl Peterson scored 16 points in the opener of the best-of-three CBI championship series while three other Ramblers score din double figures for Loyola (23-13).
“People recognize that our arrow is going up, ” Loyola coach Porter Moser said. “These guys believe they can win. They’re investing more. You see them understanding and how hard they work.
“Is that where we want to go? No, we want to go even higher.”
The immediate goal is a CBI championship as the series shifts to Louisiana on Wednesday and a potential sweep. If necessary, Game 3 is set for Friday.
Loyola trailed 26-24 at halftime but sprinted ahead of Louisiana-Monroe (24-13) early in the second half to lead by as many as 11 points as Christian Thomas closed with 12 points, Montel James had 11 and Devon Turk added 10.
Loyola finished last in its inaugural Missouri Valley season (2013-14), improved to sixth with an 8-10 record this season on the way to the MVC tournament quarterfinals.
“Culturewise when I got here there were so many losing seasons,” Moser said. “When you start recruiting you can sell the newness of the facilities and the newness of getting the job, but people still look at it as can you win there?”
The Ramblers’ 23 wins are the most since 1985 when Loyola reached the NCAA Sweet 16 under the late Gene Sullivan. After that came 22 losing seasons, two at .500 and just six winning seasons.
“Being able to attract some Chicago Public League kids like Milton Doyle and Donte Ingram and some other really good players (helps),” Moser said.
“And starting winning some games, you start to develop your culture that you’re going to be about winning and you can win.”