A year ago, Northwestern truly lived up to its name as “Chicago’s Big Ten Team,” riding a historic season to its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth and a win over Vanderbilt in the first round.

But this year, it was a different Chicago-area team that stole the spotlight.

While NU’s season ended in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, Loyola’s meteoric rise was just starting. The Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and earned an 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And without a team of their own to root for in the postseason, some NU students hopped on the Loyola bandwagon.

Medill freshman Chris Burton picked the Ramblers to beat Miami in their first round game, and then journeyed down to the Loyola area to watch their second round game against Tennessee.

“One of the big reasons I supported Loyola was it was such a good story, and it feels like a lot of colleges kind of around here want to support each other,” he said. “I’m sure there were Loyola fans coming up here when we took down Vanderbilt. The fact that Northwestern didn’t have a great season this year probably played a role.”

After beating the Hurricanes on senior forward Donte Ingram’s 3-pointer with less than a second to go, the Ramblers started to pick up fans, both in Chicago and nationally. When junior guard Clayton Custer’s last second shot gave Loyola a 1-point lead with just seconds to go, the Ramblers were off to the Sweet 16.

Burton said the environment at Loyola for the Tennessee game was unlike anything he’s experienced before.

“It’s the loudest place I’ve been in maybe my whole life,” he said. “It was absolutely insane. You could feel electricity in the air, which I know is kind of a cliche, but it was actually true. It was just such a wild experience.”

Against Nevada in the Sweet 16, Loyola played its third straight close game. Up by one point in the final minute, junior guard Marques Townes hit a 3-point shot to ice the game, and the Ramblers eventually won by just a single point. In its first three games of the tournament, Loyola won by a combined 4 points.

The Ramblers then easily dispatched Kansas State in the Elite Eight to earn a berth in the Final Four, becoming just the fourth 11 seed to ever make it that far. Their run came to an end in San Antonio when they lost to Michigan, who lost to Villanova in the title game.

Weinberg freshman Jacob Neuman went to Gentile Arena for a viewing party during the Final Four.

Neuman said he didn’t start following the team until they reached the Sweet 16, but was immediately struck by the underdog story.

“It’s really rare to have an 11 seed reach the Final Four. There was an icon as well, to give the team a national face,” he said. “Whenever an underdog has that much success, it’s fun to be a fan and jump on the bandwagon.”

Loyola also gained heaps of national attention due to its team chaplain, 98-year-old Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who gave pep talks that mixed religion with a scouting report before each game.

Burton said he’ll definitely follow Loyola’s team next season, and that he’s excited for its future. The Ramblers will lose senior guard Ben Richardson but will return MVC player of the year Custer, MVC freshman of the year Cameron Krutwig and several other rotation players.

After the Ramblers’ season came to an end, Custer reflected back on the campaign.

“I think we inspired a city,” Custer said after the game. “We inspired a lot of people across the country. People can be proud to say that they went to Loyola. The word Loyola has a whole new meaning now. We proved to ourselves that we can play with anybody in the country.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Chris Burton’s year. He is a freshman. The Daily regrets the error.

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