Meet the Loyola-Chicago starting five that make up the most cohesive unit in America
Clayton Custer: The junior guard originally played for Iowa State as a freshman but transferred after not getting much playing time to reunite with his high school teammate, Ben Richardson, who he won a state championship with at Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kan. Custer leads the Ramblers in scoring (13.2 ppg) and assists (4.2 apg) and was the Missouri Valley Conference’s player of the year. His shot with three seconds left helped lift Loyola past Tennessee in the second round.
Ben Richardson: The senior guard is the only starter not to average double figures, but his role has been invaluable for the Ramblers. He was the Missouri Valley defensive player of the year, and he was the hero of Loyola’s Elite Eight win over Kansas State — finishing with 23 points off six three-pointers.
At Blue Valley Northwest High School, Custer and Richardson went 94-6 and played in four consecutive Kansas state championship games, and won titles in their junior and senior years.
Coach Bill Self said of Custer: “I watched him play a lot. I told him after (Kansas’ summer) team camp, going into his senior year, I said, ‘Just so you know, you’re plenty good but we can’t recruit you.’ … We had Devonte’ (Graham) and we had (last year’s national player of the year) Frank Mason. So the opportunity for him to come in and impact our program probably wouldn’t have been as great.
“I asked (Custer) I said, ‘How good did it feel to play K-State in the Elite Eight?’ He hinted to me it wouldn’t feel as good as playing (us) on Monday night.”
Marques Townes: The hero of Loyola’s Sweet 16 win over Nevada, in which Townes drilled a game-defining three-pointer with six seconds left, transferred from Fairleigh Dickinson where he played in the 2016 NCAA tournament. Townes, a New Jersey native, has close ties with Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns, with whom he played high school ball.
Donte Ingram: The star of this Cinderella team’s first chapter, a thrilling top-of-the-key buzzer-beater that sunk Miami (Fla.), Ingram was the team’s leading scorer last season but has differed more this season as other guards (Custer and Townes) have stepped into larger roles. But his athletic ability to get to the rim and momentous outside shooting have been invaluable for this team all season. Ingram has to play big at 6-6 against some opponents’ 4s, but holds his own. A Chicago product, Ingram played high school ball for Simeon Academy alongside Milwaukee Bucks star Jabari Parker. It’s also the same Chicago Public League school where Derrick Rose shined.
Cameron Krutwig: The 6-9 freshman center who has retro post moves that are reminiscent of George Mikan or Jack Sikma, speaks to the type of player that Moser recruited with his mentor, Majerus, in his head. “He wouldn’t ask me, ‘Is he athletic? Does he have good hands?’ He would ask me this question: ‘Does he love to play?'”
Krutwig is the example of a post man who doesn’t beat you with athletic ability but has great skills in the post, creating space in the paint — where he can finish with a jump hook or great footwork. He also spearheads the inside-out game to perfection for this perimeter oriented team, using superb passing skills on back-cuts and finding open three-point shooters. He’s also held his own — to a degree — against power conference teams’ bigs in all four NCAA tourney wins.
Source:-https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2018/03/29/meet-loyola-chicago-starting-five-make-up-most-cohesive-unit-america/470108002/
