Coach Bruce Weber and Coach Porter Moser have lots in common. Both of these coaches are well traveled. Both these coaches are well traveled down the roads in the state of Illinois. You can say over the last 20 years, if these two were not the respected leaders of these teams that they guided their programs into the tournament, then this state would be worse than the Illinois budget. Maybe not worse than the Cook County taxes. Pretty close though. Coach Bruce Weber has left the state to coach Kansas State. While Porter Moser has taken the Loyola program to the brink of a final four appearance. Both high seeds and many experts think they probably should have never made it to the Elite 8. Tonight the season will end for one of them. To this point, both have done a very nice job with their program.

Before Loyola, Coach Porter Moser spent four seasons at Illinois State. The Redbirds play in the Missouri Valley Conference where Moser compiled up more losses than wins. Record wise he is one of the worse coaches in Redbird history. He found himself out of a job. He then was hired by Loyola. He came in and had to build a new foundation. In his first year, Loyola struggled with 7 wins to 23 defeats. They were 1-17 in the Horizon league in which the school played at the time. Then Loyola moved to familiar grounds for Coach Moser. The Missouri Valley conference. It was like a roller coaster up and down for seasons. Finally lucky year seven, Loyola makes it to the tournament for the first time since 1985. They came in as a number eleven seed. That did not stop the Ramblers. They have won three games and find themselves one game away from the final four.

Many remember Coach Bruce Weber for taking over for Billy Selfish at the University of Illinois. The team was stacked with Self talent and Billy Boy was salivating over his new  Kansas job. Before the Illinois job, Coach Bruce Weber was doing well at Southern Illinois. He had guided that school to the sweet 16. He found himself having a makeshift funeral for Bill Self to kind of unite him and his players. It worked and in 2005, the Fighting Illini went all the way to the championship. I remember that game against North Carolina. Foul trouble for a few key Illini players did the team in, which prevented the final exclamation point on a magical season. It still was a great year, close but no cigar. After that, Bruce Weber had to recruit his own guys and the school sunk slowly in quicksand that led to them axing Weber like the school scalped Chief Illiniwik. Like most coaches do, they pack up their belongings and move on. He then took the job at Kansas State. Imagine when that state talks about basketball… it’s all Jay Hawks all the time. Coach Weber and his team came into the tournament as a number nine seed. They won two games before meeting Kentucky, a team run by a Snake who always slithers around scooping up NBA potential talent. However Weber, without one of his best players the first two games who only played ten minutes against Kentucky, was able to get past the Snake and his Wild Cats. Now Coach Weber finds himself one win away from getting his second team into the final four.

This year’s tournament has made some very cool history. Obviously a number 16 taking down a number one would make anybody happy unless you go to that school or have money riding on it. Tonight’s game between Loyola and Kansas state is a number nine and number 11. Those two seeds have never played each other at this point of the tournament. It’s too bad these two teams could not meet in the final four or the championship. One good coach will prevail to the next round. One will be going home. Love to see either one of these teams win the whole thing.  Kansas State has never won the tournament. While Loyola won it a long time ago in a galaxy far far away in 1964. I have nothing that connects me to either team as a fan of these universities. I do have the Chicago connection. I will be rooting for Loyola in this one. I want to see the local school win. I would love to see the small school take down the big dogs. If Kansas State does win, I would love to see Weber face Self for the National Championship. Seeing Kansas State beat Kansas would be another great ending. This tournament has that feel of St. Patrick driving all the snakes out of Ireland. We need coaches like Moser and Weber to drive these snake-like car salesmen out of basketball.

MY ELITE 8 PREDICTIONS

LOYOLA OVER KANSAS STATE

FLORIDA STATE OVER MICHIGAN

NOVA OVER TEXAS TECH

DUKE OVER KANSAS