March Madness: Loyola-Chicago crushes Kansas State for 1st Final Four berth in 55 years

Sister Jean and the Loyola Ramblers are headed to the Final Four.

This improbable NCAA Tournament just took its craziest turn yet.

Ben Richardson scored 23 points and 11th-seeded Loyola romped to a 78-62 victory over Kansas State on Saturday night, capping off a remarkable run through the bracket-busting South Regional.

"Are you kidding me! Are you kidding me!" coach Porter Moser screamed over and over again in front of the scarf-clad faithful who made the trip south from Chicago.

Nope, this is real.

The Ramblers (32-5) matched the lowest-seeded team ever to reach the Final Four, joining LSU (1986), George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011). Those other three all lost in the national semifinals.

Don't bet against Loyola, which emerged from a regional that produced a staggering array of upsets. The South became the first regional in the tournament history to have the top four seeds — including overall No. 1 Virginia — knocked out on the opening weekend.

In the end, it was the Ramblers cutting down the nets.

After three close calls, this one was downright easy.

"We believed that we could do something like this — do something really special— because we knew we had such good chemistry and we've got such a good group," Richardson said. "Everyone would say we were crazy. If we said this was going to happen, people would call us crazy, but you've just got to believe."

Loyola continued to be inspired by its 98-year-old team chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores-Schmidt, who led a prayer in the locker room before the game, then was pushed onto the court in her wheelchair to join the celebration when it was done.

Sister Jean donned a Final Four cap and flashed a big smile. When asked how she was feeling, she gave a thumbs-up that said it all.

Michigan outlasts Florida State

With more defensive will than shooting skill, Michigan muscled its way back to the Final Four.

Charles Matthews scored 17 points and Michigan earned its first Final Four berth since 2013 with a 58-54 victory over Florida State on Saturday night in the West Region final.

Moe Wagner added 12 points as the Wolverines (32-7) earned their 13th consecutive victory by persevering through a defence-dominated second half and holding off a late charge from the Seminoles (23-12), who had already knocked off three higher-seeded opponents on their school's longest NCAA Tournament run since 1993.

With tenacious defence and just enough made free throws down the stretch, Michigan hung on and advanced to San Antonio, Texas, next weekend to face the underdog heroes of Loyola-Chicago (32-5), who stunned the sport by winning the South Region.

The third-seeded Wolverines are much less of a surprise, but the achievement is no less impressive for coach John Beilein's squad, which wore its "Do More, Say Less" shirts throughout the week.

In fact, Michigan let its fans do the talking: The Wolverines had a distinct home-court advantage from thousands of vocal fans packed into the lower bowl of Staples Center, and they seemed to need all of those cheers to survive an off shooting night.

"I said we're shooting 33 per cent," Beilein said. "That might change in the second half, but at the same time, we've got to understand we may not make shots, [but] we're still going to win the game with our defence. We've just got to hang in there, don't give them second shots, try and take away the 3 ball, the drive. We did a great job on defence."