A Team On A Mission

To be sure, Kimble also had down moments last week. He didn't sleep for three days after Gathers died, and he began to realize that he was placing too much pressure on himself with his vow to make "something happen" every time he touched the ball. But he stuck to his promise to shoot his first free throw in every game lefthanded, in honor of Gathers , who had struggled so much with his foul shots this season that he had taken to shooting them lefty. "It may sound corny," says Kimble, who leads the nation in scoring with a 35.7 average, "but it makes me believe I've got a little bit of Hank inside me. I feel his strength."

Kimble's first lefthanded attempt didn't come until the second half of the New Mexico State game. The two teams had been tied at intermission, but Loyola had just blitzed the Aggies with a 18-4 spurt to start the half when Kimble was fouled in the act of shooting. As he approached the line, the partisan crowd, many wearing HANK armbands, began to buzz and then went quiet. Kimble shook his left arm, took the ball from the official and calmly made the shot. His teammates and coaches leaped in the air, many of them near tears.

"Playing the game, we didn't forget about Hank, but we were concentrating so much we weren't really thinking about him," said reserve guard Greg Walker . "When Bo got up there and shot lefthanded, it just brought back the whole reason why we're here, why we're playing."

Against Michigan, the Lions were in the middle of another offensive run, this time with 6:40 to go in the first half and Loyola ahead 41-30, when Kimble got his first chance at the line. He had sliced through two defenders, and as he was going up and the ball was going in, he was fouled by Wolverine guard Rumeal Robinson . Lefthanded, Kimble sank the free throw to complete the three-point play. Michigan made one more rush, cutting the Lions ' lead to seven points, but in the second half Loyola turned the game into a shootaround, scoring 84 points in the final 20 minutes.

How far can the Lions go in the tournament? Their NBA -style, run-and-gun offense tires out even their fittest opponents. Michigan 's players, who tried to sprint with the Lions , were gasping by game's end. And each Loyola player seems to have picked his game up a notch or two since Gathers 's death. "If they continue to shoot the way they did against us," said Michigan coach Steve Fisher , "I honestly don't know who will beat this team."

"We have nothing to lose," said Stumer, who is from Sweden . "And if we play 100 percent, I don't think we will lose. But if we play 100 percent and we do, well that's O.K. It won't bother us because we played our best for Hank."