Does the secret to Chicago sporting success lie in the form of the “sisters?”

Remember back just a few months ago to “Sister Jean?”

In the form of Jean Dolores Schmidt, the nun at Loyola University who made a spectacle of herself as the ultimate Loyola Ramblers basketball fan and who became the lucky charm, of sorts, as the team worked its way all the way to the Final Four of the NCAA championship tournament.

PERHAPS THE CHICAGO White Sox ought to follow the lead of Loyola and create the perception that none other than the Lord himself has a stake in the team’s future development.

Now in all honesty, the success of the White Sox’ efforts to rebuild themselves into a championship caliber ballclub is going to depend on the skills of management in finding the right combination of athletic talent – along with a few lucky breaks to ensure all the “talent” currently with White Sox minor league affiliates pan out the way they’re anticipated to.

The Blues Brothers (remember they were on a “Mission from God”) were on a more legitimate holy crusade than the White Sox, or any sports team, could be.

But Sister Jean and her appearance at courtside all through the Ramblers’ trip created an image that gathered much public attention. Probably to the point where most people thinking back now, and forever more, will have the sister stand out in their mind more than any of the actual players.

COULD THAT BE what happens to Sister Mary Jo?

Good form?

As in Mary Jo Sobieck, who along with her religious duties is an administrator of Marian Catholic High School in suburban Chicago Heights.

She’s the nun who Saturday night gained herself national attention (I’m not kidding, I lost track of the number of local and national television stations that felt compelled to put her moment on the air) for doing the “first pitch” duties for the White Sox prior to their game against the Kansas City Royals.

Because unlike most people who are called upon to perform such a task, she didn’t throw it wildly away and over the catcher’s head, or bounce it in front of home plate. Such as did Joe Mantegna, the actor, who handled the duties the last time I went to a ballgame at Wrigley Field.

Sister Jean provided lead for Ramblers' success

BROADCASTERS OF ALL sorts praised her toss as being a perfect 12/6 curveball – as in a pitch that drops straight down as it crosses home plate so that a batter can’t judge it properly and winds up swinging his bat at the wrong level.

For what it’s worth, the MLB-TV channel went so far as to compare video of Sister Mary Jo’s toss to that of the first actual pitch of the game thrown by Sox pitcher Dylan Covey.

The overwhelming preference? Sister Mary Jean rules! Lots of gags about how the sister, who actually played volleyball and softball back when she was a schoolgirl.

Just as Sister Jean was once athletic (volleyball) in her younger days before taking her religious vows.

The 'high' point of Mantegna's effort

ONE DIFFERENCE – SISTER Jean is on the Loyola payroll, and serves as the Ramblers’ chaplain. Sister Mary Jo has no official connection to the White Sox – other than being invited for one night’s duties.

Although maybe it would be a nice touch if she were to become a part of “White Sox Nation” – that segment of Chicago’s sporting world that has absolutely no interest whatsoever in the Chicago Cubs.

Can sister add to Sox' collection

Maybe we need that “touch of faith” to think that the White Sox rebuilding program will succeed – rather than produce a string of ballclubs that will consider themselves completely successful if they can avoid losing 100 ballgames (the Sox need 18 more wins this year to avoid that niche).

Then again, no matter how much it may sound ridiculous, perhaps it will require a “hand of God” as the final piece in the White Sox puzzle to become a ballclub amounting to something worthwhile -- although the arrival of top-level pitching prospect Michael Kopech come Tuesday could be the momentum-changing move.

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EXTRA: Loyola - 78/Kansas State - 62

The Ramblers of Loyola University are in the Final Four.

They defeated the Kansas State University Wildcats 78-62; having an eight-point lead at half-time of Saturday's game in the NCAA men's basketball tourney, and grew the lead as the game progressed.

NOT EXACTLY THE one-point victory with Loyola's fate uncertain until the final second that all of the Ramblers' other victories were, to this point.

Loyola now gets a week off, with their next game set for March 31. If they manage to win then, the championship game would be April 2.

Which means that college basketball won't have the decency to be complete when Major League Baseball kicks off its own activity March 29 -- with the Chicago White Sox starting their season in Kansas City and the Chicago Cubs traveling to Miami to begin 2018.

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Who do we call the “home” team this time of college basketball season?

We’re at the point of the year where much public attention will be spewed upon the NCAA men’s basketball tourney for Division I, yet we here in the Land of Lincoln don’t have an obvious team to root for.

Now I’m sure there are many Chicagoans who went to college at various places across the country who can turn to their alma maters that were worth anything this past season to root for.

YET FOR THOSE of us looking for a local team, there isn’t much of anything. No Illinois school was able to get a bid to partake in the tourney.

Admittedly, Valparaiso University in Indiana is on the outermost southeast fringe of what could be called the Chicago area, although I’m sure people living north of 95^th Street would prefer think of it as alien turf. And some people like to think of Notre Dame as an area college, while just as many detest the very concept.

But the Hoosiers definitely got more on us this time of year – Indiana U. and Purdue also made it while the west side of State Line Road got nothing.

Those of us whose sporting attention isn’t totally dominated by spring training baseball and fantasies of that all-Chicago World Series taking place this year will have to look to the so-called lesser college basketball tournaments.

WITHIN THE CHICAGO area, there is Loyola University which got an invitation to the College Basketball Invitational. Where they will play their first (and potentially only) game Tuesday night against Rider College, and we likely will hear many repeats of how the Ramblers won the whole thing back in 1963!

There also will be Tuesday night basketball for the University of Illinois in Urbana, which got selected to participate in the National Invitational Tournament – which once was a big deal but now comes across as the ultimate consolation prize for failing to make it to the NCAA Division I tourney.

But they get to play the University of Alabama, which is noteworthy because they recently fired their basketball coach. Just BEFORE getting selected for the NIT.

I’m sure on a certain level, it would be a more intriguing story if Alabama were able to achieve some success under these circumstances. Could this mean the sporting nation would view a Fighting Illini victory as the ultimate bummer – completely ruining the story line?

I ALSO CAN’T see much enthusiasm for the other Illinois-based school that made it to the NIT – Illinois State University in Normal, which on Wednesday will have its first tournament game against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Will anyone (outside of alumni with fond memories of Garcia’s pizza) get worked up rooting for a team whose own NCAA tourney dreams came crashing down with a loss in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament to the University of Northern Iowa (which did get the NCAA bid)?

Perhaps if we pretend to ourselves that the team from Green Bay is the Packers, then we could get Chicagoans to care. Otherwise, I just don’t see it happening.

We may wind up finding a better tale if we drop down to the NCAA Division III level, where their national tourney began a couple of weeks ago. They already are down to their “final four” schools (out of 64) playing for a national title.

AND THERE, WE find an Illinois-based school with a serious shot at winning a championship – the Rock Island-based Augustana University, which will play Babson College Friday and possibly the winner of Virginia Wesleyan/University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for the championship on Saturday.

Those of us with an Illinois rooting interest may have to look to the banks of the Mississippi River to find a local team to cheer for, although I’ll have to confess to feeling some confusion about this prospect.

The Illinois Wesleyan University alum in me knows of Augustana because the two schools both play in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (and the Vikings beat IWU in the conference tournament last month), while the Titans’ own national title dreams fell short last weekend with a loss to Stevens Point.

If those two schools make it to the title game Saturday in Salem, Va., it really would become a choice of which one’s victory would annoy me the least. It also could have me looking forward to the coming of a new baseball season all the more.

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