NCAA Final Four 2018: Former Michigan congressman to Sister Jean: ‘She’s just a little bit out of her league’

Former Michigan congressman and 91-year-old Wolverines fan John Dingell has a message for 98-year-old Sister Jean: "She ain't gonna win."
John Dingell/Twitter
Sean Keeler
Sean Keeler

Jalen Rose’s grandma ain’t the only Michigan fan bringing the senior citizen smack game back to Sister Jean.

Former Michigan congressman John Dingell — 91 years young, whose tenure in the House of Representatives from 1955-2015 was the longest in American history — has been killing it on Twitter lately in support of his beloved Wolverines.

Michigan (32-7), winners of 13 in a row, will face upstart and Missouri Valley Conference champion Loyola-Chicago (32-5) on Saturday in the Final Four of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The Ramblers, winners of 14 straight, have been the darlings of March Madness, while Loyola team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt has become the face of the 2018 Big Dance.

Dingell’s gotten a kick out of the little nun in the varsity letter jacket, too. But he told Land of 10 recently that as far as he’s concerned, the music’s over, baby.

“Sister Jean is a great lady,” Dingell said. “We’re proud that she’s there. After all, she is an American, she has the right to push whoever the hell she pleases. We’re proud of what she’s doing, but she’s just a little bit out of her league.”

Burn!

Wait a minute.

Is it really a good idea to burn a nun?

“Good school,” Dingell said of Loyola, a Jesuit college nestled in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago’s North Side. “I don’t have any way of criticizing it. And I would love to see them be No. 2 [on Saturday]. They’d fill that spot brilliantly.”

Dingell said he thinks this Michigan bunch has been fairly brilliant, too — especially in the postseason. The Wolverines are 14-1 in their last 15 win-or-go-home tournament contests in the month of March.

“It’s hard to know where to begin,” Dingell said. “First of all, they came from nowhere. Second of all, nobody expected them to be where they are. Third of all, this is the [eighth] time that they’ve been where they are and they’re doing a great job of upholding the dignity and honor of our state.

“They’re a fine bunch of kids. There’s not ever been a scandal about that team, with the coach [John Beilein] that they have. The coach is really a wonderful guy. And he brings respect to the school and to the team and the players and all we can do is say, ‘What a wonderful bunch of people.’ And so, besides saying ‘Go Blue,’ it’s an easy thing to say.”

And even easier to cheer on. Even from afar.

They ever send you that bit of net?

“Not yet, not yet,” Dingell laughed.

“I’ll tell you this: A piece of the net would be nice, but winning is much more important than a piece of the net. It’s important to the kids, it’s important to the morale of the school. It’s important, what they’re doing down there, to make the University of Michigan, again, a wonderful place.”

“Sister Jean is a wonderful woman, and there’s no way on God’s green earth that I can find something that she’s doing that’s wrong,” Dingell said. “It’s her right to say whatever she wants to say about her team. And I’m applauding her and what she’s doing.

“It’s just — she ain’t gonna win.”

And Saturday can’t get here soon enough.

NEXT What Michigan’s John Beilein said at his Final Four press conference
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