Loyola’s Cameron Krutwig will pursue professional basketball, forgo extra year of eligibility

It has been a remarkable four-year run for Loyola men’s basketball forward Cameron Krutwig.

The 2017 Jacobs graduate helped guide Loyola to the 2018 Final Four as a true freshman, contributed to three Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championships, and helped engineer a return to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in March. He started about every game for the Ramblers during that four-year span.

Now, Krutwig is pursing a professional career. All NCAA athletes were given an extra year of eligibility because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Krutwig said he is forgoing his fifth year of eligibility to pursue his dream of playing professionally.

Krutwig announced the decision in a video posted to YouTube on Thursday.

“After a great four years here, a great career here, I feel that it’s in my best interest and the right move for me is to go professional, move on and try to pursue my dreams to play professional basketball, whether that be in the NBA or overseas in Europe,” Krutwig said in the video. “I think the time is right for me to go out and venture out and start my life. So I’ll be declaring for the NBA draft and forgoing my eligibility for next year.”

Krutwig earned the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year award this season. The Ramblers went 26-5 and earned a No. 8 seed in the NCAA tournament, where they knocked off No. 9 Georgia Tech and No. 1 Illinois on their way to the Sweet Sixteen. A loss to No. 12 Oregon State ended their season, but not before they once again captured the attention of March Madness fans across the country.

Loyola head coach Porter Moser has since left the program to become the head coach at Oklahoma. Assistant coach Drew Valentine was promoted to fill Loyola’s head coach position at age 29.

Krutwig said he will continue to be around the program in one way or another.

“I’ll be a face that everyone will see around,” Krutwig said. “The new guys can come and talk to me, I’ll give them my number and stuff and we can chat. I plan to come back for games. This place has turned into a powerhouse that we built. I’ll be back for games with my family. I’ll definitely be a Rambler for life.”

Krutwig scored 1,833 points in his Loyola career, grabbed 946 rebounds and added 373 assists. He started 130 games over the course of four years.

He will be remembered for returning a long-overlooked Loyola program back to prominence. The program’s 2018 NCAA tournament berth was its first since 1985. Two trips to the Sweet Sixteen (and beyond) also were firsts since 1985. The 2018 Final Four appearance was Loyola’s first Final Four since it won the national championship in 1963.

Long before he was a star at Loyola, Krutwig was a star at Jacobs. He earned the 2017 Northwest Herald Boys Basketball Player of the Year award and guided the Golden Eagles to an IHSA Class 4A supersectional as a senior. That 2016-17 Jacobs team finished 30-2, and a one-point loss in the supersectional was the only thing that kept it from going to state.

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Sarah Nader - snader@shawmedia.com Jacobs' Cameron Krutwig is the 2017 Northwest Herald Basketball Player of the Year. (Sarah Nader)

Krutwig made an immediate impact at Loyola, averaging 10.5 points a game and 6.1 rebounds a game as a freshman. He started every game during the postseason on the way to the Final Four in 2018. That run was no fluke, either. No. 11-seeded Loyola held a seven-point halftime lead over No. 3 Michigan in the national semifinal before the Wolverines eventually pulled away.

This year, Krutwig’s mustache and his bubbly personality became fan favorites during Loyola’s NCAA tournament run. But his influence on the program was evident well before this season and will be felt long afterward.

“I feel like I’ve left my imprint on this place, and feel like I left it better than I found it, and I hope for the next generation of Loyola basketball players that they do the same,” Krutwig said. “Obviously, it’s cool to be in the Final Four, be in the tournament, be in big-time championship games, games that matter. But it’s all the little stuff, after a win in the hotel eating with the guys, just joking around. Just that little stuff off the court you’ll kind of remember for the rest of your days.”