103-Year-Old Sister Jean Makes Bold Prediction About Kentucky Basketball

It was March of 2018. College basketball fans everywhere were giddy, as they always are during March Madness. That is Christmas for hoops fanatics, of which I am one.

There on our brackets as an 11-seed--that's low, by the way, for our casual viewers--was Loyola Chicago with an enrollment just north of 16,000. Again, that may not resonate with casual fans, but the private Jesuit university WAS in the same conference as the Evansville Purple Aces at the time, so that institution isn't totally lost on residents of the tri-state area.

Sister Jean -- From Team Chaplain to College Hoops Icon

Suddenly, we all look up and Loyola Chicago has plowed its way through the tournament's South region all the way to the regional finals, or national quarterfinals. They won big in that round and advanced to the school's second Final Four. And because of that success, the world got to meet someone who quickly became a college hoops icon, and remains so to this day.

I'm talking about the incredible, invaluable, magnificent Sister Jean.

She became a superstar overnight, ricocheting from one interview to the next unlike any 98-year-old we've ever seen before.

Sister Jean Bobbleheads and a Memoir -- She Is an Official Superstar

The now 103-year-old Loyola Chicago chaplain has also been immortalized via a bobblehead doll.

And let's not forget her memoir, Wake Up with Purpose!: What I`ve Learned in My First Hundred Years--a collaboration with college hoops analyst Seth Davis--which was published today (February 28, 2023).

Sister Jean's Bold Prediction About Kentucky Basketball

But for all of her notoriety, all the love she receives from college hoops fans and, really, SPORTS fans everywhere, her most recent proclamation is what has Kentucky basketball fans at full attention. Unless you want to watch her entire interview with Good Morning America--and it's a gem--skip to the 3:06 mark for what could become a popular meme in the Commonwealth over the next month:

At this moment, UK is 20-9 in a season that hasn't gone at all the way fans thought it would; the Wildcats began the season ranked 4th. But they have seemingly turned a corner, having won their last four in impressive fashion and having returned to the AP Top 25. Still, Sister Jean may be the only out there predicting UK will cut down the nets. And she says it so matter-of-factly, like she just knows.

Well, we shall see. As the old saying goes--and considering the fact we're talking about a chaplain, this is very appropriate--"from her lips to God's ears."