When college basketball fans hear the name Clayton Custer, the 2018 NCAA Tournament typically comes to mind. Custer and his Loyola Chicago Rambler’s late game heroics became the talk of March after a run of buzzer-beating win after buzzer-beating win. Sister Jean captured hearts, and the Ramblers rode their wave all the way to the Final Four. For Custer, his college basketball experience goes far beyond that 2018 season. His path, one that included many twists and turns, began on one of the greatest AAU teams the Midwest has ever seen.
Summer 2011- Summer 2013
Custer’s recruitment process began much earlier than it does for most players. Following his freshman year of high school, he played up on the 17U team for the nationally recognized AAU program of MOKAN. His team included many division one-level players, and was led by future NBA players Willie Cauley-Stein and Semi Ojeleye. In Custer’s eyes, the attention that those players received at tournaments was what accelerated his own recruitment process.
“I didn’t even have to do that much,” he explained. “All I had to do was go out there and kind of set guys up because I had so much talent around me.”
The recognition Custer received came primarily from the Big 12. His dream always revolved around playing in the conference that he grew up watching. Ultimately, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Kansas State presented him with that opportunity. When Frank Martin left Kansas State to take a job at South Carolina, the list thinned down to three. Custer explained that it really came down to Iowa State and Oklahoma State.
“I wanted to go where I trusted the head coach, where I believed that what he was telling me during the process was the truth,” Custer said.
After some deliberation, Custer committed to Iowa State before he even began his senior year of high school.
2014-15
Despite his time in Ames being short, Custer wants to make one thing very clear: he holds absolutely no ill-will towards the Iowa State program.
“I think a lot of people just assume that I had a bad taste in my mouth from my experience there, but that is not true. I actually really enjoyed my time.”
Ultimately, the basketball fit just wasn’t there. A primary reason for Custer’s decision to seek out other opportunities was the emergence of Cyclone guard Monté Morris as a pure point guard.
Custer recalled, “During my recruitment, I don’t think the coaches at Iowa State knew how good he [Morris] was gonna be, or that he would be an extremely pure point guard.”
With Monte reaching superstar status at his position, Custer knew his best opportunities would come elsewhere, and by season’s end he entered his name into the transfer portal.
Summer 2015
For Custer, being recruited as a transfer was almost identical to being recruited out of high school, but about 50 times faster. From the day he was granted his release, calls began to come in from across the country. Ultimately, Creighton, Missouri and Loyola became the schools Custer focused on, but Creighton appeared to be the frontrunner. He decided to use the first of his five allowed official visits to see the Bluejays’ facilities. Custer felt he meshed well with the team and walked away impressed by the visit.
The official visit to Loyola started as a way for Custer to visit a friend. Custer’s high school teammate and longtime best friend, Ben Richardson, played for the Ramblers. When Custer told Richardson he was transferring, Richardson implored him to make the trip to Chicago. Despite receiving interest, Custer never really looked at Loyola as a serious option.
“Ben was like, hey, even if you’re not coming here, take an official visit. Have Loyola pay for you to come out here. They can show you around, and we can hang out for the weekend.”
Custer obliged, and the rest of his planned visits never happened. Custer signed with Loyola before the weekend even ended. That choice appeared to be the right one.
2017-18
Loyola’s 2017-18 team could’ve been called one of the best in school history even before March Madness. The Ramblers won both the regular season and conference championships in the Missouri Valley. Custer was named the conference Player of the Year. The team finished 25-5 in the regular season, including a top-5 win on the road against Florida. As impressive as that number is, take a closer look and the figure is even better. Both Custer and Richardson missed multiple games. With those two in the lineup, the Ramblers were 26-2 including the Missouri Valley tournament. That added up to an incredibly dangerous 11 seed heading into the NCAA tournament.
Custer was everywhere in big moments for the Ramblers in March. Whether it was a key three against Miami, the iconic game-winner against a Tennessee team that he calls “The best team we played all year,” or a huge assist to Marques Townes against Nevada, Custer had a tendency to find the spotlight.
“It just didn’t even feel real,” Custer said, “It just all felt like a blur.”
Outside of Sister Jean, he became the face of the Ramblers. The face of the underdog.
2018-19
College life wasn’t quite the same for Custer when he returned for his redshirt senior season. Overnight, Loyola had become a basketball school. Custer went from being asked in class if “he was on the club team or the real team,” to having his classmates recognize him as Clayton Custer, Loyola legend.
“Before [the run], you’d walk on campus and everyone would be wearing a Villanova sweatshirt, or a Michigan sweatshirt,” Custer remembered. “They’d be wearing any school’s logo other than Loyola.”
After that season, the energy changed. The campus bookstore underwent construction to add more space to sell apparel. During a time in Chicago when the Bulls were struggling, the Bears weren’t competing in the NFC North, and the Blackhawks weren’t experiencing as much success as they traditionally did, Loyola became the main attraction not just on campus, but in the city. In a town where the basketball culture reigns supreme, Custer added his own footprint.
The tournament run will forever be the defining moment for Custer. The national attention landed him an invite to Chris Paul’s Point Guard Academy, workouts with three NBA teams, and ultimately an overseas contract in Poland. However, the experiences leading up to his big moment make the culmination even better. Had he not played up in high school, his recruitment process would’ve likely been entirely different. In a different process, he may have never ended up at Iowa State. Without Iowa State, and Monté Morris, he may not have decided to transfer. Had his best friend not been at Loyola, it may have never been a legitimate option.
Each of these singular moments played a role in creating Custer’s “One Shining Moment.” The Tennessee shot represents a huge moment in Chicago basketball history, but for Custer, it’s even more representative of a career marked by big decisions and taking a chance on his own abilities.