'Are you on the team?' Clayton Custer on being asked by fan to take a team photo
Clayton Custer is the Missouri Valley Player of the Year and he was voted to the NCAA Tournament's All-South Region team after helping Loyola Chicago advance to the Final Four.
Apparently, he's also more than happy to help take a photo.
If you watched TBS after Loyola's 78-62 win over Kansas State, you may have heard Custer and best friend Ben Richardson, the former Blue Valley Northwest teammates, telling a funny story. It came at the team hotel when a fan stopped and asked if she could have a picture with the squad.
Richardson said: "She goes, 'here mister, can you take the picture?' She handed the phone to him (Custer)."
Custer interjected: "And she goes, 'Are you on the team?' And I was like, 'Come on, man.' "
In the postgame interviews, the duo talked more about that photo moment, and Custer said it actually happened Saturday, hours before Loyola's game against Kansas State in the Elite Eight.
"It was earlier today? Yeah, I'm -- everything is a blur right now," Richardson said.
"But earlier today, we were getting on the elevator after shootaround, and somebody in the hotel, I think it was like a high school kid or something, was asking for a picture with the team, and they said, hey, can you take this, Mister, and they gave the phone to Clay. He was going to take it, too. He was polite, he was going to take it. I was like, oh, man."
Custer said, "Everybody was laughing at me and stuff."
"It just shows that it doesn't matter," Richardson said. "It's a cliché. Coach always says it, but it doesn't matter the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog, and Clay has proven — he doesn't care. And he's proven that he belongs on this stage, and he's the best point guard in my mind in this tournament, and I'm not just saying that because he's my best friend. I might be biased, but that's what I believe, and we all believe that, and our belief in each other is what makes us so special."
With a trip to the Final Four coming, no one can say they aren't special.
This story was originally published March 25, 2018 at 8:25 AM with the headline "'Are you on the team?' Clayton Custer on being asked by fan to take a team photo."