St Mary's and Loyola are not the same lol. Loyola is a couple bounces away from being irrelevant. St Mary's has been a really good program for a very long time. Even then, I'd take them in a second round matchup.
Loyola was 10th in NET in 2021. Houston was 2nd last year. St. Mary's is currently 6th.
Program strength is irrelevant in a 2nd round matchup. Obviously the NET isn't perfect, but it is a pretty solid gauge of team strength.
Like another poster said, Xavier is the exact opposite of what we've been stuck with the past 2 years. Their NET and KenPom rankings are essentially identical to ours but are currently sitting on the 3 line in most brackets.