Ah, a conspiracy theory! Where's Swella?

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I wonder how many other head coaches with a .176 conference winning percentage at their current school have received a multi-year extension?

63, 63, 63 !! What would you have done ?? Fired him ?? Considering what he replaced, he has been a pretty darn good replacement. A vast improvement, I'd say.

Those weren't the only two choices.

I am impressed by SubGod22's argument that a longer commitment helps on the recruiting trail, although I'm not sure how many 16- and 17-year olds are keeping track of the years left on coaches' contracts when they're considering options.

I guess I'm with lusuperfan's opinion that we probably should have waited another year to pull the trigger on an extension. Like many others, I'm holding out hope that Moser learned a lot during his years at St. Louis, and that his sub-mediocre performance at ISU and his very rough first two years at LU were mostly due to circumstances.

But still, even with the general consensus opinion that Moser is a well above-average recruiter (and my own opinion that he has brought in some really excellent assistants-- especially given the timing of the recent poaching of assistants that occurred), he has a .306 conference winning percentage over four years in the MVC and a .176 conference winning percentage after two years in the Horizon. He has never in nine years as a head coach guided a team (including UALR) to a better than 5th place conference finish. Although many point to how close many of LU's losses were last year, isn't that a key measure of a coach's abilities, to win close games in crunch time?

I'm not expecting LU to finish higher than 6th in the MVC this coming season, but to me there would be a big difference in evaluating Moser after next season, particularly if the team finishes 8th or below in an MVC rebuilding year. If we finish 5th or 6th, or finish 7th and advance past the Thursday at Arch Madness, I'd say an extension might be warranted. But if we finish 8th, 9th, or 10th and embarrass ourselves, this extension will look foolish and imprudent.

The one thing I would add is that while most 16/17 year olds don't keep track of years left, rival coaches do and they bring it up in recruiting visits to use against PM.

On the other hand, we now only have one scholarship left for this season AND next season with Knuth in the fold and Kody Williams done for his career. I guess there could always be some kid who wants to transfer and it opens up a spot, in addition to the fact that the last open scholarship we have hopefully goes to a really good player. But recruiting the class of 2014/15 is not the main focus for the program. It's starting to become win-now time. That's what PM's extension should be merited on, not on whether he's having problems recruiting players for our 13th scholarship. The wins just haven't come in yet.

+1

Exactly. And I wouldn't sell some kids short on the issue either. They have lots of schools recruiting them and I'm sure they and their parents do some research. But coaches will most definitely use anything they can against another in order to get a recruit. I know we have a different situation in Wichita with 3G being a proven winner, but his contract has since the beginning had a one year rolling extension after every season which keeps his contract at I believe 7 years. It's been renegotiated a few times but that basic principle remains. We're actually waiting to hear about his new contract that he's reportedly agreed to.

But back to the point, I obviously don't know exactly where your program is as a whole but think it has potential. It sounds to me that Loyola wasn't all that committed to basketball in the past and Moser may have walked into a tough situation when trying to rebuild the program. If that's the case, you have to allow some time and look at more than wins and losses as odd as that sounds. You guys have seen more than me so you'd know better than I, but is the talent level increasing? Are they more competitive? I know you guys were really young this last year and moving into a new conference could be rough, but if you're competitive, or have been competitive, that's a decent sign.

I also don't know where he was in his contract or how many years this gives him, but it may have been a good option with the transition into the MVC. I think you'll definitely have a better answer to where he stands as a coach in 2 or 3 years as he gets a team assembled for the MVC in place. I also know it's easier for me to say these things from a distance when you are the ones who invest your time, money and emotions into the program. So take this outsiders perspective for what it's worth, which I admit isn't much.

To sum up, my best guess is this is a way for the AD to establish some stability and direction for the program while moving up to the MVC. And I truly believe that Moser is a good recruiter and surrounds himself with good recruiters as well, so if his coaching hasn't gotten any better at least he'll leave your program with some decent talent when he's fired and for the new guy to work with. But if his coaching has improved, then you guys will be an upper half team in a few short years.

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The Roundhouse

I know, personally, that to have the Ramblers achieve the 51st percentile before the year 2020 is a dream come true, and will give me satisfaction and comfort in my declining years...

Like everyone here I want Coach Moser to succeed. Knowing that coaches always want one more year Loyola has given their Head Coaches time to succeed. Both Farmer and Whitesell were given arround 7 years so that is what Moser is geting with this extension. All of his predecessor's players are gone and he has had two years to install his system and his players. The clock really starts ticking now, hopefully towards more wins down the road. It's helpful to have a coach who played and coached in our new conference. More stability in assistant coaches would be helpful.

The contract extension was necessary heading into the MVC. I would've only given PM an extension until 2016-2017, but I guess other people have more confidence in him than I do.