Loyola AD, Steve Watson, announced tonight that Loyola Men's Basketball Coach, Porter Moser, was given a contract extension. However, no details of the agreement were released.

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Let's go Braden!

I have mixed feelings on this. Probably would have let him play out the contract this year and see what happened. LU must have a lot of confidence that Porter is going to get it done this year and they don't want to pay the premium that would come with winning.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Hard to recruit all the open spots for 2018 if the coach's future is uncertain.

Okay I am going to reference a musical....this kind of reminds me of Fiddler on the Roof when Raptavia gives the tailor permission to marry his daughter, "But on the other hand".
On basketball record alone....no NCAA and no .500 in the Valley but on the other hand CBI Title, two consecutive winning seasons with a top tier finish in the Valley.....He has never had a true big man BOTOH he has Krutwig coming in......He has lost a lot of close games BOTOH has victories over Creighton,SDSU.....He hasnt been in the NIT or did he defeat Wichita St, BOTOH he has graduated his players, they are great kids and he seems like a good mentor to them.and they play hard.....So YES you can marry my daughter.
All Fiddler on the Roof aside.......The program is trending up, the character of the team and coach is a plus, there is a positive relationship between Coach, AD and the new President, a good recruiting class coming in and on a practical side the uncertainty of the financial and conference situation make it hard to think about how you would find a better coach for the money and I like the guy Mazel Tov!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSK6l24buk

Best 3 year stretch for the program in 30 years and (at least as of now) a lot of us have reason to believe the team will actually improve following Milton's departure due to an impressive reload of talent. Our recruiting keeps improving and the arrow for the program has always been up. The 15-16 season wasn't stellar but i will say i was impressed how he righted the ship with a big time line up shift to get the team back on track late in the season. And a few friendly rolls this year and we're a 20 win team. All this combined with Mike's point about next years recruiting class; and I'm good with it.

I also have mixed feelings. I really thought this past season was the one we would break through to at least the NIT. I thought the talent was there. Losing a lot of close games and lamenting about how if a few bounces here and there went the other way, we'd be a 20 win team, well, eventually the blame has to fall somewhere. Losing 3x to SIU including an embarrassing showing at Arch Madness really soured me on Porter.

But I can't deny that our recruiting is up, we are on the best 3 year stretch in 30 years (despite moving up in competition) and the graduation rate on par with Harvard/leading the nation is impressive.

However, if we fall flat again this year, does this extension basically mean that a buyout would extremely expensive?

I wonder how long the extension is. If they are giving him 3 or 4 more years, it could potentially be expensive. If they are going short term, it might not be as expensive as anticipated.

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Cigarboy sucks!

I understand a lot of the arguments in terms of intangibles (recruiting, good kids, etc.). The arrow pointing up argument is frustrating because I don't think that's necessarily the case. The CBI title was supposed to be a springboard for the program, but it's hard to argue because the results aren't there. If we don't make the NIT next year, that'll be the highest level Donte and Ben play at during their LU careers, which would be unfortunate.

If it's a 1-2 year extension, I can see it making a little sense although he still has to go out and get a good recruiting class. If it's 3 or more years, its maddening. It's way too much of a gamble on what has been so far mediocre on the court coaching. Not only would a big buyout already hurt a program that doesn't have a lot of money, but basketball-wise, I don't know a school in the country where you can go 81-105 vs. D1 competition and get a long term contract extension.

Congratulations to Porter and the administration for making this happen. I'm happy with the commitment to Porter. He's done a good job so far on a massive rebuilding project with a lot of constrants, and he is a great ambassador for Loyola.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

While I totally get this I think it's worth noting he's 57-44 in seasons since Watson took over with wins over Creighton, San Diego State, and Washington State (I don't remember when exactly he started during the CBI year so i'm just going to include it all). I'm also of the opinion that this team was significantly more talented than the 2015 team (that finished the regular season 19-13). I can't put the UNI loss on anything other than bad luck with late fouls, NC State was a mysterious no call late in game, ISUr coming down to a whistle at the end... the list goes on.

Ultimately all that matters in the end is the W/L, i get that; but I also think it's inarguable that the program has more national respect than it has since I've been alive. We received a top 25 vote which is huge even if it didn't stick, that's another thing to put in the recruiting booklet. Also, a weird stat but: we only had 4 games this past season in which we lost by more than 5 points(2 against WSU, ISUr blowout and that weird St. Joes performance). For comparisons sake we had 13 games where we lost by more than 5 in 15-16 and 12 in the 14-15 season. The team believed and never packed it in. I'd rather not hit the restart button until i see a regression in talent/a steady plateau with my eyes, which mine don't see yet.

I also do think it's worth noting he was hired as a horizon league coach, and from year one to year two the team made some significant progress, and then had a major conference shift which resulted in a semi reset in terms of roster build (Though he ended up taking a horizon league core to the semi finals of arch madness).

That's just me though! I get it both ways.