I think everyone has a right to be mad at Moser leaving because he did give up something great for a perceived “greener pasture” and the mere possibility of doing something greater. BUT - if he was going to leave eventually anyway, I’m glad he’s gone NOW, and didn’t leave us decimated. Drew Valentine has a legit chance to be the next Brad stevens with what we have coming back, and it’ll be up to him how hard he works to maintain the program’s success. He’s got a chance to win a lot of games next year right from the jump.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Porter at his furry convention with with the Rogers & Hammerstein Norman dinner theatre cast in attendance on the Tarmac. I also laughed at his videotaped game of show-and-tell with Lincoln Riley. I’m fine with him taking “created by culture” since it doesn’t really mean anything. Porter has 15 to 17 years of coaching left... he can’t be fully embraced and loved by the Loyola community while he’s still out coaching another program, and in 15 or 20 years from now when he hangs it up, he won’t be much remembered in Rogers Park other than he was a “great coach” while he was here. He won’t be “a legend.” He could have been a legend... he chose another path. That’s fine.

Meanwhile, Loyola is going to win several more conference titles (maybe with Drew or someone else), and the program is built, funded, and poised to compete in the Valley for years to come. Longterm, I think we are going to be just fine.

I’ve decided not to hate Porter. I’m going to pity him instead. In my mind, Porter Moser is a great leader who made a stupid choice. He failed at Little Rock, failed at Illinois State, and for 4 years, he failed at Loyola. He caught lightning, “created a culture,” but foolishly walked away from it in its prime after years and years of failure before finally getting it right. He’ll never be a “legend” at Loyola now, and he’ll never be a legend in Norman, living in the shadow of the football program. He’ll never be a Homer Drew, Ray Meyer, Mark Few, Bobby Knight, John Wooden, Lute Olson, Coach K, Dean Smith, Denny Crum, Tom Izzo - guys that stayed at the schools that made them great, and are forever beloved by their fanbase a and respected by everyone else. Keep in mind, most of those coaches didn’t inherit program prominence - they built it.... OVER DECADES... like Porter could have...

But Porter solidified his place in college basketball by leaving Loyola after 10 years with another possible 20 years remaining. He now joins the ranks of Dan Monson, Bruce Pearl, Todd Lickliter, Jim Larranaga, Shaka Smart, Tom Crean, Archie Miller, Sean Miller, Bryce Drew, Nate Oats, Dave Lietao, Steve Prohm, Mark Turgeon, Thad Matta - and a host of other coaches that achieved major success at the mid major level, left for non-blue blood “big conference” schools, and have either failed miserably, or have no real shot at winning an NCAA title any time soon.

And so everyone is clear - Porter didn’t take “more money” to go to Oklahoma. Loyola was going to pay him whatever they could to keep him there and extend it out over a long period of time. If Porter stayed and kept winning, Loyola was going to redo his contract each year and would have done whatever they could have to keep him there. Had he stayed, Loyola was going to offer him more “guaranteed” money than Oklahoma (albeit over ten years rather than 6)... but each year he took the ramblers back to the tournament he was going to be able to renegotiate. And with the return Loyola gets - they were going to take care of him. For those of you who think he ended up taking a “substantial” pay raise .... long term - I disagree. If Porter is halfway intelligent outside of basketball, he’s dying a millionaire with his kids taken care, whether he stayed at Loyola or left for Oklahoma.

My overarching point is - if you’re mad at Porter Moser, it’s not because he’s a jerk, or a traitor, or a used car salesman, or any or that. You’re mad at him because you LOVED him as our coach, you think he’s an unbelievable motivator, you think he had a chance to be a legend as a coach on the national stage for Loyola, and he made a stupid decision. Bottom line - he’s a great dude who made a bad choice, and right now he’s swept up in the honeymoon of that bad choice. Let’s be honest - if he went to Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, or Kentucky, we would have all understood. Our problem is, we all believe he’s a high caliber coach worthy of jobs like those that have legit shots at competing for a title, year in and year out, and if he left Loyola for a better gig - that’s where he should have been. The hard pill to swallow is that, given where he went (and where we are at as a program right now), he gave it all up for “high level mediocrity” as opposed to mid-major prominence. Our feelings are most likely that “if you’re not leaving to compete for a national title each year (which he’s not), why would you walk away from a chance to be a hometown legend ?” I think those feelings are understandable.

If this is how you feel - you are the portion of the fanbase that is with ME. I love Porter. I love what he did for us. I wanted him to either 1) shock the world and win a national title for us in the next ten years, or 2) go to a blue blood program where I think he belongs and win 5 national titles, so I could say “it all started at Loyola.” Because we are educated basketball fans, we know the Oklahoma job, while enticing, will most likely lead to coaching mediocrity for Porter, who we consider one of our own. And the choice for mediocrity stings because it comes at our expense a bit too.

The funny thing is Porter’s situation, individually, is very similar to Loyola’s program situation. We sucked, sucked, sucked for 20+ years even though we were working hard - then Bam - 5 years of success. But for those of you who think Porter made the wrong decision to capitalize on his success and go to a bigger program, I’d be very interested to know if you would also think Loyola should accept an invitation to the Big East if we were invited?

First glance / no brainer right? No more Evansville, Indiana State, Valpo! From now on Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, UConn ..... STOP. If we went to the Big East we would have an inflated sports budget and get our asses kicked for years and be hanging in the cellar with DePaul. We are all smart enough to know this, and yet the prospect still sounds really enticing, doesn’t it? I’ll be the first to admit, I know it would set the program back, but the prospect of playing those higher teams on a nightly basis would make it really hard for me to say no if they asked us. I bet more than half of our fan base would say “leave the valley” immediately for the big east even though they know there’s a 90% probability we’d fail miserably. I bet a ton of us would still bet on the will and hard work of Loyola and want to take the chance. Essentially ... that was Porter’s same decision to leave for Oklahoma. We can call him stupid for making it, but I at least understand it.

I want to perpetually be in the situation where the program's success makes Loyola's head and assistant coaches attractive to big programs.

The opportunity to springboard to a promotion both internally and externally is the best recruiting tool for great assistants in the future.

Stop being sour. This is a good problem.

Moser did a great job. He is a good coach but he is not singular in the profession. There are MANY good coaches out there. Hopefully Valentine is one of them.

The talent level on the roster for next year is as good as it has ever been. That's half the battle right there.

Is there any evidence anywhere that Porter has made a stupid decision? Or is that what we've decided to tell ourselves so that the hurt lessens a little bit.

I get it. I'm sad Porter left too. I think early recruiting returns from Valentine have been positive but it's not the same as winning games. But there is a flagrant number of people on this board acting like Porter's choice to leave diminishes his character. I'm not even entertaining a conversation about the man's character from anyone who hasn't turned down 2+ million dollars a year raise to do what you love on a bigger stage and with more resources. The irony here is that some of y'all have convinced yourself both that 1) Porter committed treason by leaving and 2) He didn't have that much to do with our success anyways.

As far the "Created by Culture" hashtag and Loyola's brand, who was talking about the great culture around the men's basketball program during the Jim Whitesell years? I wasn't around then so maybe I missed all of those articles. I'm happy to be enlightened if they exist. As a fan I got plenty out of the Porter Moser tenure, if he wants to take the hashtag out of the breakup that's fine. Also acting like the "culture" thing is stupid seems to be cutting off the nose to spite the face as that was the main selling point for hiring Valentine.

I'm not diminishing the role others have played in our success. It's why I'm excited about the future. But Porter is the main reason why we've had the success we've had. Acting otherwise is silly. He made a choice every single one of us would have made if we were presented with it in our own careers. Acting otherwise is silly. I'm sad he's no longer the coach. But the degree of hypocrisy on here about these two points is irritating.

My overarching point is - if you’re mad at Porter Moser, it’s not because he’s a jerk, or a traitor, or a used car salesman, or any or that. You’re mad at him because you LOVED him as our coach, you think he’s an unbelievable motivator, you think he had a chance to be a legend as a coach on the national stage for Loyola, and he made a stupid decision. Bottom line - he’s a great dude who made a bad choice, and right now he’s swept up in the honeymoon of that bad choice. Let’s be honest - if he went to Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, or Kentucky, we would have all understood. Our problem is, we all believe he’s a high caliber coach worthy of jobs like those that have legit shots at competing for a title, year in and year out, and if he left Loyola for a better gig - that’s where he should have been. The hard pill to swallow is that, given where he went (and where we are at as a program right now), he gave it all up for “high level mediocrity” as opposed to mid-major prominence. Our feelings are most likely that “if you’re not leaving to compete for a national title each year (which he’s not), why would you walk away from a chance to be a hometown legend ?” I think those feelings are understandable.

I think everyone has a right to be mad at Moser leaving because he did give up something great for a perceived “greener pasture” and the mere possibility of doing something greater. BUT - if he was going to leave eventually anyway, I’m glad he’s gone NOW, and didn’t leave us decimated. Drew Valentine has a legit chance to be the next Brad Stevens with what we have coming back, and it’ll be up to him how hard he works to maintain the program’s success. He’s got a chance to win a lot of games next year right from the jump.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Porter at his furry convention with with the Rogers & Hammerstein Norman dinner theatre cast in attendance on the Tarmac. I also laughed at his videotaped game of show-and-tell with Lincoln Riley. I’m fine with him taking “created by culture” since it doesn’t really mean anything. Porter has 15 to 17 years of coaching left... he can’t be fully embraced and loved by the Loyola community while he’s still out coaching another program, and in 15 or 20 years from now when he hangs it up, he won’t be much remembered in Rogers Park other than he was a “great coach” while he was here. He won’t be “a legend.” He could have been a legend... he chose another path. That’s fine.

Meanwhile, Loyola is going to win several more conference titles (maybe with Drew or someone else), and the program is built, funded, and poised to compete in the Valley for years to come. Longterm, I think we are going to be just fine.

I’ve decided not to hate Porter. I’m going to pity him instead. In my mind, Porter Moser is a great leader who made a stupid choice. He failed at Little Rock, failed at Illinois State, and for 4 years, he failed at Loyola. He caught lightning, “created a culture,” but foolishly walked away from it in its prime after years and years of failure before finally getting it right. He’ll never be a “legend” at Loyola now, and he’ll never be a legend in Norman, living in the shadow of the football program. He’ll never be a Homer Drew, Ray Meyer, Mark Few, Bobby Knight, John Wooden, Lute Olson, Coach K, Dean Smith, Denny Crum, Tom Izzo - guys that stayed at the schools that made them great, and are forever beloved by their fanbase a and respected by everyone else. Keep in mind, most of those coaches didn’t inherit program prominence - they built it.... OVER DECADES... like Porter could have...

But Porter solidified his place in college basketball by leaving Loyola after 10 years with another possible 20 years remaining. He now joins the ranks of Dan Monson, Bruce Pearl, Todd Lickliter, Jim Larranaga, Shaka Smart, Tom Crean, Archie Miller, Sean Miller, Bryce Drew, Nate Oats, Dave Lietao, Steve Prohm, Mark Turgeon, Thad Matta - and a host of other coaches that achieved major success at the mid major level, left for non-blue blood “big conference” schools, and have either failed miserably, or have no real shot at winning an NCAA title any time soon.

And so everyone is clear - Porter didn’t take “more money” to go to Oklahoma. Loyola was going to pay him whatever they could to keep him there and extend it out over a long period of time. If Porter stayed and kept winning, Loyola was going to redo his contract each year and would have done whatever they could have to keep him there. Had he stayed, Loyola was going to offer him more “guaranteed” money than Oklahoma (albeit over ten years rather than 6)... but each year he took the ramblers back to the tournament he was going to be able to renegotiate. And with the return Loyola gets - they were going to take care of him. For those of you who think he ended up taking a “substantial” pay raise .... long term - I disagree. If Porter is halfway intelligent outside of basketball, he’s dying a millionaire with his kids taken care, whether he stayed at Loyola or left for Oklahoma.

My overarching point is - if you’re mad at Porter Moser, it’s not because he’s a jerk, or a traitor, or a used car salesman, or any or that. You’re mad at him because you LOVED him as our coach, you think he’s an unbelievable motivator, you think he had a chance to be a legend as a coach on the national stage for Loyola, and he made a stupid decision. Bottom line - he’s a great dude who made a bad choice, and right now he’s swept up in the honeymoon of that bad choice. Let’s be honest - if he went to Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, or Kentucky, we would have all understood. Our problem is, we all believe he’s a high caliber coach worthy of jobs like those that have legit shots at competing for a title, year in and year out, and if he left Loyola for a better gig - that’s where he should have been. The hard pill to swallow is that, given where he went (and where we are at as a program right now), he gave it all up for “high level mediocrity” as opposed to mid-major prominence. Our feelings are most likely that “if you’re not leaving to compete for a national title each year (which he’s not), why would you walk away from a chance to be a hometown legend ?” I think those feelings are understandable.

If this is how you feel - you are the portion of the fanbase that is with ME. I love Porter. I love what he did for us. I wanted him to either 1) shock the world and win a national title for us in the next ten years, or 2) go to a blue blood program where I think he belongs and win 5 national titles, so I could say “it all started at Loyola.” Because we are educated basketball fans, we know the Oklahoma job, while enticing, will most likely lead to coaching mediocrity for Porter, who we consider one of our own. And the choice for mediocrity stings because it comes at our expense a bit too.

The funny thing is Porter’s situation, individually, is very similar to Loyola’s program situation. We sucked, sucked, sucked for 20+ years even though we were working hard - then Bam - 5 years of success. But for those of you who think Porter made the wrong decision to capitalize on his success and go to a bigger program, I’d be very interested to know if you would also think Loyola should accept an invitation to the Big East if we were invited?

First glance / no brainer right? No more Evansville, Indiana State, Valpo! From now on Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, UConn ..... STOP. If we went to the Big East we would have an inflated sports budget and get our asses kicked for years and be hanging in the cellar with DePaul. We are all smart enough to know this, and yet the prospect still sounds really enticing, doesn’t it? I’ll be the first to admit, I know it would set the program back, but the prospect of playing those higher teams on a nightly basis would make it really hard for me to say no if they asked us. I bet more than half of our fan base would say “leave the valley” immediately for the big east even though they know there’s a 90% probability we’d fail miserably. I bet a ton of us would still bet on the will and hard work of Loyola and want to take the chance. Essentially ... that was Porter’s same decision to leave for Oklahoma. We can call him stupid for making it, but I at least understand it.

You're right. Here's an example:

https://youtu.be/1cxcJB8kC9o?t=88