Am I the only one that feels Watson dropped the ball on this hire?
The situation reads to me that once PM turned down the Marquette overture Steve thought he’d stay put.

By know means am I suggesting that Coach Valentine isn’t the man for the job. What I am suggesting is that with a hire this fast, he either always knew Drew was his guy...or he was caught off guard by PM leaving and panicked.

Any thoughts?

Steve Watson does not strike me as the kind of guy who would make a panicked decision like that. I would bet he has vetted Drew as a replacement for a while now knowing the likelihood that Porter would leave. I'm sure he talked to players, to Porter, to others in and out of the program.

I think a full coaching search would have been interesting, but when you have a guy in house that is ready to make the next step, knows the players and administration, etc., you make that move without causing the cloud of uncertainty that a coaching search causes.

Yeah I don’t believe he was caught off guard or panicked in the slightest. On the contrary, I think this had been the plan for a while, and they were ready to go. Look, it’s not a shock that Porter was going to leave at some point when the right situation came along. As much as we look back at his statements and say we feel duped.....he said it himself. “I’m not saying I’ll never leave”...a situation like Oklahoma was perfect for him. And Steve Watson was ready for it when it happened.

I dont know if I feel duped. I do feel a natural emotion of resentment.
fundamentally we were a pretty girl who was told t we were not good enough to go out with.
Our "date" found someone better and there was nothing we could do.
I wonder what the success rate is for mid major coaches who take the big leap to a P5 conference.

Oh, that's why this feels familiar!

Not at all. I think the bigger mistake would have been to engage in a long drawn out search for a new coach and risk losing the core of our existing team as well as many of the recruits that are already in the pipeline. If we took too long and still ended up hiring the wrong guy, the program would have essentially required a complete rebuild...and who knows how that would turn out.

Valentine is clearly a players's coach and he seems to be individually connected to most of the new recruits we have coming in.
He's young and he doesn't have head coaching experience, but he's been around winning programs for the better part of the last decade. The last 4 years under Porter have probably been an invaluable experience for him. He knows the offense and defense. He's been a part of the "culture" and knows what it takes to be successful at the highest level. Whether he has what it takes to sustain the success remains to be seen, but it's probably worth a gamble.

On face, his age and lack of experience as a head coach are the only glaring issues. Hopefully the athletic department can help mitigate that by surrounding him with some experienced assistant coaches. Some of you all have mentioned Greg Lansing. If he was willing to come to Loyola as an assistant, that would probably be a great hire!

Loyola once handed the keys to another program to a young, inexperienced coach...and that fella went on to win back to back national championships.

I 100% agree that moving quickly with Valentine was the right move. Continuity....clarity. Absolute best way to maximize player retention. We have some great kids coming back....2 grad transfers coming in....and what I believe are 2 outstanding recruits coming in. I am not saying that all of them will remain......but a delayed/drawn out process would surely have put some of them at more risk. I would add that this is is a highly unusual year in which our Seniors have the option to come back for another year. I believe that a couple of them will now come back because they are familiar with Coach V. Much less likely that any senior would return to play for a new coach in a new system.

And it’s not just “desperation or panic to keep players from leaving”. If a system works, and you have a possible way to keep it going, why blow it up and start over? Valentine might not work out....but if he does, it will pay off huge. It’s absolutely worth whatever gamble it is.

Loyola put its best foot forward.
IF WHAT CBS SPORTS REPORTED AS TRUE, Loyola offered ten years at $2.2 million per year with
escalation and Cubs tix to the 1914 club (worth $100,000 per year).

Is there a link to the ESPN interview with PM having the Oklahoma gear on? (One solace at least it was not Depaul red, white and blue)

25, yes. I posted in another thread under Moser ESPN interview.