Porter will be doing a one-on-one interview with Lou Canelis tonight at 10pm on The Last Word on Fox 32.

Would the fact that a new contract has not been negotiated hurt recruiting? Would potential signees be concerned that Porter may be shopping other jobs... and don't want to sign for fear that Porter may be leaving? Or don't want to sign until something has materialized?!?!

Robbie Has it !! Procrastination by all sides helps recruiting NOT AT ALL !!Give the man his raise and let us get on with this resurgence--BTW the added revenue cannot hurt these salaries that teachers are worrying about--

Ok interview. Few things I'd note:

-When asked if he'd "chase the riches of a Power 5 conference", Porter responded that he wants to win games and wants the resources to do so. Wasn't sure what to make of it.

-Whenever he is asked about staying at Loyola, Porter always says how he is from Chicago, Jesuit educated, he loves Chicago and loves the guys in the locker room. Never heard him actually say he loves Loyola or the anything specifically positive about the university or administration. Probably nothing and just me looking too much into it.

On the Power 5 question - it’s pretty obvious that the deal he’s trying to get doesn’t just involve him getting a ton of money. He wants the university to fully commit to being a basketball school. I’m assuming he wants a bigger budget, more chartered flights, a commitment to marketing the team and filling the arena, etc. i truly believe that Porter wants to stay here if he can have the chance to build a legacy and build a Midwest powerhouse basketball school. He can get a paycheck anywhere now - if he’s staying at Loyola he’s looking for them to invest - and not just in him.

On the “Chicago kid, Catholic, Jesuit educated, Cubs fan,” etc. comments - don’t read too much into him not using the word Loyola - hes got specific talking points to use while this contract is looming - and this is just a script he’s been going from in every interview he does now. I’m assuming it’s at the direction of his agent because it’s the exact same line every time. I don’t read too much into it because he’s also went off script once or twice after he gets that statement out and talks about loving his AD and how he gets along with Rooney.

Exactly Ledo !! AS I have written --DOES LOYOLA WANT TO BE SPRING HILL OR GEORGETOWN IN HOOPS ????

I completely agree with this statement. He wants to take Loyola to an even higher level! This is going to be a HUGE pill for admin to swallow. Porter seems to be a reasonable person and I doubt he'd ask for Rome to be built in a day...but if he leaves I think it says a lot about the BoT and other admin involved. But with the addition of the practice facility and other improvements in recent years it appears that the powers that be are interested in improving athletics which gives me hope. I just hope that a resolution is completed soon....

Basketball banquet set for next Thursday, 4/19. Safe to say that the contract is definitely finalized by then?

When something like getting to the Final Four drops in your lap pretty suddenly, you can either cross your fingers and hope it happens again in less than 55 years, or try to back fill the infrastructure for maintaining it.

The big dilemma for Loyola is we're not only going to have to double the coach's salary, we're going to have to add a lot of other expenses to make it a wise long term investment. We'll need to raise assistant salaries, bump up travel expenses so we get to fly to Southern Illinois and Evansville on a regular basis instead of taking an 17 hour round trip bus odyssey, apply some funds for improving marketing and advertising, expand scouting travel expenses, and possibly get some money earmarked to help out scheduling. There also needs to be high professionalism in staffing and effort for the administrative jobs.

If you only throw money at the coach and hope everything else turns out OK, you're probably going to sink back into the anonymous morass of mid-majordom within a few years. Because if the coach continues to have success without the other things, there's no amount of money that could keep him around more than three to five years; in that case the coach won't just be considered for job openings, openings will be made for him. And if the coach doesn't have the level of success that makes him poachable, it's probably due to inadequate support at the other levels-- a revolving door of assistants, half measures on advertising marketing and promotion, and cut corners on travel and scheduling.

Most if not all of the Ramblermania comments on PM and the program have been well thought out in my opinion--I like DANSON's and JCTs' latest the best !!! BUT it is now squarely up to LUC mgt as to what to do--MY question STILL stands--We all know LUC is among THE BEST of the best as to EDUCATION of its students--Now then--DOES LUC want to be a SPRING HILL JOHN CARROLL or do they want to be GTN BOSTON COLLEGE ?????

Perhaps DANSON has it right--Banquet is the Announcement time !!! PERFECT for Public Relations !!

As my old boss used to say--IT IS NOW RUG CUTTIN' TIME !!