It’s pretty simple: if Porter wants a job at an elite program, he needs to get to the sweet sixteen next year.
The final four run was miraculous and the feel-good story of college basketball that year, but it still can be considered a one-off. Next year is his chance to cap off a 4 year track record of sustained success with his system and the type of guys he feels he can win with. The Final Four run gave him the chance to recruit players that would not have given him any thought in his first four years at Loyola. If his resume shows the last 4 years - four 20+ win seasons, 3 regular season Valley championships, 2 conference tournament championships, a Final Four and a Sweet 16...there is no longer any question marks by his name. He will have secured himself as a bona fide, elite college coach worthy of an elite school as his partner. BUT - I think he knows he needs the right fit if that happened and I don’t think he leaves the Midwest. I think if he delivers next year and a job opened up at:
Notre Dame Michigan State Michigan Ohio State Indiana Wisconsin Louisville
He goes. At that point he would have completely restored Loyola to basketball relevance, and he would deserve an opportunity to have the chance to see what he can do with blank checks and infinite resources to recruit and compete for national titles on a yearly basis. I would not begrudge him.
If he knocks it out of the park and gets offers from:
Xavier Marquette Depaul Northwestern Minnesota Creighton Dayton Or any bottom feeder that fires their coach from a power five conference...
While I couldn’t be mad he left, I think it would be a huge mistake.
The biggest mistake would be a power conference cellar team.
This isn’t a criticism about Porter, but rather my feeling about him as a coach. If he is going to succeed at a power conference school, he has to inherit an active winning culture (i.e. Izzo retires)- he can’t just step into an empty cupboard and win in 3 years - he’s not that kind of coach. Porter doesn’t adapt to the type of players he has, rather, he makes the players either adapt to his system, or get the hell out. Any power conference school picking him up after a firing is going to have to be willing to accept 11 to 15 win seasons for 4 years. Also, Porter, himself, would have to accept the same. I, personally, think that he is young enough to run a successful program, but at this point, too old to start over and build one, and the risk to try is too great (again, because I think he wants to coach for a long time). I think that’s the true reason he’s not at St. John’s.
For as much as Porter has done, I don’t think he can deny that Loyola afforded him an opportunity a lot of schools wouldn’t have. In 3 seasons he went 7-23, 15-16, and 10-22. (5-28 in the horizon league and 4-14 in the valley). With us starting a new conference, if LU pulled the plug on him after Year 3, NOBODY would have been outraged. (I think even about half of us here were outraged they didn’t). Bottom line - Porter caught a break by keeping his post, and with a third head coaching failure, he was not going to get another shot any time in the near future if LU axed him... if ever at all.
I think Porter is an extremely smart guy that gets it. There’s no doubt in my mind he wants a national title. There’s no doubt in my mind he wants to win. And there’s little doubt in my mind that he wants to risk failure when he’s got a great thing he can’t lose any time soon.
The good news is that at this point - if we lose him - it’s probably going to be because Loyola did something awesome again. I’m good with that.
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