Loyola cannot retain its head coach forever by simply pulling on heartstrings. But as has been demonstrated by the Gonzaga model, having the same head coach throughout is kind of important. “You don’t see schools at our level who are turning over coaches regularly who are able to sustain that success,” Watson says. “Porter, he’s the right guy, without a doubt. So that retention is really, really important for us.”

What might the school do about it? Those gears, evidently, are already turning.

“We talk almost every day,” Watson says. “There are opportunities and schools out there that I’m 100 percent sure are interested in having Porter be their coach. But he’s been saying it ever since we got the bid to get into the tournament — he’s 100 percent invested in seeing this thing through and is all-in with Loyola. And we’re all-in with him. We’re committed, he’s committed and we’re having discussions about what that’s going to look like in the future for him. I’m excited about having him be our coach for as long as we can keep him. And I think that’s going to be a really long time.”

How any of you are as stupid as me today and keep compulsively coming on here and checking Twitter all day to see if a player or Moser has announced they staying or going?