I'll say...I'm really surprised we haven't seen a letter, a tweet, anything from Porter addressing the Loyola fans, the students, the administration, the current and former players, etc. He gave his first public interview today decked out in OU gear. Would have been nice to have some closure or acknowledgement from him. The official LU basketball account had a nice tweet thanking him for him time here.

Oh well. Onward.

He read my post and said "oh yeah, forgot that!"

JCT - The ESPN interview where PM talked about Oklahoma's "culture" and how "it's the perfect fit" made me feel a little bit like I was in River City.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Cubs season tickets pale in comparison to getting the marching band instrument and uniform contract.

Thanks for the reference to your post Ramblermanager. Interesting video. OU colors not too different than LU maroon.
Noticed Jim Molinari is an assistant. I wonder if Porter can pick his own coaches.

What’s lost in the shuffle is LU stepped up. They offered PM 2.2 million a year for 10 years! OU offered 2.5 to 3 million from 6 years. I can’t fault Steve Watson or LU for PM leaving. My take is that he was in fact happy here. You don’t spend 10 years of your life at a school and not have deep feelings for it. I think the reason he left was probably mid-major burn out and itch to see if he could run a big P5 team. It’s tough knowing you literally have to win the conference tourney to be invited. At OU if he wins 17 or more and finishes .500 he’s getting invited.

With that said, PM will discover that all you do by changing jobs is exchange one set of problems for another. OU expectations with their administration, fan base, donors and alumni will be dramatically different than LU and more demanding than LU. There will be no mid-major excuses for not bringing in the best recruits, not just getting invited to NCAA, but going deep every year. There will also be different issues in terms of personalities of these higher rated kids. Many are pampered their whole life. We have seen PM light freshman up when they make mistakes. Some of these kids are not going to react the same as a late bloomer or a kid glad to be in a D1 program. PM is also VERY demanding as a coach. Part of Valentine’s job was to smooth things over with the players. I do not think OU will have the patience he enjoyed here. So, if he does not make it to the end of the 6 years, he left a lot of money and happiness on the table at LU.

Players are different today. At the Michigan State/UCLA play in game, Izzo chewed out a player. As the Spartans left the court at halftime,
Izzo again approached that player and he pushed Izzo away. Never thought I would see that. Reminded me of when Courtney Stanley did the same thing at halftime of an LU game on the road.

Porter is definitely a tough coach. That’s his style. And we’ve seen both sides of the coin in terms of how players react to it. But his style has obviously worked overall...in the long term. It will be interesting to see how Drew Valentine handles the head coach role. He was clearly the “good cop” on the bench, but will that translate to having to be the top guy? It doesn’t always, but every coach and every situation is different. Personally, I think he will be fine. Better than fine, really.

VAL has a fine pedigree !! Good for LUC and us !! Now then we must DROP the mid-major stigma as did GONZAGA !! I believe Val and our AD will do this