I could be wrong, but if I had to guess:
Gac-I'm not sure if he was a Moser recruit. His first year was 2010, so he might have left with the change in staff.
Rajala-It might have been a scholarship problem.
King, Johnson, Osborne, O'Leary-All left in the mass exodus. The entire staff minus Moser that recruited them left, so they may not have liked the new coaches. It also came after the Valley switch and none of them performed as well as they would've in the Horizon League, so none got consistent playing time. The scene they left was completely different than what they were probably sold on, so they all wanted a new start.

Kirby is obviously still around, and may be gone next year depending on graduation and scholarship availability.

I guess that's my point in all this. Moser has never recruited a well polished big guy. It's hard to do at the level Loyola currently finds itself. My biggest knock on hoops is the lack of good (any) big guy coaches. Most guards think if they were 6'10 they would be in the NBA. Most coaches were guards. The fact is, its the hardest position to teach. You operate in the smallest space and need extremely great footwork and balance to play effectively plus you are the last line of defense. The level of play Loyola is at, you need to develop a big guy. Cody, King, and Gac had potential and the staff couldn't teach them. You could make a case the experience was so bad they lost the desire to play. The bottom line is there's only one person responsible for recruiting.

For what it's worth our two commits for next year are a 6'9 3 star center in Krutwig and a 6'6 3-4 star F in Negron.

Easily two of his larger and certainly highest profile recruits yet. So hopefully in that regard help is on the way.

Also just to play devils advocate i would also point to Montels significant improvement from year 1 to 2 with the same coaching staff.

86 brings up interesting commentary. There are more, the big guy transfer from DePaul, the kid from Iowa that was hurt last year then left, other big from downstate somewhere (tanner)?

I really like Jackson. Interesting that he and Christian are both undersized but have succeeded in the system. James came in with nice polish and was good as well.

Coaching anyone is hard, and I agree that coaching bigs is very difficult. There is a lot of nuance. I personally hear a lot of people think that a big body that tries hard and competes will succeed. Not at all the case - there is so much to learn. Hopefully the young man out with an acl and the big guy recruit next year can buck the trend.

Couple of points
1. Big Men- I cannot believe that Rajala would not have helped this year. Gac had tremendous length a looked like a good athlete.Oleary has performed well this year against some good competition( Osbourne seems to have gone off the deep end) I think Coach has an offensive and defensive system and uses the player that can play that system,,My guess is that he thought neither Gac or Rajala were good defenders. Gac was with a group of guys that could have been a pretty good trapping zone type of team.
On the other hand Christian Thomas and Montell James both outperformed what their abilities would have suggested. But this has been and continues to be a stumbling block for us reaching the next step and EVERYONE else has big guys , not necessarily good but big and often capable of causing us problems when we have no one, good or bad, to match up. You cannot get consistently out-rebounded and expect to have a great season.
2. The game atmosphere. I think it has all been said. I think the key here is that no one is putting pressure on to change or no one in a position of power has set a directive to improve or else. As for the small group of faithful I am guessing no one cares what we say or think. This will take both a commitment and an investment and belief that it is important
3. I am also a Northwestern football fan and there is a good message here, NU started out 0-2 with a loss to Illinois State. Looked like it was going to be a looooong season. THey regrouped finished 5-4 and won a bowl game. LU can do the same and maybe top half in the Conference

Nate,
Couldn't agree with you more. As good as ISU looked yesterday, they can look like a different team in a minute with a little stress in a given game.
Same with us, we can play a great game Wednesday that will leave us shaking our heads as to how they played so poorly the last two... We have seen this before. I guess it is the nature of the college game. I know our guys are not quitters and will continue to play hard.
As to the big guys, you are correct that if we chose to move up to MVC, then we should have the commitments to succeed. I was thinking about all of the things we as fans want to dump on Moser, i.e.. recruiting, training big guys, fundraising, on and on..... Perhaps the administration needs to live up to the commitment and provide the funds for adequate staffing. Or did we just move into the MVC as a token move, with no administration support? I assume some schools have additional staff for recruiting and scouting, as well as staff geared to skill development of specific players, i.e. big guys. I Know, this costs money. So maybe the department in charge of community relations, whatever it is, should be working the Chicago area to use the program in a positive way. We need to get those seats occupied...
I will never believe that with the urban nature of this university and the quantity of alumni here, that the Gentile cannot be loaded for these games. Unfortunately, due to the lack of base support now, this team will have to win first, develop a new base then hold on to it.
I looked at organizational charts of several schools and in every one I looked at, the athletic director was directly linked to the University president, not to another layer of the organization as we have here with Steve Watson. Does that say something? Gonzaga goes right to the top with athletics reporting to the big cheese. Seems to work for them on the court and the national attention to that university as a result has to be amazing. Also, I guess, us still living "dinosaur fans" as we were recently called,need to stay positive, show up, and pony up as we can. Maybe we need to make a little more noise too! Go Ramblers

I planned on bringing my family to the game yesterday. Then I realized it was going to be $84. And that's their new great promotion. Sorry, but the atmosphere is not worth the prices. Especially when I hear there was no LU Wolf and no cheerleaders.
Drake had $1 tickets for their opener against us.
Loyola University needs to realize it is most important to get people in the building. How about $5 tickets instead of the $15/16 minimum to get in the door.
The UNIVERSITY owes it to the players on this team to figure it out!

I agree. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price of the four pack. That is crazy.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

I liked how Custer responded after the loss yesterday. He was pretty forthright, said his defense was terrible and that as a team they should run a zone defense better than they did. Unlike last year when the team struggles we do seem to have better on/off court leadership among the team. You can see his comments here:

http://thecatchandshoot.com/loyola-fail ... 1-59-loss/

Totally agree. Even SAMS CLUB knows this.....I mean you sample the food first. Well I have been a firm believer in that you truly value something only if you act upon it (probably developed this in one of those damn philosophy classes at LU) so what can WE do. We seem to have a nice little group. I say we all go to one game for sure and all sit in the same section,,,choose a color (obviously maroon or gold etc) do something to make noise (everyone brings kazoo, harmonica, tuba?...) make some noise.......start an L....U back and forth cheer with the student section...and have some fun. It is obvious if we wait for the admin to do so ...well we have already been waiting a long time....I say the 15th...should give us time to get something organize....I can write the ticket guy and Steve and see if we have a code Ramblermania we can get 5 buck tickets in a specific area.....everyone who already has tickets can come on up.....feedback please..........any other ideas?????