Should Porter Moser stay at Loyola Chicago or take the Indiana job? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast

Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Loyola Chicago head coach Porter Moser’s future and if they believe he should stay or make a jump to a program like Indiana.

Video transcript

DAN WETZEL: All right, Loyola Chicago against Oregon State. Ramblers are giving six and a half. Pat had a story this week on Loyola, asking the question. I thought this was a great turn of a phrase, Pat. Should Porter Moser stay at Loyola and create Butler by the lake?

I like that. Well, he's two games from a second final forward. It's all Butler ever did, and obviously, they've been better for a longer time. What do you think, Pat? Talk about Loyola and not just Sister Jean.

PAT FORDE: Yeah, right? I mean, it's just what he has there, what he's created is that the cheapest word in college sports is culture. But to use the old Supreme Court phrase, you know when you see it, they've got real culture, you know? It's not fake.

It is everybody totally bought in, and they do things their way. That's where, to me, it's very reminiscent of Butler, and the way Brad Stevens did things, you know? Where it's just a little bit different, but everybody says, OK, yeah, this makes sense. And we're all in, and we're going to recruit guys that just buy in and do it our way.

Gonzaga has that. Several other places do as well. But just the thing that struck me when I was watching them, their two games here, they miss a shot, and everybody claps. I'm like, that's interesting, because they just keep doing it to the point where it's not coincidence.

But that's Moser's thing is, as long as it's a good shot, we're behind you. We're playing. You know what? That's a good possession. Good job. Good possession.

Now, go back and play defense. We're the best defensive team in the country. We're fine, and that's just one of those little snapshots of kind of how that mentality has pervaded the program.

If it were me, and you could get some level of Gonzaga type buy in terms of facilities, I would stay at Loyola. I mean, Gonzaga's practice gym is unbelievable. Gonzaga's locker room is an NBA locker room. Their gym, their home arena is fantastic, like they did all those things and then added-- you know, the travel piece is private, travel, and that sort of thing to make it an elite basketball program.

If Loyola can come up with some of that, maybe not all of it, but some of it if, I'm Porter Moser, I stay. And I'm like, this is something that is completely mine. It's built my way. I don't have to bend to the power of the program at Indiana, like you would. The program bends to the way I want to do it at Loyola.

PETE THAMEL: Why hasn't DePaul just brought a dump truck full of money for Porter Moser?

- Great question.

- Maybe they are. Have we heard anything on their search?

- Well, Kenny Payne.

- Payne.

- Kenny Payne.

- Kenny Payne? Did he get it?

- I don't know. I mean, he's gotten a lot of buzz.

- The Knicks have been a little bit prohibitive, I've heard, like they haven't-- you know, there's been some-- it hasn't been as clean as you would think in letting an assistant go for a head coaching job. I'll add Indiana, like it's very clear right now. Who knows how you'll end up? And we've had this conversation before about just because you run a good search doesn't mean it's a good result.

A bad search can have a good result, et cetera, but right now, they had no plan. Like when they fired Archie Miller, it's very clear they did not have a plan, and you almost may have wanted to wait till the end of the tournament. That way, if you really wanted to go try and get a Beard, or a Drew, or one of these guys, you wouldn't have had the obvious games playing out in your backyard in front of you.

But at the very least, right now, the search is teetering towards flailing. Whether he ends up failing, we don't know, because they're going to hire a coach. And you still have a chance to win, because it's Indiana. But, right now, boy, I'm not feeling good if I'm running an Indiana search.