Loyola-Chicago Basketball: Head coach Porter Moser on Ramblers’ Final 4 run
Now that some time has gone by, what does Moser think of his 2018 run?
With some time to reflect on the Ramblers’ run, he says, as most any coach would, “while we were in it, I wasn’t thinking about anything but winning and advancing.” He says when it really hit him was a year later while doing some TV work for CBS, “I remember being in the studio watching every round, every game is just so hard and I remember thinking, gosh dang we strung four together. The more removed I get from it, the more I realize how hard it was.”
One thing I asked him about was how he handled his team when it came to the growing media attention during the tournament. Coach Moser says, “We addressed it. We said, hey let’s embrace this, we embraced it. There was so much hype around Chicago, there was so much nationally, and then the Sister Jean thing kicked in. We said let’s enjoy it, but when it’s time to watch film when it’s time to walkthrough at a hotel, practice, we’re gonna have this laser-like focus.” He finishes by telling me, “I think having fun and embracing it, helped them loosen up a little bit.”
If you listen to a lot of coaches that have that level of success in the NCAA Tournament, they will often tell you about a certain point in the season when they knew they had that good of a team. It is no different for mid-major teams. Moser says that point for him came in December. He recalls the Gators had just finished with the PK 80 tournament where they defeated Gonzaga and lost to Duke. Florida entered that game ranked No. 5 in the nation, Moser says, “Holy cow is Florida a juggernaut. Ben Richardson was out, Clayton Custer got hurt in the first half and didn’t play in the second half and we held on to beat them.”
He recalls on the bus after the game, “I remember talking to the staff, we got some weapons, I felt like something special was brewing, but we were hurt. When we were rolling again, we’re healthy and we could really make some noise, I think the guys developed confidence going through that.”
What about for Moser personally? He says the best parts of that season for him was the people they went through it with. He says, “Seeing how much they invested in turning this program around, to see the togetherness.” “Another part was, to see how Chicago embraced us.” Moser, being from the windy city know the importance of sports to that town, remembering what it was like to finally see the Cubs win a World Series. He told me how people told him Chicago was a pro (sports) town and they would never get behind a college team. His rebuttal, “It’s a sports town, they will get behind you, if you are blue-collar, tough, play the right way, and did Chicago get behind us.”
He talked about seeing the school name in the Chicago skyline and the buildings being lit up in maroon and gold. “Just to see, first and foremost, the people that went through it, and then to see Chicago get behind us, and the University, the University alumni, we connected everyone.” He enjoys seeing the pride people have in the school as evidenced by the growing number of people he sees proudly wearing their Loyola gear.