Missouri Valley Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose | Jun 5, 2020

ST. LOUIS, MO - MARCH 10: Members of the Bradley Braves celebrate after beating the Northern Iowa Panthers in the final game of MVC Basketball Tournament at the Enterprise Center on March 10, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Bradley Braves beat the Northern Iowa Panthers 57-54 to win the MVC Championship. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

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ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 24: Head coach Porter Moser of the Loyola Ramblers (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

4. Missouri Valley Basketball coach – Porter Moser

Illinois State (2003-2007), Loyola IL (2013-2020)

Throughout most of their time in the Horizon League, Loyola was not a competitive program. As they transitioned to the MVC in 2013, with Moser coming aboard two years earlier, the team didn’t magically become competitive. They hadn’t been in the NCAA Tournament since 1985 before Moser’s arrival on campus. As most people reading this now, he’s been successful with the Ramblers.

Including his four years leading Illinois State, Moser had very little success to speak of in his first eight seasons in the Valley. Everything changed with his Ramblers team in 2018. Not only did they win the program’s first MVC championship and finally returned to the NCAA Tournament, but they marched all the way to the Final Four as an 11-seed. An outstanding 32-win campaign greatly improved Moser’s stock and put Loyola back on the national map, with the greatest collegiate success in Chicago for decades.

Loyola remains a top program in the MVC, but have been upended in the last two MVC Tournaments. Making just a single NCAA Tournament in his 11 years in the Valley is slightly disappointing, though clearly Moser made the most of that one bid. That 2018 Ramblers squad will be remembered for a long time, as will Moser’s role in their surprise run. We’ll have to see if Loyola can get back to the Dance in the coming years and raise Moser’s stock even further.