Porter Moser should be the guy

[Scoop Snoop]

I agree that if no announcement is made before next week that the AD is interested in direct talks with Moser. If Moser was not interested he would already know and announce Gates or Smith as our head coach. So if you see white smoke from Jesu Marquette has a new coach.

Along with the white smoke there will be the statement habemus coachum.

[StillAWarrior]

I just can't believe people really think that Moser would even consider commuting. Even if he lives on the north side of town, NOLA is about a 15 hour drive to Marquette.

[Golden Avalanche]

Wonder if Villanova fans are worried that no good players will want to play for Jay Wright.

12 years into his tenure there were real concerns in the Nova fanbase as to whether he could coach the talent he had always attracted. The administration stood by him and soon after that he became a 15 year overnight success at the highest level.

[Uncle Rico]

Wonder if Villanova fans are worried that no good players will want to play for Jay Wright.

Jay puts guys in the NBA.  If you play slow and put guys in the nba, then yes, they'll play for you.  There's a reason locals haven't gone to Madison

[4everwarriors]

I just can't believe people really think that Moser would even consider commuting. Even if he lives on the north side of town, NOLA is about a 15 hour drive to Marquette.

Dudes, he ain't commutin'. Ya by a decent crib in da burbs and put down yo roots. Da hours and obligations connected wit coachin' wood make da drive insufferable. Plus, he's gotta bea a representative of da University in da community. Knot sure how sum of y'all think, hey?

[MarquetteVol]

I consult for several Jesuits schools, and one of my clients is a member of the Society of Jesus and he spent some time at Loyola Chicago. I asked him this morning if it was Kosher for a Jesuit school to poach their next basketball coach from a peer institution. To paraphrase, he basically said if there was an opportunity for an individual to elevate their carer in a way that greater impacts the Jesuit mission then it would be above board. That said, there are professional courtesies MU will need to extend to Loyola.

Essentially, the hiring would all be on the up and up. Porter isn't go to unexpectedly show up at the Pfister at 11 p.m. shouting "It's MU! It's MU!" without both administrations fully in the know and in communication with each other. My guess would be Marquette wouldn't even start that conversation while Loyola is in the tournament still as to not detract from the excitement on their campus.

[Jables1604]

There's no indication this barely-followed podcaster has ever broken news before or has any credibility. I'll wait until someone staking out Moser's house sees him leave in an unmarked vehicle headed north.

Lyft Tracker?

[Pakuni]

Jay puts guys in the NBA.  If you play slow and put guys in the nba, then yes, they'll play for you.  There's a reason locals haven't gone to Madison

Kind of a chicken and egg thing, though. Jay has been able to put guys in the NBA because he's recruited high-level talent to Nova. It's not as if he put a bunch of 2- and 3-star kids in the league early in his career, and then started landing 4- and 5-stars.

[Goose]

Moser cannot commute to coach MU. Aside from turning the program around, he would be the face of the university in a lot of circles. If hired, I would use the hell out of him to promote MU in the community. IMO, commuting is out of the question if I was his boss.

[Big Papi]

Reading up on some articles about Moser, this is the guy I want at MU.  The only negative I can see is maybe the tempo of play might not be what you want.  He ticks every other box with flying colors and he would be extremely successful at Marquette.

My other initial concern on Moser was recruiting but I have no doubts he would bring in high level talent and more importantly, that talent would fit his system.  Everything I have read is that he loves to recruit.  Recruits like an assistant coach.  Tireless and relentless.  Impresses in the living room.  Does his homework on recruits and gets tons of information on players by talking to as many people as possible about a recruit.  No stone unturned.  Great excitement and personality.  Knows how to close.

He is option #1 then Gates then Smith.

I think all 3 can have huge success at MU.

[Galway Eagle]

Moser cannot commute to coach MU. Aside from turning the program around, he would be the face of the university in a lot of circles. If hired, I would use the hell out of him to promote MU in the community. IMO, commuting is out of the question if I was his boss.

How much say does MU have in someone's living arrangements? I mean we're all considering Gates but his wife works for BC and nobody seems to be bringing up the likely large amount of time he'd be spending visiting Boston.

I mean admittedly the commute thing is far fetched but it's odd to me that we overlook that with gates but shut down the idea that Moser would do something similar letting his teenage kids not be uprooted.

[warriorchick]

How much say does MU have in someone's living arrangements? I mean we're all considering Gates but his wife works for BC and nobody seems to be bringing up the likely large amount of time he'd be spending visiting Boston.

Why are we even having this conversation? I don't recall reluctance to move coming up with any other potential hire, ever.

He's either going to move or turn down the position. It's a16+ hour a day job, and for most of the year that is 7 days a week. No one is going to spend 3+ hours per day commuting on top of that.

[cheebs09]

Bit of an odd comment. Would have expected something along the lines of Loyola being the place he wants to be. Is now the right time?

https://twitter.com/nypost_brazille/status/1374746858271211523?s=21

[thekahoona]

I don't have access to the data (I wonder if anyone on this board might)...

I've sat through several of these searches now and there's a lot of "flavor of the year" stuff. I think that's the last step in an analysis, but it always seems like "backing into a coach" to me.

But, it seems to me that narrowing who we should talk to is relatively straightforward:

1.) Take the top 150-200 recruits for the past three years. Look at their final five choices for destination.
2.) That gives you a list of schools. Now run that list through a ranking filter of overall record...conference record...NCAA Tourney record.
3.) Eliminate the non-starters (Duke, Mich St., etc.) and re-rank.
4.) You have a hit list of coaches who can get to (at least final consideration) top recruits and perform at a decent level.


I'd just be curious what names would drop out of that analysis.

[DienerTime34]

How much say does MU have in someone's living arrangements? I mean we're all considering Gates but his wife works for BC and nobody seems to be bringing up the likely large amount of time he'd be spending visiting Boston.

I mean admittedly the commute thing is far fetched but it's odd to me that we overlook that with gates but shut down the idea that Moser would do something similar letting his teenage kids not be uprooted.

Remember when Toni Kukoc was with the Bucks? The J/S did a funny story on how he chose to still live in Illinois, and just drove 120 MPH to Milwaukee each day for practice, picking up a ton of speeding tickets along the way. That's one method 

[Dr. Blackheart]

Give him the penthouse in AMU or move him into Pilarz's old crib for a commuter condo. Not a big deal.

Crean used to sleep in his office.

[Big Papi]

This commuting issue is really not an issue.  He could easily commute if he wants to. 

I would have no problems if he said he would take the job but is not moving his family.  I would say, great, lets hire a driver, get an apartment, condo, second home or whatever.  He is a coach.  He lives and breathes coaching.  Its not a 8-5 gig.  Lots of long hours, lots of road trips.  Its not a 10 hour commute.  I know so many commuters that take an hour plus each way and they have no issues doing it.  Its for him to decide and it might or might not be final factor in his decision.  This is a dead issue.

[Pakuni]

Why are we even having this conversation? I don't recall reluctance to move coming up with any other potential hire, ever.

He's either going to move or turn down the position. It's a16+ hour a day job, and for most of the year that is 7 days a week. No one is going to spend 3+ hours per day commuting on top of that.

Because, say, unlike Gates in Cleveland or Smith in Utah or even Smart in Austin, Moser had deep roots in Chicago. He grew up in the burbs, has been at Loyola for a decade and, by all accounts, loves the city. So the question about whether he'd want to pick up and move becomes a real (or more real) factor in his decision than it might be for some of the other candidates.
Barring the hyperloop - an option I feel has not been properly explored - him commuting would seem a stretch, though.

[Galway Eagle]

Why are we even having this conversation? I don't recall reluctance to move coming up with any other potential hire, ever.

He's either going to move or turn down the position. It's a16+ hour a day job, and for most of the year that is 7 days a week. No one is going to spend 3+ hours per day commuting on top of that.

Because he put out an article about how much loves Chicago, and loves being able to go to Cubs games whenever he wants, ride the el to work, etc. and somebody said "well what if he just gets a condo in MKE for the late nights" and I agreed till the community obligation point came up. But now I'm just curious if MU actually could even do that and why nobody seems to bring it up with Gates?

Now just devils advocate for the sake of it, let's say he moved 15min north to lake forest so his teenage kids could still be near their friends. That's not a 3hr commute that's a 2hr commute each day. Most of the outer suburban Chicago residents make that commute daily. Add on how much of the job is on the road recruiting or game travel anyways it doesn't strike me as odd. Again I'm just playing devils advocate here but if I were Bill Scholl and that was the main objection I'd have a rebuttal planned along the lines I just wrote.

[JWags85]

My other initial concern on Moser was recruiting but I have no doubts he would bring in high level talent and more importantly, that talent would fit his system.  Everything I have read is that he loves to recruit.  Recruits like an assistant coach.  Tireless and relentless.  Impresses in the living room.  Does his homework on recruits and gets tons of information on players by talking to as many people as possible about a recruit.  No stone unturned.  Great excitement and personality.  Knows how to close.

I don't know how people can say this.  It's already been shown that even back to his SLU days he didn't recruit players at a level close to needed for success here.  In the last decade, Marquette has recruited 3 players (Akanno, Greg Elliott, and Ike) that rank lower than the HIGHEST ranked recruit Moser got, even after the FF.  Again, nobody is expecting him to be pulling in top 50 guys and top 25 classes at Loyola. But if he is some superlative closer and relentless recruiter like you are claiming, you'd expect him to have pulled some fringe top 150-200 guys.   Much less expect him to seamlessly suddenly be able to lock down and sell top 50/75 talent on playing a slow tempo/defense first style?

He may be just fine and I have no doubt he recruits well to fit his system, but acting like it's a certainty he'd slide in and tear up the recruiting trail is silly and without basis for a guy without any track record of recruiting top tier talent as a HC or AC

[JakeBarnes]

Because, say, unlike Gates in Cleveland or Smith in Utah or even Smart in Austin, Moser had deep roots in Chicago. He grew up in the burbs, has been at Loyola for a decade and, by all accounts, loves the city. So the question about whether he'd want to pick up and move becomes a real (or more real) factor in his decision than it might be for some of the other candidates.
Barring the hyperloop - an option I feel has not been properly explored - him commuting would seem a stretch, though.

You're one of the faces of a University. He either lives in the community or he's not the right coach.

[Galway Eagle]

You're one of the faces of a University. He either lives in the community or he's not the right coach.

So what is the difference between Dennis Gates having a house in Milwaukee while his wife and two kids are in Boston and Porter Moser having a house in Milwaukee while his wife and kids are in the northern burbs of Chicago?

[JakeBarnes]

So what is the difference between Dennis Gates having a house in Milwaukee while his wife and two kids are in Boston and Porter Moser having a house in Milwaukee while his wife and kids are in the northern burbs of Chicago?

I was responding to the commute part. He should live here, not commute. If he thinks commuting is the thing, then I don't think that's the right fit.

[wildbillsb]

You're one of the faces of a University. He either lives in the community or he's not the right coach.

What's Mrs. Gates' position at Boston College? Is there an equivalent opportunity at MU?  Just curious.

[Galway Eagle]

What's Mrs. Gates' position at Boston College? Is there an equivalent opportunity at MU?  Just curious.

Associate AD I believe. Could wrong, I know she's not the AD but maybe 2nd or 3rd in line there