Porter Moser has signed a contract that will keep him as the head men’s basketball coach at Loyola University Chicago through the 2025-26 season, Loyola Director of Athletics Steve Watson announced today. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.
“We are excited to be able to announce a new contract for Porter that will keep him at Loyola a long time,” Watson said. “He is the perfect fit for Loyola and operates his program the right way, with student-athletes who achieve excellence on the court and in the classroom and are also excellent representatives of the institution. We are fortunate to work at a university like Loyola, that values and has made a commitment to athletics. It is nice to reward Porter not just for an outstanding season, but also for the job he has done during his time here.”
Moser just completed his seventh season, one of the most historic in program history, as the Ramblers’ head coach and has guided the team to a pair of postseason appearances in his tenure in Rogers Park, along with a No. 7 ranking in the final 2017-18 USA Today Coaches Poll. In 2015, Moser piloted Loyola to the College Basketball Invitational title in the program’s first postseason berth of any kind in 30 years before steering this year’s squad to the Final Four, the first time it had advanced that deep into the NCAA tournament since winning the national championship in 1963.
“I am grateful to Dr. Rooney and Steve Watson for having the confidence in me to build a program the right way,” Moser said. “As I have said many times before, I am a Catholic kid from Chicago who played in the Missouri Valley Conference. This is the trifecta for me. We have invested so much time and energy in this program and I’m beyond excited to continue the journey. Watching Chicago as well as Loyola students, alumni and fans get excited for this team was exactly the vision we had when we took over the program. I will continue to challenge our fans to fill Gentile Arena as we did for the final home game to make it one of the best college basketball atmospheres in the country.”
This season, Moser was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year and also was selected as the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 16 Coach of the Year after leading Loyola to the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships and a school-record 32 wins. Along the way, the Ramblers knocked off four nationally ranked teams, including the program’s first-ever win on the road against a top-five opponent (No. 5 Florida), and the team ranked second in the nation in fewest personal fouls per game (13.9), third in field goal percentage (.507), and sixth in scoring defense (62.6 ppg).
The trajectory of the program has taken off especially in the last four seasons under Moser, with the team recording an 89-50 (.597) record. Loyola’s 50 wins over the last two seasons are its most over a two-year period since posting 51 total victories during the 1962-63 and 1963-64 campaigns. The Naperville, Illinois native is one of only two coaches in MVC history to win the MVC Tournament as both a player and a head coach and one of only five individuals to win or share the league’s regular-season title as a head coach after doing so as a player.
Under Moser’s direction, Loyola also developed and produced its first NBA player in 30 years when former All-MVC guard Milton Doyle saw action with the Brooklyn Nets this season, and the Ramblers continue to achieve at a high level academically, last semester posting a 3.1 team grade-point average.
Loyola will welcome back three starters from this year’s Final Four team – Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American and MVC Player of the Year Clayton Custer, MVC All-Tournament Team selection Marques Townes and MVC Freshman of the Year Cameron Krutwig.
