Loyola University Chicago Director of Athletics Steve Watson announced today a contract extension for men’s basketball coach Porter Moser. Terms of the contract were not disclosed, but the extension will keep Moser on the Ramblers’ bench through the 2021-22 season.
“Porter is a passionate, hard-working and successful coach, who understands what it means to work at a place like Loyola,” Watson said. “He does things the right way, with student-athletes who excel in the classroom as well as on the court and are active on campus and in the community as excellent representatives of Loyola. We are fortunate to have him as the leader of our men’s basketball program and are confident that great things lie ahead.”
Under Moser, who just completed his sixth season in Rogers Park, the Loyola men’s basketball program has had its most sustained success in three decades. Over the last three years, Moser has steered the Ramblers to 57 wins, the most over a three-year period in 30 years and he piloted Loyola to the 2015 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) championship, the program’s first postseason title since capturing the 1963 NCAA championship.
This season, Loyola received votes for the Associated Press Top 25 Poll for the first time since the 1984-85 campaign. Moser developed Milton Doyle into one of the most decorated players in Loyola history, culminating with the talented guard earning First Team All-Missouri Valley Conference and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) First Team All-District recognition, as well as collecting an invite to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. Moser has guided Loyola to victories against numerous teams from the Power 5, Big East or Mountain West conferences, picking up seven wins over such schools since the start of the 2012-13 campaign.
In addition to the success on the court, the Ramblers have been equally successful off the court under Moser’s tutelage. Loyola ranked tied with Harvard University for first among all NCAA Division I schools with a 99 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) score, according to the latest figures released in November 2016. This season, Loyola was the only program with two Missouri Valley Conference First Team Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete selections in Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson. The program also produced its first-ever Academic All-American under Moser’s watch, with Ben Averkamp earning Capital One Second Team Academic All-America recognition in 2012-13.
“I am very blessed that our leadership team of Dr. Rooney, Steve Watson and Tom Kelly has shown confidence in the direction of our program,” Moser said. “Having continuity as you build a program is critical and we will never waver from recruiting the type of student-athlete that Loyola can be proud of. We have successfully transitioned to the Missouri Valley Conference and are now ready to become one of the top teams in the league. I’ve said this many times, I played in the Missouri Valley Conference, I attended a Jesuit university and I am a Catholic kid from Chicago. Loyola is the perfect fit for me.”
Loyola, which won 18 games in 2016-17, returns three starters, including Third Team All-MVC pick Donte Ingram, along with MVC Sixth Man of the Year Aundre Jackson, for the 2017-18 campaign. Moser also welcomes in highly regarded recruiting class that includes two of the top players in the Chicago area in Cameron Krutwig and Christian Negron.
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