Loyola Chicago HC Porter Moser Becoming Utah Fan Favorite For Head Coaching Vacancy
Mar 21, 2021, 3:25 PM | Updated: 9:48 pm
Head coach Porter Moser of the Loyola Ramblers celebrates a team win against the Illinois Fighting Illini in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament held at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 21, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
(Photo by Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Utah basketball fans on social media are showing strong desire for the Utes to hire Loyola Chicago’s Porter Moser to be the new basketball coach.
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The desire was always there with Utah fans that they wanted Porter Moser to be the next head coach of the Runnin’ Utes after Larry Krystkowiak was fired last week. But it has grown more since the NCAA Tournament started.
Moser has led the Ramblers to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament after beating Georgia Tech in the first round on Friday before advancing to the next weekend with an upset win over No. 1 seed Illinois.
When you break it down, Moser is a great candidate for the Utah job.
🚨 THE FIRST 1-SEED HAS FALLEN 🚨@RamblersMBB | #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/uKVVEXpUlk
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 21, 2021
Porter Moser Is A Winner
This isn’t the first time that Moser has led the Ramblers to the second weekend of the Big Dance. In 2018, Moser took the Ramblers to the Final Four as a No. 11 seed in the tournament. They beat No. 6 Miami by two points, No. 3 Tennessee by one point, No. 7 Nevada in the Sweet Sixteen by one point and No. 9 Kansas State by 16 in the Elite Eight.
The Ramblers went on to lose to No. 3 Michigan in the Final Four, ending their Cinderella run. Moser has been a head coach at three schools at the collegiate level. His first gig was in 2000-03 with Arkansas-Little Rock. Then he went to Illinois State from 2003-07 before spending time as an assistant. Moser became the head coach of Loyola Chicago in 2011. While with the Ramblers, Moser has helped the program transition from the Horizon League to the Missouri Valley Conference. He took them to the postseason five times. In 2015, Loyola Chicago won the CBI. Then they missed the postseason for the next two seasons before making their run to the Final Four.
The following season, the Ramblers lost in the first round of the NIT. In Moser’s first season with Loyola, they won just seven games. They improved the following season, posting 15 wins. They regressed in their first season in the Missouri Valley Conference with 10 wins in 2013-14. During the 2014-15 season, Moser led them to 24 wins and winning the CBI. After that, Loyola won 15 games in 2015-16 and 18 games in 2016-17. When they went to the Final Four, they won 32 games. They won 20 games or more the last four seasons.
Connection To Utah
Moser has one small connection to the state of Utah and it’s not from coaching in the Beehive State. When Moser left Illinois State as the head coach, he was an assistant coach for Saint Louis from 2007-11 under former Utah basketball head coach Rick Majerus. Majerus was with Saint Louis from 2007-12, Moser was there for all but the last season.
Although Moser doesn’t have ties to the West Coast, he would make a great fit at Utah as he learned the culture Utah basketball was once in under Majerus when he worked under him in Saint Louis.
It will be very interesting to see if he interviews for the Utah job.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.
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