JUST SAY NO TO OU? UH, NO WAY
For coach Moser, Sooners gig was simply too good to pass up
Leaving Loyola was never going to be easy, but too many features of the Oklahoma gig lined up ideally for Porter Moser. He could not pass up the opportunity.
Those factors should help Loyola fans and college basketball fans across Chicago understand Moser’s move.
Athletic success and program stability
Athletic director Joe Castiglione is one of the most highly respected leaders in his profession. Castiglione, who has been at Oklahoma since 1998, has built an athletic powerhouse at OU that stretches across many sports.
The Sooners have won 18 national championships since his arrival. That’s the type of winning culture, stable foundation and tradition any coach would want heading into a new job.
Basketball success and history
Very quietly and somewhat overlooked, Oklahoma basketball has had a ton of success since Billy Tubbs arrived in the 1980s. Three coaches — Tubbs, Kelvin Sampson and Lon Kruger — have led the Sooners to the Final Four.
Overall, there are only four schools that have had more than four coaches take teams to the Final Four: Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky and UCLA. Oklahoma is next, tied with Michigan, with four coaches.
In this century alone, Oklahoma has reached the Elite Eight four times and played in two Final Fours. And in that time, they’ve had three consensus All-Americans — Blake Griffin, Buddy Hield and Trae Young.
Resources
According to official NCAA finances, Oklahoma athletics brought in $163,126,695 in 2018-19. That was eighth among all public-university athletic programs in Division I.
As a comparison, Southern Illinois — like Loyola, another Missouri Valley Conference program — generated $22,507,927.
As a result, the Oklahoma athletic budget ranks among the highest in college athletics. That leads to large recruiting budgets and the ability to pay top assistant coaches and support staff while also providing life-changing money for its head coach.
Facilities
With the type of resources at Oklahoma’s disposal, Sooners basketball, thanks to a large donation from NBA star and former Sooner Griffin, opened the 18,000-square-foot, state-of-theart Griffin Family Performance Center recently.
Better chance to play in NCAA tourney
As good as Loyola has been the last four years, the truth of the matter is the MVC is more or less a one-bid league when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. In most years, one slip-up in the MVC Tournament can derail any NCAA Tournament hopes for the league champ.
In the last 38 years, Oklahoma has gone to the NCAA Tournament an impressive 29 times.
Less pressure than other high-majors
Oklahoma wants to win. And it wants to win big. The aforementioned high-level success warrants that.
But this job doesn’t instantly ruin one’s quality of life as so many over-the-top, high-pressure head-coaching jobs with outlandish expectations can do.
In the last 45 years, the Sooners have fired only one basketball coach — Jeff Capel.
And that came after an NCAA investigation led to a lack of recruiting prowess and left the program in limbo.
Strike when it’s hot
For Moser, he undoubtedly should feel fortunate that a perfect match for him did pop up when he was arguably the hottest name on the coaching market. Oklahoma was the match for him. Timing is everything.