Mundelein native Kessel got early glimpse of Moser's coaching acumen at Texas A&M
Loyola coach Porter Moser is new to the national stage, obviously.
Roughly 25 years ago, he was a young assistant at Texas A&M, working for his college coach at Creighton, Tony Barone. Even back then, he was pretty good at building relationships.
One of the players on those Texas A&M teams was Mundelein native Kyle Kessel.
"When I took my official visit, he was the guy who took me around campus, took me out, showed me a good time, hung around with the fellas," Kessel said. "Eventually I signed to go there and he was really kind of my guy who, when coach Barone was pretty hard on me or whatever, he picked me up.
"We had a great relationship, more than a player-coach. We were pretty close, because he was only like 25 or something when I was 18. So he was just very positive, always make you laugh, keep you upbeat. I love Porter. He's always been real positive, real good guy."
Kessel's time at Texas A&M had some rough spots. Even though he got a decent amount of playing time, he decided to leave school after his sophomore year to focus on a baseball career.
"Toward the end of my sophomore year when it was pretty obvious that he (Barone) was pushing me away and wasn't too happy that I was playing baseball," Kessel said. "I remember before practice, Porter came up to me and was like, 'Kyle, we need you to score more.' Because I wasn't scoring. I go to him, 'Porter, I can't even shoot in practice without being (cursed out). How can I make a shot in the game?'
"Practice went on and I decided I was going to try to hit a couple shots. I shoot a little 10-foot pullup jump shot, it rolls in and out and Barone yells, 'You (expletive deleted) Kessel, all you want to do is shoot!' I look at Porter and I go, 'See?'"
Kessel and Barone went their separate ways, but Moser gave Barone full credit for his coaching career when speaking on a Final Four teleconference Monday.
Barone is a Chicago native who assisted Dick Versace at Bradley before becoming head coach at Creighton, where he recruited Moser out of Benet Academy in 1986. After graduating, Moser joined the coaching staff at Creighton, then followed Barone to Texas A&M.
"I wouldn't be in this without Tony Barone being my college coach and giving me a chance, Moser said. "I remember he was a hot-name coach when he went from Creighton to A&M. I was one year removed as a player, and he hired me as a restricted-earnings coach back then.
"That was a pretty special thing that he had enough trust and faith in our relationship to bring me along to start that journey at A&M with him."
Moser's rise in the coaching world wasn't a straight incline. He was a hot prospect himself when he became head coach at Arkansas-Little Rock in 2000, then moved on to Illinois State three years later. Illinois State had a tradition of grooming young coaches who would go on to bigger jobs.
But Moser didn't succeed at ISU. He had to settle for being an assistant again under Rick Majerus at Saint Louis before getting another chance at Loyola in 2011.
Moser was always pretty good at player relations and this Loyola squad clearly has an incredible chemistry.
"Porter used to always give me a hard time because we had workouts before school at 5 a.m.," Kessel said. "He'd be like, 'Kyle, quit looking like you just rolled out of bed.' Obviously we had just rolled out of bed, but he's like, 'You can't look like you just rolled out of bed.'"
So far, no evidence has been produced to show what Moser looked like when he woke up Sunday after celebrating Loyola's trip to the Final Four.