Loyola signs Porter Moser to new contract through 2026
Coach Porter Moser will get a chance to extend Loyola's shining moment.
After guiding the Ramblers to their first Final Four appearance in 55 years this season, Moser has signed a contract that will keep him as the men's basketball coach through the 2025-26 season, school officials announced Wednesday.
Steve Watson, Loyola's director of athletics. did not disclose the financial terms of the contract. The Chicago Sun-Times reported Moser's base salary for the 2015-16 season at $420,000.
Under Moser last season, the Ramblers finished with a No. 7 ranking in the final 2017-18 USA Today Coaches Poll. They won the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships and posted a school-record 32 wins.
Moser, a Naperville native and Benet Academy graduate, became head coach at Loyola in 2011. He had previous head-coaching stints at Illinois State and Arkansas-Little Rock.
"As I have said many times before, I am a Catholic kid from Chicago who played in the Missouri Valley Conference (at Creighton)," Moser said in a statement. "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."
Filling Gentile Arena will be Loyola's next order of business. The building seats roughly 5,000 fans, and it sold out just once last year, for the regular-season finale against Illinois State.
Moser has talked about Loyola taking over the mantle of the Missouri Valley's dominant team from Wichita State, which left a year ago for the American Athletic Conference. Moser envisioned being a team that is nationally ranked and could compete regularly against schools from the major conferences.
It will be interesting to see if Moser is able to upgrade Loyola's nonconference schedule after the Final Four appearance.
The Ramblers likely will be favored to win the MVC against next season.
They'll return point guard Clayton Custer, the conference player of the year; center Cameron Krutwig, the league's freshman of the year; and shooting guard Marques Townes.
Those three, arguably the team's best players during the tournament run, would be joined by freshman guard Lucas Williamson and 6-foot-7 forward Aher Uguak, a transfer from New Mexico, to form another solid nucleus.
Loyola loses three major contributors in seniors Donte Ingram, Ben Richardson and Aundre Jackson.
"(Moser) 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," Watson said in a statement. "It is nice to reward Porter not just for an outstanding season, but also for the job he has done during his time here."