I don't think it's a question anymore. In his "re-birth" after being understudy to Majerus, he's 31-59 overall, and 10-41 in conference games, even with two of those years in the Horizon. That's worse than his unsatisfactory record at ISU, which was worse than both his predecessor or successor at that school.

After going through the first 24 games of the season with our worst losing margin being 14 (at Fordham), we've now AVERAGED a losing margin of 15.4 points per game in our last five outings. We had a lineup on the court in the first half of this last game that featured two walk-ons and a redshirt freshman who's played a total of 75 minutes this year coming into the game. We scored only 38 points against a Bradley team that's under .500 overall and in the conference, a scoring output that you have to go back to November 1998 against an NCAA at-large team with an RPI of 12 to find worse. And we've got a road losing streak lasting more than a year that is worse than any coach besides Larry Farmer in the 111 year history of Loyola basketball.

ON EDIT, AFTER VIEWING OTHER POSTS: Wouldn't the wearing down of players be somewhat predictable? This is his third year here. We've had lack of depth all three years he's been here, because of running off players in year one, injuries in year two, and lack of confidence/playing time for reserves in year three. Christian Thomas has been playing at the four spot all year, despite his plainly obvious lack of size. Now it's a total surprise? A wholly unforeseen circumstance?

When you've lost 8 of 9 or whatever we have, one can lead to the other pretty easily.

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Apparently, it was predictable to several posters here. I dismissed it, but I now think the heavy minutes are a big factor.

Don't forget injuries this year as well. Tanner W was supposed to be another body down low, and Jordan Pickett was supposed to get some minutes at point.



After reading tonight's thread, a better question might be has Moser lost the fan base. Thats at least a question we can objectively answer. I'm afraid of what the results would be if I started that poll.

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If only Porter could have done something early in the year to counter this...

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Cigarboy sucks!

I really dont get it. The anti-PM momentum.Could the guys who left the program have made a difference? Could PM have done anything to prevent the injuries? Still dont know what the deal with Cully Payne was..was it PMs fault? Is recruiting bad? Was it PMs fault Omara chose to go to a better more established program? Does he not know what he is doing?Was he the reason his assistants left for better jobs? Does he embarrass the Universty?
I understand we all wanted to reclaim past treasures quickly but unless you have someone who can guarantee taking the Ramblers to the top i think you have to give PM six years. this is a young, inexperienced team with new assistant coaches who just took a step up in Conference who has had some serious injuries and defections.
I would not mind a good discussion on what you see as his positives and minuses. For me I need the trial to continue

I understand your thoughts, Smokey. I really do. But I think you need to see something. SOME improvement. SOME sign of learning from mistakes. Instead, I think we've seen the same things over and over. Porter doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes and he doesn't seem to teach the players to learn from the mistakes. The biggest head scratcher for me this year is his management of the team. Why did it take so long for King to get playing time? Same for Nixon. Where has Cody disappeared to and why? This coach has his favorites and he rides them hard. What happens when you rely on a core of 6 or 7? They are going to get tired...they are going to make mistakes...they are going to lose.

Now, I'm not calling for his head just yet. At the same time, I'm not in his corner. He needs to show me that he really can be a successful coach at the D-1 level. Currently, I do not believe that he can be successful at the D-1 level. I guess time will tell. In the interim, I'm getting sick of losing. For all the problems we had with Whitesell, at least he had a 21 win season and a 19 win season in back to back years. Sure, we underachieved in those years but at least it was something to watch. These past 3 years have been awful. I can't say it enough. I'm sick of losing.

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Cigarboy sucks!

Smoke - I'm not really sure, but I will comment on Payne. I dont know why he left or what happened, or know the kid at all. But I do know that he committed to depaul, re-opened, signed with Alabama, re-opened, went to Iowa, transferred. At some point, do you maybe say that this kid might not be a good idea? But he was LU's cornerstone in rebuilding. And then - we're going to sign his brother too? I'm not at all surprised he ended up elsewhere.

What's most discouraging to me? Last year's team, healthy in the first half of the year (think at DePaul, home vs MS St), is better than this team now. Other teams are going to get better, Loyola is going to have to improve at a much faster clip to compete a year from now.

Just looked at the box score and noticed that Devon Turk played ONE MINUTE.

Was he injured, or is he in Moser's dog house along with Nick Osborne?

Sorry, but the heavy minutes argument doesn't hold for me. It seemed somewhat obvious even before conference play began. I know Pickett (a freshman) was supposed to be able to back up White a little. But injuries happen to every team. Weren't there times when Dokubo could have played more than an offensive/defensive switch more consistently earlier in the year? Couldn't you have come up with a scheme where you play Turk more, use Crisman in a different way, or play Nixon more strategically? Same thing with the Osborne/O'Leary/Johnson/King minutes.

So now we're playing Bill Clark, London Dokubo, Tony Nixon and Joe Crisman at the same time? Saying that the heavy minutes have turned us into a non-competetitive team that loses games by an average of 15 points and has nothing left in the tank for the rest of the year is like complaining that your paycheck is gone three days after you got it, and you don't even have bus fare to get to work for the next week and a half. Even suggesting that as an excuse at this point makes me a little bit angry along with the heavy disappointment.

You guys will be fine, you have talent. There are 300 D1 programs that would love to have Doyle. Thomas is very good, I think he is just used incorrectly. My fear for the ramblers future is on the bench. Turk set the world on fire last time we played. This game he gets 1 minute on the court and then porter in his ear for the remainder of the game. I think Porter is a good recruiter, I was never impressed with his in game management. Good luck the rest of the way. I would love to see you guys in STL.