Assistant Coaches

[shyhyme]

I find joy in how much older he looks wearing that stupid red! That is all.

[25yearstreak]

A great way to melt goodwill built up in a hurry.

[JerseyCityRambler]

Probably looking into it too much, but Clayton Custer has retweeted a few tweets from official OU accounts. Has been silent on Coach Drew's hiring (and not sure I saw him at the press conference). Wonder if he is following Moser to Norman.

On a separate note, I think I need to unfollow Porter and/or block official OU accounts. Getting pretty annoying. He retweeted a OU basketball post yesterday and said "Home." Then today, some video of him touring the facilities and looking at a bunch of trophies and he said "This is high-level. We talked about collecting jewelry at Loyola....THIS is collecting jewelry." Well, yea, Porter....that kind of jewelry is collected when a coach stays and a program dominates for a long period of time. All that plus him talking about culture and all that...it's too much.

As others have said, he is nothing to us going forward. Will focus on our guys--the players, Coach Drew, the staff, the former players.

I wouldn't mind moving on from Custer and avoiding bringing on Shanks or Richardson (??). Those guys are all great, but I don't want to get too incestuous. The CBB world is a massive space, and we have a young + inexperienced head coach who, as far as I know, has only played/coached in the Midwest. I think we need to build on what Porter created, but not be totally defined by/obsessed with it. What worked for Porter for the past 10 years may not be what works here for the next 10. Maybe we bring in a former D1 HC as an asst. Maybe we bring in an AAU-connected stud recruiter. I think there are a lot of options.

[RamblerNation]

Oh, you definitely want to UNFOLLOW Porter.

I clicked him off two days ago. Just couldn't take the double speak. I understand it. I'm not mad. I just don't need to see a whole mess of Okie U BS on my Twitter feed. A big part of why I love Loyola is because it's a Mid-Major. I've always had a healthy contempt for the Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, PAC 12, etc. I just don't need to learn more about a privileged program that spends tens of millions of tax payer dollars on sports while delivering mediocre academic results.

I look forward to the day that Loyola plays Porter's team and the day he comes back to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of 2018. But, all this other stuff belongs to the people who support his new team. It has nothing to do with me.

[25yearstreak]

One of the advantages of hiring an alum or a former player is that they, for the most part, have a sentimental connection with the school.
Porter played at Creighton, coached at Little Rock Arkansas and ISU and was an assistant at St.Louis. So he had no prior ties to Loyola.
Most of this on this board do. We bleed Maroon and Gold but as coach he was loyal to his employer but did not have Loyola blood.
He was so to speak a stranger in a foreign land.
So when it came time and the stars aligned for him, he took the jump and left. On to a new land. He is no more a lifeblood Sooner than he is a Pope. If push came to shove, he would probably be termed a BlueJay.

That said, I think for the most part the farewell could have been handled better.
Thursday, Friday negotiations and then boom, Saturday off to Norman.
It would have been better to have a farewell video where he thanked everyone. We deserved that. His first four years were not a success for sure and there was no hue and cry for him to be terminated. No alums stepped forward to pay off his contract, Indeed he got an extension and a raise.

Instead there was a rush out the door, a slam, bam and out of here and an afterthought post on Ramblermania. or tweet or whatever.
The old proverbial note on the pillow with the "its been great" except ten years there were a lot of memories, some bad but most good.
It was not the decision to leave that sticks in the craw but the whoosh out the door.
That was not typical Porter. I think in part he was just overwhelmed by the rapid ascent to the "dream job" I don't think he meant the
"this is high level" and "we talked about Jewelry at Loyola but....this"
I doubt it was meant to be the gross slight that it sounded like. He deserves the benefit of the doubt.
He was hired to do a job and he did it better than anyone could have anticipated. He wore the Maroon and Gold and that was great.
It was hard to see him in the red and white shirt and say all the great things about OU and that was what he should do.
I think deep down Loyola will always be special to him because lets face it, Loyola was his last chance. He knows that.

We are used to having coaches fired: Sullivan, Rey, Burmeister, Farmer and Whitesell.
So this is a new experience. Someone "fired" us and so it stings.
But I firmly believe that the program is on a solid foundation. The Sweet 16 run was vital because it proved The Final Four was not a fluke. And so we move on. This day was inevitable because all journeys end, some sooner (no pun intended) than we anticipate or would like. But Porter left a solid foundation in place and prepared Bryan and now Drew to be head coaches. Their success or failure will be on them but Porter mentored them well.

I took a few days to "mourn" so to speak but the ten years were great despite the last 72-96 hours.
I will always admire Porter and remember him as a great coach, person and a great friend. And so one day if he returns to the Joe as an opposing coach or to receive the RECOGNITION THAT HE DESERVES, I hope to be there to give him a thunderous ovation that he deserves.

So, lets rally behind Drew, the new coach. He will do just fine. The days of Loyola being a doormat are over for good.

The term Sooner refers to the 1889 land rush when Oklahoma land was open to stake claims. There was a set starting time for the land rush to start but some enterprising people snuck out and pounded stakes in the ground early "staking their claims", a bit early.
Hence the term "Sooners". It was at the time not meant to be a compliment.

[Chiguy14]

Nice post 25. I'm ready to move on from Porter. He is irrelevant unless he schedules a game against us.

[JCT]

The term Sooner refers to the 1889 land rush when Oklahoma land was open to stake claims. There was a set starting time for the land rush to start but some enterprising people snuck out and pounded stakes in the ground early "staking their claims", a bit early.
Hence the term "Sooners". It was at the time not meant to be a compliment.

Glad you pointed this out, 25. This program named their sports teams after the people who cheated on the people who were reneging on a treaty that gave land to Native Americans. They are literally named for cheaters who cheated on cheaters who were ripping off people who had already been cheated.

I was reminded of this plenty of times this week when they had a "what have YOU got to be upset about" and "just shut up and mind your business, you stupid big city Yankee" attitude on Twitter. Jeez.

Yes, I have a background in Central Oklahoma, too. In 1987, I was hired to host a morning show at KLTE FM in Oklahoma City. The show only lasted about three months before we realized it wasn't working-- I was doing large market Album Rock humor on an Adult Contemporary station in a rural-minded market. I was hired immediately by a Classic Rock station that was located in the suburb of Moore, OK in between Oklahoma City and Norman (I think the studio was wiped out in one of the several Moore tornadoes that flattened the town). But I decided to move back to Chicago.

But anyway, one of the things I did at KLTE was hosting a charity fundraising event with at the time Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer. All I remember from that event was that Switzer was shockingly tiny and he had no personality whatsoever while not speaking on stage.

And the final thing that makes me angry about it is.... the money they gave to Poter to leave was FOOTBALL MONEY. It used to be that big sports programs were either football schools or basketball schools. Texas and Oklahoma and Florida never gave a damn about men's basketball until the mid-late 1970s. By the mid-80s, they realized they could use their football money to poach the best coaches from the flagship programs of long-time, historical basketball schools.

[natetheskate]

Moving on...my loyalty has always been to the University and the team.....but what a different world....some big time boosters over there, the Gaylords 18 million..lots over a million.......PM will have the TIP IN club behind him......but the lunch with Lou club....will probably have to be changed....I am going with Pate' with Porter......

[swellafelon]

Liam Robbins, the 7 foot center who transferred from Drake to Minnesota, is in the Transfer Portal again.
He just followed Matt Gordon and Cameron Krutwig on Twitter. Two ways to interpret this:

1. He is interested in the Ramblers, or

2. He is interested in Oklahoma, and both Gordon and Krutwig are headed to OU.

Re Custer, I agree with 2011 that his Twitter account suggests he might be Sooner- bound too.

[Rambler88]

I don't share the same feelings of loss.

Since we haven't had a head coach leave for a better job, the experience is new. However, unless a coach retires, there is never a good bye press conference -for a variety of reasons.

Porter did us right for 10 year. He showed the world we are not one-hit wonders. He crushed a number one seed and it was Illinois - what could be sweeter.

He also left the program in much better condition than when he arrived. He left us Drew Valentine and raided Northwestern for a coach. I have no bad feelings for him. If we fail, it is our fault.

I hope he has a top ten program at OU and I hope we beat his ass in the tournament.