Mid-Major Monday--How Loyola Responded to a Final Four Appearance
Mid-Major Monday!
It's true, we've run out of sections of The Cinderella Code to distribute. I was overwhelmed by the positive responses I got from you all who read and enjoyed it, so thank you very much for that. And don't you worry, there is plenty more mid-major content on the horizon. I can't announce anything yet, but hope to very soon in regards to what you can expect from me this upcoming season.
In the meantime, below is a long(ish) feature story I published for The Athletic in April on the aftermath of Loyola's Final Four run. For those that liked The Cinderella Code, I think you'll find the reporting I did here very relevant (and several sections very familiar, as I stole some research almost directly from my thesis...don't tell my editors).
This was actually a pretty memorable story to work on for me, because it came during a time when many were wondering why Loyola had not come to terms with head coach Porter Moser on a new contract (read: raise) to give fans and recruits some peace of mind that he was sticking around. During my interview with Moser, I asked him about the negotiations, and he replied with something like "well, I'm meeting with them later today and should have some good news for you."
Essentially I had stumbled upon a pretty big scoop, for the first time in my reporting career. I had no idea what to do with it. It seemed irresponsible to report that there was going to be an extension signed later in the day, because if the sides met and couldn't finalize something I would be incorrect. And there was no way I could get a second source to confirm. But I had information that no one else had, and I felt like a million bucks! Is this what Woj or Schefter feels like all the time?
Even though I waited to tweet and eventually got beat to the punch by a Chicago Tribune reporter, I had interviews with AD Steve Watson and Moser in my back pocket and a pretty substantive story that was ready to roll. As is the way of the internet, most readers skipped right past this exclusive material and seized on one quote I got from Cameron Krutwig saying he didn't go to school for the entire month of March. C'est la vie.
Last but not least, a couple quick updates to things mentioned in the story below. I was out at the construction site for the new $18.5 million practice facility today, and there's definitely evidence of some progress. The latest I've heard is that it's still on schedule to be done by August 2019. And as for the recruit mentioned below, I've now met big Frank and can confirm that he is, in fact, very big. Will be interesting to see if Moser decides to play him next to Krutwig down low, or if they will take turns at the center position. My best guess at a starting lineup would be Custer, Townes, Williamson, Krutwig (locks), and then Aher Uguak, a transfer from New Mexico that everyone I've spoken with is very excited about.
As always, thanks for reading! Would love to hear your feedback, and don't be scared to...ya know...share this newsletter with someone? Just a thought.
Happy Monday!
The original version of the below story was published at:
https://theathletic.com/329191/2018/04/27/the-memories-still-vivid-loyola-is-reaping-the-rewards-from-its-magical-march-run/
The memories still vivid, Loyola is reaping the rewards from its magical March run
When the final buzzer sounded on Loyola Chicago’s magical season, the real work began for Steve Watson. As the athletic director of a mid-major program that had just completed a run to the Final Four, Watson found himself in uncharted waters. Luckily he knew exactly who to call. Watson played his final two years at Bowling Green under Jim Larrañaga, a man who knows a thing or two about taking a mid-major to the Final Four. After Bowling Green, Larrañaga moved on to George Mason and led the Patriots to the sport’s biggest stage in 2006.
“He really opened my eyes to something,” says Watson. “He said, ‘If you want to continue to have success, the best way to do it is to continue to invest in the basketball program.'”
The construction projects are much-needed and eye-opening: breaking ground on a practice facility, installing new video boards in Gentile Arena and renovating the basketball locker rooms. But nothing is a bigger priority than the retention of a successful coaching staff.
On Wednesday, Watson and coach Porter Moser agreed to a new multiyear contract that extends through the 2025-26 season. Financial details weren’t disclosed, but the wording of new contract suggests a salary bump in addition to more years.
“It is nice to reward Porter not just for an outstanding season, but also for the job he has done during his time here,” Watson said after the extension was announced.
Moser, 49, has been with the program since 2011, and while Watson had made it clear during the NCAA Tournament that he was intent on hammering out a new deal, there’s a perfectly good reason why it took so long to complete. Quite simply, Watson and Moser couldn’t find the time to get together in the same room.
If you thought life would slow down for Moser after the whirlwind of an NCAA Tournament run, you don’t know him very well. The Ramblers returned home from San Antonio the day after their loss to Michigan, a Sunday, and the following Thursday he was on the road at the beginning of the live recruiting period. Throw in speaking engagements, fundraising events and media requests, all while juggling responsibilities with his four children, and you start to get the picture.
“It’s been crazy,” Moser says. “It 100 percent hasn’t slowed down, it’s almost increased. It’s hard for me, because I like to say yes to everything. I’ve had to learn to say no because it’s a recruiting period.
He is quick to add: “My mind went straight to recruiting to sustain this.”
In years past, Moser says most recruits he spoke with hadn’t heard of Loyola. Some would go so far as to ask if the school was even in Division I. That’s no longer an issue. When Moser walks into a gym, people know who he is. Now everyone has seen the Ramblers play, and many have become fans of the unselfish style of play they exhibited this season. Loyola was already showing up on the radar of higher-profile recruits, including Franklin Agunanne, a 6-foot-8 four-star prospect from powerhouse prep school La Lumiere in La Porte, Ind., who signed last September. There was also a noticeable uptick in interest during the April live recruiting period.
But Moser is not the only one whose level of celebrity has increased since the Final Four. The players have walked around Chicago like conquering heroes, receiving a standing ovation at a Bulls game and an invitation to throw out the first pitch at the Cubs’ home opener. At Wrigley Field the crowd of photograph-seeking fans was so overwhelming that a few players needed a security escort to get to their seats from the press box after they sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch. At a restaurant after the game, it was more of the same, as the players could hardly get in a bite without being approached.
“When we first got back, just walking through campus or Chicago in general, people would come up to us like, Oh, my God. I love you guys. Can I get a picture?'” says junior guard Marques Townes, “We were all upset that we didn’t get to the national championship, but once we came back to the city and to campus and we started seeing everybody, and alumni were telling us how much we had made people happy and proud to be alumni of Loyola, that’s when we realized we really had done something special.”
What the players may not realize is just how vast the economic impact would be on the university. The NCAA pays each conference for the number of tournament games its schools appear in; Loyola’s run to the Final Four netted the Missouri Valley Conference a cool $8.5 million. After covering travel expenses, that purse is split evenly among the member schools and paid out over a six-year span. In the MVC’s case, that amounts to about $140,000 per year for each of the 10 programs. That’s more than any of the schools receive from their television rights deals with ESPN. It can be transformative. Just ask Loyola. When it joined the Missouri Valley in 2013, it began receiving payouts from Wichita State’s 2013 Final Four run as well as from the tournament successes of the other members of the league, feeding nearly $500,000 to the basketball program each season. That money was allocated to recruiting, facilities, coaching salaries and upgraded travel to away games. Five years later the Ramblers made a Final Four run of their own.
The direct payout is only part of the windfall. There are increased alumni donations and free advertising to account for as well. After George Mason’s run in 2006, the university commissioned a study that found the school may have received up to $677 million in free media coverage. A 2013 study by the Harvard Business School looked into what’s popularly referred to as “The Flutie Effect,” a reference to applications at Boston College rising 30 percent after the last-play 1984 football victory over Miami led by quarterback Doug Flutie. It found that both the quantity and quality of applications to a university rise significantly after a prominent athletic event, particularly from prospective out-of-state students.
Watson is already seeing the results: “I was talking with someone who works with our admissions, and he said we’re going to have to change everything, blow up our model; this is going to change the way we do business forever.”
The players, meanwhile, have more practical challenges to deal with in the aftermath of March Madness.
“One thing I’ve learned is that it’s hard to go to class after you make it to the Final Four,” says junior guard Clayton Custer. On top of all the appearances and obligations, his phone wouldn’t stop buzzing. He reports receiving up to 400 text messages after each Loyola tournament victory, a pace that continued into the first week back at school. To combat the anxiety that unread text messages give him, he began to copy and paste short thank you messages to make sure he responded to them all. Then there’s the issue of making up for almost three full weeks off. After all that missed class, freshman center Cameron Krutwig expected a rude awakening when he returned.
“I basically didn’t go to school in the month of March,” Krutwig says. “And it’s a little awkward because [my classmates] were giving me applause. The teacher would stop class and say, ‘Before we start, let’s congratulate Cameron.’ I’m like, OK, let’s get on with class.”
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Now almost a month removed from the Final Four, the frenzy has calmed a bit. The requests for selfies have slowed. The appearances are less frequent. But the memories of big shots are only a click away. Townes can’t even count the number of times he’s rewatched his game-winning shot against Nevada in the Sweet 16.
“There’s so much media and technology, I can’t get away from it. I scroll through something and I just see it,” he says with a laugh, before admitting to looking up the clip up a couple of times on his own. “I’m still like, Wow, that really happened. We did that.”
Townes wasn’t the only one eager to relive the madness. The Loyola basketball postseason banquet, usually held in a multipurpose room of the school’s student center with 100 or so friends and family members, was moved to the main floor of Gentile Arena when administrators realized more than 500 supporters would be in attendance. The night began, of course, with a prayer from Sister Jean. The 98-year-old chaplain blessed the meal and prayed that God would help fans buy season ticket packages. The festivities included acknowledgements for the support staff, emotional speeches from the seniors who turned the program around and a highlight video that Moser notes was a little longer than normal. The final speech resonated most.
Moser asked all of his returning players to stand. He told them he had a new catchphrase, a new motto to add to the dozens written on the Wall of Culture in the team’s locker room.
“Keep the main thing the main thing.”
He got the phrase from Pat Riley, a reminder not unlike the one Larrañaga gave Watson, to stay focused on what got the team to that point. Loyola’s “main thing” was its culture, Moser said, built by seniors such as Ben Richardson, Donte Ingram and Aundre Jackson. Values such as unselfishness, unity and trust were on full display during March Madness.
“You’re now the keepers of the culture,” Moser told the players.
Loyola returns plenty of talent next season. Custer is the reigning MVC Player of the Year. Krutwig was the freshman of the year. Townes and Lucas Williamson should be all-conference caliber guards. They all know following up a dream season is never easy. But just as they did all year, the Ramblers are looking forward. No finish line. Though the team has taken a break from official workouts, the players are already back in the gym and the weight room.
“We don’t really want to change anything,” says Townes. “You’re kind of like, What could be next?”