Porter Moser to DePaul? Rumors persist, but leaving OU basketball would be a step down
Update: Porter Moser responds
Last month, OU men’s basketball coach Porter Moser shot down rumors connecting him to the vacant DePaul job.
“I haven’t talked to anybody,” Moser said. “I’m not even thinking about anything. I’m just absolutely not even engaging in anything like that … All rumor mill fodder. Nothing, nothing true.”
Still, the rumors persist.
After DePaul fired Tony Stubblefield midseason, Moser, an Illinois native and former Loyola Chicago coach, was a natural hypothetical candidate — a Chicago guy for DePaul, a Chicago school.
I don’t have a clue if there’s mutual interest or none at all between Moser and DePaul, but I do know this: DePaul, despite its fertile recruiting ground, is one of the worst high-major coaching jobs in America.
No one under 40 can remember DePaul being good.
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The school has one NCAA Tournament win since 1990 and only four tournament appearances in that 30-year stretch. That’s an average of one NCAA Tournament bid every seven and a half years.
DePaul is the worst job in the Big East, and it’s not debatable.
The Blue Demons went 0-20 in the Big East this season. DePaul went 9-7 in the Big East in 2006-07 — its lone season with a winning record in the conference since joining the Big East in 2005!
DePaul’s glory days under Ray Meyer are but a distant memory. Meyer, who coached DePaul for a whopping 42 years from 1943-84, won 67% of his 1,078 games. He led the Blue Demons to a pair of Final Fours … 36 years apart.
Joey Meyer succeeded his dad at DePaul, coaching the Blue Demons from 1985-97.
DePaul made the NCAA Tournament in each of Joey Meyer’s first five seasons. The Blue Demons missed the tournament in each of Meyer’s final five seasons.
Can anyone name the only DePaul coach in school history not named Meyer to win an NCAA Tournament game?
That distinction belongs to Dave Leitao, who had two stints as DePaul’s head coach.
Does Moser really want to try to become the second?
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Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Porter Moser to DePaul? Rumors persist, but job is worse than Oklahoma
