When the cream becomes visible

Sometimes it takes time - and good luck - for really good coaches to become known as really good coaches outside of a fairly small circle of their colleagues. Porter Moser falls into that category. He has been a good coach for a long time, and no doubt has gotten better with experience. But very few knew how good he was. Does he have even the fourth-best talent in the NCAA tournament? Of course not! not even close. But he will be no worse than fourth in the nation in the final tally the way basketball measures things.

Porter did not "all of a sudden" become a really good coach. All of a sudden circumstances converged so that a coach who had been good for a long time became visible to the public eye. We in Little Rock knew way back that Porter was a bright young coach. But he went to Illinois State and flopped. Then he served some time under one of the great minds of the game at Saint Louis. Then he got another chance as a head coach at Loyola, and wallowed in mediocrity for four seasons - two of them losing, one with 18 wins, and one with a CBI championship. Then all of a sudden he has (at least) 32 wins, a Final Four berth, and a shot at bringing the national championship back to Chicago. But he did not "all of a sudden" become one of the four best coaches in basketball. He probably is not that far up the ladder even now, but he is a whole lot better than the average basketball fan gave him credit for being before this season.

We fans need to scratch below the surface. The cream is there even before it rises to the top to become visible.