2025-2026 - NET, Rankings, Polls, Awards

[97spiderfan]

I love the discourse and welcome any different points of view but how were my comments suggesting the “one more year phase?” I’m saying let’s finish out this year before holding our final judgement of the 2025-2026 team and how Hardt will proceed since there’s a lot of basketball left to be played.

I also don’t understand why some can’t acknowledge that we had good years under Mooney and Hardt’s leadership. Hardt started in 2018 halfway through the basketball season. He wasn’t going to fire a coach after being here for 3 months. If there was a time to fire our coach, it would’ve been after 2018-2019 season. He did not. Perhaps thinking that the Gilly/Sherod/Golden core was our best bet and turned out to be a good decision. In the next 5 year stretch (2020-2024) we had a year that could’ve very well been an at-large cut short by COVID, a year with an A10 tournament win and NCAA win, and after those guys graduated we had a year that was a 23 win season and A10 regular season title. When was Hardt supposed to fire Mooney during this time?

Everything above can be true. What can also be true is that we do not look like a team that is trending in the right direction right now. Our high school recruiting has been sub par, we rely too much on 1-2 year transfers that have mostly been misses rather than hits regarding their success here, and our schedules have not instilled any confidence for a team that desires NCAA bids which is something we should aspire for every year. The Robins Center experience has been lacking and there does not seem to be any public urgency suggesting we want to redirect course, and while I also believe these things don’t need to always be stated publicly, it’s nice to hear once in a while.

So yes on one hand I believe Hardt has handled our men’s basketball situation as best he could under these circumstances (I also didn’t even get into the whole PQ factor which is a whole other can of worms), I also believe that under his leadership he made a great decision with football in this era where there pressure to devote more resources to football are becoming so vast and so quickly it can damage an entire athletic department. I think he’s made good to great coaching hires too and we’ve done a great job with student athletes graduating and having high GPAs which is also something I am proud of.

I also believe on the other hand that if we finish with yet another mediocre A10 record this year and where 3 out of the last 4 NIL years have been failures, something needs to be done about it and we can’t just pretend that things are going to be okay next year because of all the reasons I alluded to above, there’s no indication that it will be.

3 NCAA's in 21 years, one NCAA in the last 15 years. If you as an athletic director needs to look further than that as to your MBB head coach evaluation, which is your flagship sport, you are in the wrong field.

 

[*23*]

I felt Fordham was working hard to limit Johnston ... and couldn't. when he's aggressive he gets shots up.

We need Johnston, Daughtry, and Lopez to be getting shots. All three of those guys can score it. Not saying force feed them, but they can all score it. They are all shooting great from 3, Daughtry is leading the conference with 53% (WOW) and Walz 45%, and Lopez and Johnston at 43%. Those are Kenpom stats. No longer list David Thomas among the leaders, but he is shooting 48%. So the year we finally are resigned that guys are not going to shoot it as well as we hype them in the offseason, they actually do.

Walz, he needs to take any available open 3 (especially top of the key) , when he is not shooting a three, he needs to post up strong. He had a really nice post up late in the game. It's great that he likes to pass and have the ball at the top of the key, but if he can be effective in the low post that helps us more.

 

[Spiders4ever]

We need Johnston, Daughtry, and Lopez to be getting shots. All three of those guys can score it. Not saying force feed them, but they can all score it. They are all shooting great from 3, Daughtry is leading the conference with 53% (WOW) and Walz 45%, and Lopez and Johnston at 43%. Those are Kenpom stats. No longer list David Thomas among the leaders, but he is shooting 48%. So the year we finally are resigned that guys are not going to shoot it as well as we hype them in the offseason, they actually do.

Walz, he needs to take any available open 3 (especially top of the key) , when he is not shooting a three, he needs to post up strong. He had a really nice post up late in the game. It's great that he likes to pass and have the ball at the top of the key, but if he can be effective in the low post that helps us more.

That spin move was sweet

 

[vt4700]

3 NCAA's in 21 years, one NCAA in the last 15 years. If you as an athletic director needs to look further than that as to your MBB head coach evaluation, which is your flagship sport, you are in the wrong field.

I don't think Hardt should be judged on Mooney's 21 years. Hardt got here in January, 2018. He probably had one "makes sense" chance to fire Mooney, and that was after our 2019 season. But, he liked who we had coming back, felt we could win with them, and wanted to see how 2020 went. A decision which I 100% agreed with.

Well, we went 24-7 in 2020 so you are not firing a coach after that. Then, we had covid in 2021, and won an A-10 title and an NCAA tourney game in 22, so you definitely can't fire a coach after that. 23 wasn't as good, but I don't see how you can fire a coach 1 year after what we did in 2022. Then, we go 15-3 and win a regular season A-10 title in 24. Last year was an absolute disaster, but, considering 3 of the past 5 full seasons have seen us get 24, 23, and 23 wins, I think it made sense to at least see how this year turned out, which I agree with and which is all 17 has been saying while others keep putting words in his mouth.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

We need Johnston, Daughtry, and Lopez to be getting shots. All three of those guys can score it. Not saying force feed them, but they can all score it. They are all shooting great from 3, Daughtry is leading the conference with 53% (WOW) and Walz 45%, and Lopez and Johnston at 43%. Those are Kenpom stats. No longer list David Thomas among the leaders, but he is shooting 48%. So the year we finally are resigned that guys are not going to shoot it as well as we hype them in the offseason, they actually do.

Walz, he needs to take any available open 3 (especially top of the key) , when he is not shooting a three, he needs to post up strong. He had a really nice post up late in the game. It's great that he likes to pass and have the ball at the top of the key, but if he can be effective in the low post that helps us more.

yes, this. Add in Argabright, who gets to the line and maybe Harper who has been a gunner off the bench in his limited minutes and there is potential for offensive firepower. I like Tyne and feel badly pointing it out, but in the advanced stats on BBall reference, he's like 10/11 and 11/11 amongst rotation guys on the team in most things. Poor Off rating and poor Def rating. Also rates poorly on Off box +- and Def. box +- and win shares. His FT % is .05 (meaning of every 100 FG attempts he takes, he takes 5 FTs. For comparison Argabright is .89, meaning for every 100 FGA he would take 89 FTs. Monstrous difference in easy points created.) Tanner also not measuring well in advanced stats. AP poor on offense as suspected. Those number say those three guys should probably play fewer minutes, with Tyne the most noticeable amongst everyone.

The Belmont game - Tyne was out. The Fordham game - Tanner was out. Other guys played well in those minutes and led to two true road wins. Could be a coincidence, could be actually something. We are halfway through the year. League competition does not include any D3 teams. Cannot afford to give away any games out of loyalty.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/richmond/men/2026.html

 

[carolinaspider]

We need Johnston, Daughtry, and Lopez to be getting shots. All three of those guys can score it. Not saying force feed them, but they can all score it. They are all shooting great from 3, Daughtry is leading the conference with 53% (WOW) and Walz 45%, and Lopez and Johnston at 43%. Those are Kenpom stats. No longer list David Thomas among the leaders, but he is shooting 48%. So the year we finally are resigned that guys are not going to shoot it as well as we hype them in the offseason, they actually do.

Walz, he needs to take any available open 3 (especially top of the key) , when he is not shooting a three, he needs to post up strong. He had a really nice post up late in the game. It's great that he likes to pass and have the ball at the top of the key, but if he can be effective in the low post that helps us more.

I noticed in GW game Walz and Beagle had ball in lane, six feet from basketball with little pressure on them and they
both passed out. Quinn would have taken that shot without question.

 

[vt4700]

I noticed in GW game Walz and Beagle had ball in lane, six feet from basketball with little pressure on them and they
both passed out. Quinn would have taken that shot without question.

Unfortunately, that shot would have been a low percentage floater over a guy 4 inches shorter than him.

 

[97spiderfan]

The Belmont game - Tyne was out.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/richmond/men/2026.html

Interesting observation. Our best win, our starting PG did not play in.

 

[SFspidur]

Spiders jumped 11 spots in the NET to #109.

I also noticed Belmont leaped a whopping 18 spots to #54 with their win over UNI last night, so they're firmly a Q1 again. But if you can move up 18 spots based on the results of one game at this point in the season, you can also drop 18 spots that quickly, so nothing is for certain. But good to see them knocking on the door of top 50 again.

 

[spiders13]

Spiders jumped 11 spots in the NET to #109.

I also noticed Belmont leaped a whopping 18 spots to #54 with their win over UNI last night, so they're firmly a Q1 again. But if you can move up 18 spots based on the results of one game at this point in the season, you can also drop 18 spots that quickly, so nothing is for certain. But good to see them knocking on the door of top 50 again.

Does that include last night's win? the site I went to says 109 and 11-4

 

[SFspidur]

Does that include last night's win? the site I went to says 109 and 11-4

Yes.

11–4 against D-I competition that counts toward NET.

 

[Bergen Spider]

Spiders jumped 11 spots in the NET to #109.

I also noticed Belmont leaped a whopping 18 spots to #54 with their win over UNI last night, so they're firmly a Q1 again. But if you can move up 18 spots based on the results of one game at this point in the season, you can also drop 18 spots that quickly, so nothing is for certain. But good to see them knocking on the door of top 50 again.

Right, they don’t produce the net raw score so you have no idea how close they were to others before the day began. Just another one of many frustrations with that metric.

 

[spiders13]

Yes.

11–4 against D-I competition that counts toward NET.

oh yea lol. forgot we played NAIA schools haha