2025-2026 - NET, Rankings, Polls, Awards

sman said:
based on going 9-3 vs a crappy ooc schedule, Warren Nolan mathematically has us projected to go 6-12 in conference.

Predicted Conference Standings - 2026 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball | WarrenNolan.com

Atlantic 10 Conference Predicted Final Standings for Men's College Basketball with predicted RPIs and conference RPI
www.warrennolan.com www.warrennolan.com
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Nolan’s forecast looks way to top heavy based on the games I have watched. I don’t see that type of separation this year.

Torvik’s forecast matches my “eye test” and has UR in a group of 9-9 teams.

 
vt4700 said:
With two Q3 losses and one Q4 loss. Unreal. What exactly did we accomplish by playing such a garbage schedule? I can't think of one positive.
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What was accomplished is Hardt and Mooney being able to point to an enhanced W-L record at the end of the year as an indication that the program is back on the right track. So, we can rinse, wash, and repeat next year.

The only reason this schedule was done in my opinion, was to make Mooney look good.
 
97spiderfan said:
What was accomplished is Hardt and Mooney being able to point to an enhanced W-L record at the end of the year as an indication that the program is back on the right track. So, we can rinse, wash, and repeat next year.

The only reason this schedule was done in my opinion, was to make Mooney look good.
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Failed experiment
 
Spiderguy said:
The new fans from Tuckahoe Middle School might buy that as well as casual fans at RC there for entertainment. But real basketball fans know what's really going on here.
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For sure. What I find most insulting is that Hardt will offer this up as proof that Mooney has the program trending upward. Maybe he is that stupid to believe that but the real basketball fans are not fooled by that. Don't treat our fan base as dumb, which they do all of the time.
 
Hardt. Hardt. Hardt. Personally, believe he has made some astute coaching hires for the Spids across several sports. When it comes to MBB, believe his hands are tied. He sees, he recognizes, but he is not in full control. Has to parade out to defend the indefensible. Put lipstick on the pig.

No inside info. Just how read what I see.
 
97spiderfan said:
For sure. What I find most insulting is that Hardt will offer this up as proof that Mooney has the program trending upward. Maybe he is that stupid to believe that but the real basketball fans are not fooled by that. Don't treat our fan base as dumb, which they do all of the time.
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We are clearly trending down. There is a big difference in the 2019 season, when we were on our way to a 2nd straight bad season, but had Jacob, Grant, Nick, and Nate returning. All had already showed they could be great. Add Blake, who was ready to start as a transfer, and a great looking recruit in Tyler, and that is why I was one of the few on here who felt we were in a good spot and didn't want a coaching change.

5 of the 6 guys mentioned above were high school recruits and all 6 were gonna be juniors or younger with multiple years left at the start of the 2019-2020 season. Now? No comparison. Our high school recruiting has suffered and our talent level has dropped. Only Daughtry, a transfer, and Aiden, a recruit, are juniors or younger who compare to the 6 guys above. So, there is your difference right there. The portal can help and it needs to help big time, but right after this year, we will have 2 guys, not 6, that we feel real good about. That is a dramatic difference.
 
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I think that Hardt has been doing a pretty good job overall. The move to PL for football had some fair criticism and I think the timing of it too, warranted that criticism. But looking at it now, it’s hard to question that it wasn’t the right move with it being a better conference than CAA. The next question will be about whether the Patriot league loosens some of the self imposed restrictions to help it become a top FCS conference.

As far as other sports goes, Hardt had a home run hire with Roussell. While he didn’t hire Chemotti, our 2nd flagship sport, lacrosse, is reaching newer heights than ever before. Hardt got us at the 12.6 scholarship max which was a big part of that.

At worst, some of Hardt’s hires like for women’s soccer and baseball have resulted in the same output as its predecessors but others like women’s lacrosse, and women’s field hockey have had perhaps same/slightly better success, and trending the right direction.

Now with respect to men’s basketball, our most valued sport, I agree with KE and think Hardt has his hands tied some. Still, under Hardt’s leadership we won A10 tournament and A10 regular season. Like VT said, our program though is not trending in the right direction. I haven’t given up on this season yet and hope our guys play up to their potential, but if we fall flat again I am going to expect some kind of action from Hardt. Like I said in another thread, my fear is our men’s basketball program will become stale.
 
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Spider17 said:
I think that Hardt has been doing a pretty good job overall. The move to PL for football had some fair criticism and I think the timing of it too, warranted that criticism. But looking at it now, it’s hard to question that it wasn’t the right move with it being a better conference than CAA. The next question will be about whether the Patriot league loosens some of the self imposed restrictions to help it become a top FCS conference.

As far as other sports goes, Hardt had a home run hire with Roussell. While he didn’t hire Chemotti, our 2nd flagship sport, lacrosse, is reaching newer heights than ever before. Hardt got us at the 12.6 scholarship max which was a big part of that.

At worst, some of Hardt’s hires like for women’s soccer and baseball have resulted in the same output as its predecessors but others like women’s lacrosse, and women’s field hockey have had perhaps same/slightly better success, and trending the right direction.

Now with respect to men’s basketball, our most valued sport, I agree with KE and think Hardt has his hands tied some. Still, under Hardt’s leadership we won A10 tournament and A10 regular season. Like VT said, our program though is not trending in the right direction. I haven’t given up on this season yet and hope our guys play up to their potential, but if we fall flat again I am going to expect some kind of action from Hardt. Like I said in another thread, my fear is our men’s basketball program will become stale.
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I think if you’ve let your flagship sport remain mired in mediocrity, all the other good stuff is just background noise.

I can’t give him a pass.
 
MrTbone said:
I think if you’ve let your flagship sport remain mired in mediocrity, all the other good stuff is just background noise.
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I agree but 2020-2024 was pretty good overall. If we’re going to criticize the program and its leadership, I think it’s fair that we also give credit when credit is due. The only criticism Hardt should have gotten during that stretch in my opinion, was that he should not have given Mooney an extension for winning the A10 regular season in 2024. Mooney should’ve been rewarded but it should’ve been only financial bonuses. The 2022 contract extension was enough. Otherwise we backed ourselves in a corner unnecessarily.

So the fact we had pretty good success during that stretch, even though some may not want to admit it, and Hardt probably has his hands tied because of PQ, means keeping the status quo which at that time was rightfully so in my opinion.

The thing now is, unless we right the ship in a big way, our basketball program does not look like one that is heading in the right direction and able to sustain success in a meaningful way. It is not good for us to be dependent on transfers every which has been hit or miss and with the exception of 2023-2024 our other 2 years (this year TBD) of NIL/new transfer portal of not sitting out a year, have been misses. Our record is only good this year because of our soft schedule. Everybody knows that. At least everyone who follows the program at even a semi-meaningful level. So if we have another year with mediocre A10 results, needing to revamp our entire roster again with a history of missing on transfers/high school recruits, and putting out another lousy schedule, I’ll absolutely criticize Hardt for that.

Until then, I can’t fault him too much for the decisions or lack of decisions he’s made so far and think he’s done a pretty good job.
 
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Spider17 said:
I agree but 2020-2024 was pretty good overall. If we’re going to criticize the program and its leadership, I think it’s fair that we also give credit when credit is due. The only criticism Hardt should have gotten during that stretch in my opinion, was that he should not have given Mooney an extension for winning the A10 regular season in 2024. Mooney should’ve been rewarded but it should’ve been only financial bonuses. The 2022 contract extension was enough. Otherwise we backed ourselves in a corner unnecessarily.

So the fact we had pretty good success during that stretch, even though some may not want to admit it, and Hardt probably has his hands tied because of PQ, means keeping the status quo which at that time was rightfully so in my opinion.

The thing now is, unless we right the ship in a big way, our basketball program does not look like one that is heading in the right direction and able to sustain success in a meaningful way. It is not good for us to be dependent on transfers every which has been hit or miss and with the exception of 2023-2024 our other 2 years (this year TBD) of NIL/new transfer portal of not sitting out a year, have been misses. Our record is only good this year because of our soft schedule. Everybody knows that. At least everyone who follows the program at even a semi-meaningful level. So if we have another year with mediocre A10 results, needing to revamp our entire roster again with a history of missing on transfers/high school recruits, and putting out another lousy schedule, I’ll absolutely criticize Hardt for that.

Until then, I can’t fault him too much for the decisions or lack of decisions he’s made so far and think he’s done a pretty good job.
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I mean this with all respect, but you’re still in the “one more year” phase. I think you’ll come around if MBB is what you care about. But I can concede he’s done some ok things with other coaching positions.
 
MrTbone said:
I mean this with all respect, but you’re still in the “one more year” phase. I think you’ll come around if MBB is what you care about. But I can concede he’s done some ok things with other coaching positions.
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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.
 
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Spider17 said:
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.
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Re-read what you typed and there is the answer. Or was your question rhetorical?

There are a bunch of people on this Forum that have heard the “one more year” cry for nearly 10 years. Of course one can find highlights in 10 years, that is a long time.

The point is that whatever happens this year is just another data point and it isn’t going to change anything. What you started out with which is a comparison to the last time there was a groundswell for a coaching change to now says everything. This year’s team is nothing like the 2018-2019 team. The 18-19 team had potential and this year’s team LOSES an entire team (5 players). Next year will be another totally different team. So you are either in on “rinse and repeat” or you are ready to start anew.

Hope springs eternal. A growing number of us want new leadership.
 
RichmondNative said:
Re-read what you typed and there is the answer. Or was your question rhetorical?

There are a bunch of people on this Forum that have heard the “one more year” cry for nearly 10 years. Of course one can find highlights in 10 years, that is a long time.

The point is that whatever happens this year is just another data point and it isn’t going to change anything. What you started out with which is a comparison to the last time there was a groundswell for a coaching change to now says everything. This year’s team is nothing like the 2018-2019 team. The 18-19 team had potential and this year’s team LOSES an entire team (5 players). Next year will be another totally different team. So you are either in on “rinse and repeat” or you are ready to start anew.

Hope springs eternal. A growing number of us want new leadership.
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To me “one more year” is saying let’s start looking at 2026-2027. I’m saying let’s finish out the year that already started and is halfway done already.

As far as your other point about the fact at least the 18-19 team had potential which we all saw and I’m sure something Hardt considered as well. Whereas now we have no solid foundation of freshman/sophomores to build upon, and every year will be 4-5 new players where we will have no idea how they gel and play under Mooney’s system — I completely agree with. This is where I think a fundamental difference now vs. 7-8 years ago. Back then, there was a belief by fans and Hardt that our core players would be something special. Hardt took a chance on that and it seemed to have paid off. Now, there’s none of that. We are going into every year having no idea what to expect and as of right now 2 of 3 NIL years have been bad. Mooney claims he wants to build the team with guys who are here all 4-5 years by developing them, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

And while we’ve gotten very good transfers over the years, it hasn’t materialized with enough success where I’ll have faith that our staff can find A10 caliber transfers players year in and year out. Couple that with our super soft schedules we’ve had back-to-back years to inflate our team’s ego, the direction now vs. the direction in 2018-2019 is totally different.
 
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Well said Native, we have been at this inflection point many times in the past and moon does just enough to hang around. Just enough by our low standards anyway. The issue is that his "plan" to build via HS recruiting looks on very shaky ground based on his HS recruiting record of late. He hit gold with King and that class but the portal is a trap shoot. Like the players this year, skilled offensively, but so below par in defense just see no path ti an A10 run or ability to win against strong OOC teams.
Have a feeling next season will be a lot of the HS recruits being rolled out. Buys him another season again. They just need to show some competency, and then 27-28 is the proving ground. There will be no re-evaluation after this season as 17 seems to indicate. Mooney will be judged on 27-28, and even then the landscape may be completely different and new excuses will be in place.
 
*23* said:
Well said Native, we have been at this inflection point many times in the past and moon does just enough to hang around. Just enough by our low standards anyway. The issue is that his "plan" to build via HS recruiting looks on very shaky ground based on his HS recruiting record of late. He hit gold with King and that class but the portal is a trap shoot. Like the players this year, skilled offensively, but so below par in defense just see no path ti an A10 run or ability to win against strong OOC teams.
Have a feeling next season will be a lot of the HS recruits being rolled out. Buys him another season again. They just need to show some competency, and then 27-28 is the proving ground. There will be no re-evaluation after this season as 17 seems to indicate. Mooney will be judged on 27-28, and even then the landscape may be completely different and new excuses will be in place.
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Lose to Fordham today and circle the wagons
 
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