Saw some posts earlier about potential replacements for Mooney. I used to always be looking at people we could bring in that would make sense but kind of gave up on it after it became clear no one at UR was interested in firing mooney. Wishful thinking but I feel like this really might be his last year and that has me thinking about potential replacements again. I’ll throw a name at yall and see what yall think; Griff Aldrich. Current lead assistant at uva and took the job because he’s former teammates with Ryan Odom at Hampden Sydney. He was the head coach at longwood before and did a fantastic job there. Took them to two tournaments which I’m pretty sure are the only appearances they have since moving up to D1. He has a law degree as well so I know that would be appealing to people at the school. Feel like he’s a very realistic candidate for us that has proven success at a very difficult job and has experience on a power 5 staff which is always a plus. If I were our AD that would be my top candidate.
Fire Mooney
- Thread starter Spideralways
- Start date
*23*
All A-10 player
Interesting. I remember the stories about him when he took over Longwood. Was just wondering if he was still there, but never looked it up. I like thinking outside the box. Hell, he might even get us a game against UVA. If I recall was pretty good at getting some talent to Longwood.
He has a win at the Robins Center
longwoodlancers.com
#OnTheRise: Lancers Stomp Spiders 63-58 to Improve to 2-0 - Longwood University Athletics
Longwood shocks Richmond on home court to open season with second straight victory.
longwoodlancers.com
I brought up Griff on old board years ago prior to the 2022 run. He was talked about. Don’t worry he’s in the spreadsheet. Solid name. Shouldn’t be at top of list but that’s no shot at him it’s just that there r better candidates imo. I don’t think the Spiderfans hiring committee is ready to meet yet. We’re still in therapy from last time.
Fatherspider
Walk-on
There is a great hockey fan call… “Somebody hit somebody, anybody”. For the UR admin its… “somebody hire somebody, anybody.”
97spiderfan
Starter
When we get a chance to hire a new head coach, we go out and find the best damn mid major coach and hire that person. This is what VCU does every time they have an opening and that is why they hit a home run with every coaching hire. We don't need to find some local guy with a connection or good academic fit for UR BS, that we tried with Mooney. Just hire the best mid major coach on the market that year. This isn't rocket science, unless we try to make it such, which we probably will.
Aldrich left Longwood to join Odom at UVA. They are best friends, and Aldrich would not have left Longwood for any other opportunity. He turned down other head coaching jobs while at Longwood, and is doing GM type stuff for UVA as well as coaching. I don't see any reason why he would leave there and come here.
In my opinion it comes down to the Athletic Director and the expectations that are set on the AD by I assume the Board of Trustees. The trouble with Men’s Basketball started with the “landmark decision” by Jim Miller to offer a 10 year contract to Mooney after the 2011 tournament run. The idea of course was that this would establish stability and success for years to come. It didn’t work out that way and now the subsequent ADs have opted to continue “stability” over excellence. VCU is striving to get back to the Final Four. UR is happy to get to the NCAAs every once in awhile (the goal gets watered down more and more each year).
After this year, Spiders will have made 1 NCAA in the last 15 years (thanks to a miracle 4 day run through the A10 tournament). Think about that! Somehow, that is good with the administration. So much so that the coach received an extension 2 years ago. It is so ridiculous that it is hard to believe.
I don't believe you have to be a mid-major coach. I would like a tract record, look at DT when we hired him, essentially a HS coach with a few D-I assistant years, he did pretty good. /s
So accurate. And the optic of that is awful. It defies logic. But in our case, our powers are content. Says plenty about them.
gospidersgo
Walk-on
And ZERO indication that a corner is being turned or things are trending up - the exact opposite actually.
Big pay raise, money talks.
This right here. Something I’ve NEVER been able to understand is how the school is paying mooney close to 3 million for such bad results. Serious question is there a worse return on investment as far as coach salary and what a program spends on basketball for such little results as us? At least at our level within the A10 the answer to that has to be no. Why is the school paying him that much? If the school is fine with just making the tournament once every 15 years, graduating your kids, not doing anything to embarrass the school all that then the coach should be getting paid like 800k tops instead of nearly triple that. One thing I do worry about if we ever do move on is that we might only offer a much lower amount to the next coach because maybe they learned with Mooney and if what I said above is really all they want then they might see that they don’t need to pay a lot for that. This would just limit the potential hiring pool. I’d like to think that wouldn’t happen but who knows at this point. Would be nice if the AD or anyone would just come out sometime and tell us what they want, some actual goals instead of just “we want to be competitive”. What does that even mean? It’s all too vague.
Kneepad McKinney
Walk-on
Two words: Bobby Hurley
, who matriculated well before he was there.I meant at the A10 higher level mid major level there can’t be anyone who has a worse return on investment on men’s basketball than us.
I've asked this same question in various ways previously. The best answers provided is that we don't operate our basketball program in a business manner. If that's the case, ROI isn't a factor. That's great. Whatever we learned in the Business School at UR doesn't apply to the way the bb program is run. So maybe it's just play money for Hardt to administer & PQ and other donors to mess with as a hobby like a Monopoly Board or a game of chance. I really don't understand the thinking behind the basketball program admin & financial thinking, but the decision making is certainly on par with what we see on the basketball court.
Eight Legger
Bench player
My first call is to Josh Merkel at Randolph-Macon. The guy is a flat-out winner, has his team ranked in the top-15 every season, recruits well at his level, demands excellence of his guys on and off the court. He's also a super engaging guy, very personable to everyone he comes in contact with, a motivator, and he coached with Beilein at West Virginia, he won a natty at RMC a few years ago, he knows this area. He will be a star, and I'd rather it be with us than against us. I know it's a little bit of a reach to bring a D3 guy, but he's really a D1 guy who has just chosen to stay at D3 for awhile.
Absolutely not. Gotta be careful with guys like that. If you’ve been somewhere like Macon or a smaller school for that long there’s a reason for that. I’m a Virginia Tech fan as well and we have learned that the hard way with Mike Young. He was at Wofford forever and we’ve found out there’s a reason why he was before we took a chance. He’s not cut out to coach power 5 basketball and clearly other schools knew that back in the day. Don’t make the same mistake with Merkel.
