Mojo-Spider
Bench player
John O’Connor
Go Spiders!
Go Spiders!
Future Guests on Spiders Sound Off
- Thread starter UR Fan 2
- Start date
Spider2020
Bench player
You’re probably right that he would just give PR answers, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he agreed to a short interview. I thought about PQ too, but that feels unrealistic
I did reach out to him on Facebook
ManiBenton
Bench player
https://tenor.com/view/dog-meme-gif-14921460074016775167 - UR Fan2 when he saw the first comment on this thread
When I first met him I asked if he would come on and he said yes. That was several months back. On Friday I emailed him for first time hoping he would pick up on the Ungerer story to increase its scope, and asked if he woud come on. Will let you know what he says.
Spider17
All A-10 player
What I shared from another thread:
- Collegian writer for student perspective
- John O’Connor
- Bob Black
- John Hardt
- Former Spider great players like TJ, Gilly, KA, etc.
- Current men’s and women’s players
- Roussell
- Kevin Hallock
- Kenny Atkinson
- Inviting podcasters from other A10 teams before we play them those games. La Salle for instance had two guys that are pretty active.
- Kevin Eastman
- Margaret Stender, she’s a UR alum who is current president of Chicago Sky
- Johnny Newman specifically with former spider greats.
- Collegian writer for student perspective
- John O’Connor
- Bob Black
- John Hardt
- Former Spider great players like TJ, Gilly, KA, etc.
- Current men’s and women’s players
- Roussell
- Kevin Hallock
- Kenny Atkinson
- Inviting podcasters from other A10 teams before we play them those games. La Salle for instance had two guys that are pretty active.
- Kevin Eastman
- Margaret Stender, she’s a UR alum who is current president of Chicago Sky
- Johnny Newman specifically with former spider greats.
PittFieldDreams
Bench player
Spiders Then and Now
Johnny Newman
Jarod Stevenson
Mike Winiecki
Curtis Blair
Johnny Newman
Jarod Stevenson
Mike Winiecki
Curtis Blair
The student dont go because the product sucks. We are a losing team and a losing program at this point. People like watching a winner. If we were having a season like St Louis with a motivated coach that reached out to the students, they would be at the games. Fix the product and overall attendance would go up. Pretty simple.
brooklyn brownstone
Starter
Understand that point, but UR should strive to be more than a fair weather fan support team. These are all things in the package of making the program healthier as a whole, but finding out from students what would make a good student experience in 2026 - and hopefully have Hardt awake long enough to hear it - would be great. Finding out what UR does (and more importantly does not do) to engage the student population is important to addressing change.
UR went 10-3 in the OOC, 8-1 at home in the OOC. It was not a losing proposition during Nov/Dec and yet student support was not there. When the team was 12-5, was there a ton of support in the student section for that Lasalle home game on Jan. 14? (No there weren't - this was the game a friend texted me a photo of the empty student section with like 10 students in it.) Why wasn't UR building up support all OOC for the team?
I'm aware the OOC schedule sucked, but plenty of schools still turn out lots of students for cupcake games. Winning those games and making it a fun environment to be with your friends, and enjoy yourself for a couple hours (I assume games are still free?) while feeling good about your school - that's what it's about. Build that bridge so that students are excited about going. Independent of schedule, this should be a fun thing to do for students. It is at tons of other schools.
What does UR do to engage them, make them want more, invest them in future games?
UR went 10-3 in the OOC, 8-1 at home in the OOC. It was not a losing proposition during Nov/Dec and yet student support was not there. When the team was 12-5, was there a ton of support in the student section for that Lasalle home game on Jan. 14? (No there weren't - this was the game a friend texted me a photo of the empty student section with like 10 students in it.) Why wasn't UR building up support all OOC for the team?
I'm aware the OOC schedule sucked, but plenty of schools still turn out lots of students for cupcake games. Winning those games and making it a fun environment to be with your friends, and enjoy yourself for a couple hours (I assume games are still free?) while feeling good about your school - that's what it's about. Build that bridge so that students are excited about going. Independent of schedule, this should be a fun thing to do for students. It is at tons of other schools.
What does UR do to engage them, make them want more, invest them in future games?
Spider17
All A-10 player
Fact of the matter is most people are not die hard fans of the sport. Not unique to UR or even college basketball. So the average spider fan is not as involved or dedicated with it as many of us on this board are. Same goes with UVA or VT Tech
Unless people have the intrinsic desire to be die hard Spider fans the best way to try and motivate people to become lifelong fans is a strong culture which I said is winning + high energy + tradition.
If you have students coming to UR who aren’t inclined to sports to begin with, no one goes to the games, and then when they graduate leave to go somewhere else, what reason does someone have to remain connected to UR athletics or even UR as a whole? Athletics gets the most donations on giving say every year. This is lost opportunity for the university to get its alums to remained involved.
carolinaspider
Bench player
Coach Tarrant would be interesting if his health permits it. Talk about his time at UR vs now
MrTbone
Starter
You’re still forgetting the 3v2 mascot game bruv.
Can never forget the show of apathy.
Guess I did forget a noun and should have said “first performance”.
Sorry for the confusion.
Eight Legger
Starter
Rick Edwards and Eric English, our two police chief alumni.
Are you planning on doing some podcasts in the offseason or cover other sports periodically?
Some people I’d be really interested in hearing from.
• Any UR alums who are now coaching
• Curtis Blair. A different perspective as a referee and the father of a D1 player.
• Kenny Wood. Could be interesting to hear him discuss being the father of an elite MLB player.
• Lindsay Gottlieb. Assistant at Richmond under Joanne Boyle. Worked her way up and is now head coach at USC
• Joanne Boyle and Stephanie Gaitley. The two best coaches of the women’s team before Rousell. Both had success at UR and would be interesting to hear about their time.
• Vinny Capra. Drafted 596th and made it to the show. One of only two spiders to hit a homer in the bigs since Sean Casey retired. Not basketball related but I think it would be really neat to hear.
• Hart Bailey. Hearing the perspective of a former player’s dad under Mooney would be, I think, fascinating. Especially one who was so plugged into this forum while Dji was here.
Now here’s the big one. One I would love.
• A couple who had their wedding planned by Chris Mooney. I want to hear all about it.
Some people I’d be really interested in hearing from.
• Any UR alums who are now coaching
• Curtis Blair. A different perspective as a referee and the father of a D1 player.
• Kenny Wood. Could be interesting to hear him discuss being the father of an elite MLB player.
• Lindsay Gottlieb. Assistant at Richmond under Joanne Boyle. Worked her way up and is now head coach at USC
• Joanne Boyle and Stephanie Gaitley. The two best coaches of the women’s team before Rousell. Both had success at UR and would be interesting to hear about their time.
• Vinny Capra. Drafted 596th and made it to the show. One of only two spiders to hit a homer in the bigs since Sean Casey retired. Not basketball related but I think it would be really neat to hear.
• Hart Bailey. Hearing the perspective of a former player’s dad under Mooney would be, I think, fascinating. Especially one who was so plugged into this forum while Dji was here.
Now here’s the big one. One I would love.
• A couple who had their wedding planned by Chris Mooney. I want to hear all about it.
sman
Starter
I also would like to hear from SpiderDad. bring him in with Dji.
long shot, but Bobby Ukrop?
I'd like to hear TJ and SDJ. or Grant and Gilly. they're all pro-Mooney but can't be blind that things aren't going well these past 2 seasons. I'd be interested to hear their thoughts on what fell apart.
PalmTreeSpidUR
Bench player
Agree with all of the former alum, both more recent and older. I don't think anyone has mentioned Kevin Anderson and Justin Harper?
SpiderRick
Bench player
John Newman for sure. He's been close to the program for 40+ years and can bring an all encompassing perspective comparing coaches, athletic directors, donors, and administrators.
97spiderfan
Starter
I'll second Newman as well. Pretty sure he is not a Mooney fan boy and perhaps he is someone with some gravitas that could maybe give a more unfiltered view of the current state of our program.
