Mooney--an under appreciated coach.

[ManiBenton]

Promise you I'm not a troll. Love my Spiders so much i'm going up to Fordham to end the holidays! There are cautionary tales like St. joes has found out. Aside from a few years it's not like we're a dumpster fire. Everyone admits last year wasn't acceptable.

Martelli was 100 times more credible than Mooney has ever been. St joes made a dumb hire with Lange and now are paying the price of that. Completely different situation

 

[Arachnid]

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time poster but long time reader to the boards. My first Spider memory was going in 1997 to the Richmond UNC game at the Robbins Center when i was like 10. While I live up in Fairfax now, I try to make as many spiders games as I can. Anyway, finally had to get an account and register seeing some of the feedback on the Charleston Southern thread about Mooney. I don't think people appreciate him enough.

1. We went to NCAA 3 years ago and won a game against a Power 5 team that had just won big 10 tournament
2. The next year we were conference champions in the regular season. While it was disappointing to bow out against St. Joe's in A10 tournament it was a solid year.
3. We consistently lead the country in FT % and many times are in top 15 in 3 point percentage.
4. He is very classy and nice and we graduate our players. In short a great representer of our university.

I decided to do some research and see if I was off base but get this. He has a higher winning percentage than all but 2 Richmond coaches. He has a higher percentage than Wainwright, Bill Dooley, Lou Goetz, Carol Slone, Lewis Mills, Lester Hooker and even Malcom Pitt. Facts don't lie. I think fans have too high expectations. Little ole Richmond isn't going to go to the sweet 16 every year. But do we have a better coach than say Davidson, St Joe, or Loyola Chicago--unequivocally!! Enjoy what you have while you have it spider fans!!

Who is paying you to glamorize the losingist coach in UR Men’s basketball history? Maybe Carol Slone?
Have fun with your aggrandizement of mediocrity.

 

[RichmondNative]

The title of the post is “an under appreciated coach”. I don’t think that is true. I think he is appreciated by many, including the big donors.

The OP then lists 4 items that I guess he thinks are undervalued. The first problem I have is that #1, #2 and #3 are not accurate. 2021-2022 is the season that the Spiders won the A10 tournament. Saying “3 years ago” isn’t exactly right, which is why #2 is completely wrong. The following season 2022-2023 was Burton’s last year at UR and the Spiders had a losing record. It was the 2023-2024 season that the A10 regular season was won thanks to Jordan King et al. Then last season 2024-2025 was another losing season and of course was even worse than the 2022-2023 one, even with the 1st weak OOC schedule. #3 is incorrect as already pointed out by @vt4700. That leaves #4 which is the one thing that Mooney is OVER appreciated for. To me, the attributes listed are REQUIRED for the highest paid position on the UR campus if not for all coaches.

I will even say Mooney is a “good” coach, I simply think UR can do BETTER.

 

[SpiderWill]

The title of the post is “an under appreciated coach”. I don’t think that is true. I think he is appreciated by many, including the big donors.

The OP then lists 4 items that I guess he thinks are undervalued. The first problem I have is that #1, #2 and #3 are not accurate. 2021-2022 is the season that the Spiders won the A10 tournament. Saying “3 years ago” isn’t exactly right, which is why #2 is completely wrong. The following season 2022-2023 was Burton’s last year at UR and the Spiders had a losing record. It was the 2023-2024 season that the A10 regular season was won thanks to Jordan King et al. Then last season 2024-2025 was another losing season and of course was even worse than the 2022-2023 one, even with the 1st weak OOC schedule. #3 is incorrect as already pointed out by @vt4700. That leaves #4 which is the one thing that Mooney is OVER appreciated for. To me, the attributes listed are REQUIRED for the highest paid position on the UR campus if not for all coaches.

I will even say Mooney is a “good” coach, I simply think UR can do BETTER.

Tomato/tamatto--there have been 3 A-10 champs since we won it. It can be confusing on how to classify years VCU, Duquesne, VCU--to me that's 3 years removed with this season the 4th.

 

[carolinaspider]

Ok a lot of upgrades were put into the basketball program: locker rooms, practice facility,
RC upgrade, etc… Should be a diamond in the rough for recruiting, but our results from recruiting
has been so-so. Big negative for me in his tenure, is his record against our arch rival VCU. Coaches
have been fired with winning records simply for having little to no success against their rival. Last two
years of scheduling does not help recruiting one iota. There is no excuse and why can you not create
games with UVA or VaTech beyond scrimmage games. Also Asst Coaches play big role in recruiting.
Maybe there needs to be changes there. One change that has been a plus is our quicker pace of play.

 

[KE Spider]

Another plus is for the first time in two decades we actually try to O rebound.

 

[SpiderWill]

Ok a lot of upgrades were put into the basketball program: locker rooms, practice facility,
RC upgrade, etc… Should be a diamond in the rough for recruiting, but our results from recruiting
has been so-so. Big negative for me in his tenure, is his record against our arch rival VCU. Coaches
have been fired with winning records simply for having little to no success against their rival. Last two
years of scheduling does not help recruiting one iota. There is no excuse and why can you not create
games with UVA or VaTech beyond scrimmage games. Also Asst Coaches play big role in recruiting.
Maybe there needs to be changes there. One change that has been a plus is our quicker pace of play.

VCU can't get those games either, NC State relationship with Wade aside. Wade, Rhoades, Odom all have spoken of it. Life as an upper mid major

 

[Spiderp31]

I am always told before each game how Mooney has the most wins in Richmond history. That’s based on coaching the same team for over 20 years. And then other teams unaware that Mooney constantly underperforms. Yes we have twenty win seasons but mostly they end early. I still haven’t gotten over the Miami NIT game or the Virginia Tech NIT game. Both of those games were totally unacceptable in my opinion.