Spideralways
Walk-on
It’s this kinda off acceptance that tells me our fan base doesn’t care about being great. Yes we are a small school. Is that our excuse? Fine, welcome to mediocrity! Not me damnit. Fire Mooney, Go Spiders!!
Mooney--an under appreciated coach.
- Thread starter SpiderWill
- Start date
More the administration and a few power brokers than the fan base.
Spideralways
Walk-on
This thread started how?
Just a guess, but some dude sitting at a keyboard.
Welcome to Mooniocrity!
Spider17
Starter
I’ve had several thoughts over my 10 years of posting on these forums. In my early days of posting in 2015-2017 on the old forum, I held the position of wanting a coaching change. I took a little hiatus from the board and came back and my positioned softened up some because Mooney did have good success from 2020-2024. My thoughts were perhaps we were navigating the new transfer portal era better and NIL will benefit us.
Now I’m torn. We’ve done a good job getting transfers over the years but we’ve been wildly inconsistent. Overall, with only rare exceptions I think we’ve done a poor job with high school recruiting which has surprised me since I would’ve thought most P5s are just going to poach good, proven mid major players now and with NIL we are better in the running for high 3 star even 4 star players. The really big thing that’s really change my perception again in a negative way is our attitude about scheduling. There is no excuse to have a lousy schedule like this 2 years in a row. Couple that with that fact we declined JMU wanting to play us and took teams like The Citadel or Gardner Webb instead or Mooney saying he doesn’t want to play teams like Columbia, Iona, Radford, or W&M even if they have a chance to be good just because he’s friends of the other coaches or they’re former players is complete BS. If anything, he should be using that relationship to get us those games.
Mooney’s lack of social media presence or candid way of speaking after games/not taking responsibility (instead using canned talking points over again) was never something that annoyed me in the past and was quite neutral on. I thought that those conversations are best in private with the team instead of giving the media a sound bite to use. But now, seeing how the whole administration is putting together a crappy schedule, there is absolutely no meaningful promotion of our games, no giveaways/halftime entertainment/ball toss during the games, and no fire in the belly after bad losses all suggests that it is in fact intentional that we are keeping a low profile.
And for those saying that this is just how Richmond operates, that’s not the case with our women’s team who have been promoting their team (operation red for instance against VCU), trying to generate excitement with acquiring a good schedule and doing the fun crossword before the season as a way to announce it, and Roussell being a coach who is not afraid to speak publicly about accountability and expectations.
Right now it just seems that Mooney is wanting to get by, by trying to get good enough individual teams/record throughout the years (which has been wildly variable) to save face while Roussell wants to build a winning program.
Rant over.
Now I’m torn. We’ve done a good job getting transfers over the years but we’ve been wildly inconsistent. Overall, with only rare exceptions I think we’ve done a poor job with high school recruiting which has surprised me since I would’ve thought most P5s are just going to poach good, proven mid major players now and with NIL we are better in the running for high 3 star even 4 star players. The really big thing that’s really change my perception again in a negative way is our attitude about scheduling. There is no excuse to have a lousy schedule like this 2 years in a row. Couple that with that fact we declined JMU wanting to play us and took teams like The Citadel or Gardner Webb instead or Mooney saying he doesn’t want to play teams like Columbia, Iona, Radford, or W&M even if they have a chance to be good just because he’s friends of the other coaches or they’re former players is complete BS. If anything, he should be using that relationship to get us those games.
Mooney’s lack of social media presence or candid way of speaking after games/not taking responsibility (instead using canned talking points over again) was never something that annoyed me in the past and was quite neutral on. I thought that those conversations are best in private with the team instead of giving the media a sound bite to use. But now, seeing how the whole administration is putting together a crappy schedule, there is absolutely no meaningful promotion of our games, no giveaways/halftime entertainment/ball toss during the games, and no fire in the belly after bad losses all suggests that it is in fact intentional that we are keeping a low profile.
And for those saying that this is just how Richmond operates, that’s not the case with our women’s team who have been promoting their team (operation red for instance against VCU), trying to generate excitement with acquiring a good schedule and doing the fun crossword before the season as a way to announce it, and Roussell being a coach who is not afraid to speak publicly about accountability and expectations.
Right now it just seems that Mooney is wanting to get by, by trying to get good enough individual teams/record throughout the years (which has been wildly variable) to save face while Roussell wants to build a winning program.
Rant over.
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In summary, good is the enemy of great.
Two decades of coaching at one school is a long time for any sport at any level and there comes a time when a school needs to take another direction. Change is tough, but it is also inevitable. The Men’s program needs an infusion of energy if it really is supposed to be the premier sport on campus.
MrTbone
Bench player
I just read the original post and it got me thinking as to why is there such a deviation from what was said to what many on this board think?
The thing I keep coming back to is expectations. What are your personal expectations for the program? Personally, I expect us to consistently graduate our players, be in the top 3rd of the A10 with few exceptions, and make the NCAA once every four years ( minimum).
If we don’t do those things, it’s time to change things up. It’s been time to change things up for a long time.
The thing I keep coming back to is expectations. What are your personal expectations for the program? Personally, I expect us to consistently graduate our players, be in the top 3rd of the A10 with few exceptions, and make the NCAA once every four years ( minimum).
If we don’t do those things, it’s time to change things up. It’s been time to change things up for a long time.
Spider17
Starter
I see where you’re coming from. Even if a coach was good, the idea of having a new coach every 15-20 years, can be healthy for a program. Someone who started coaching 20 years ago was operating in a very different environment of college basketball than now or what will be in 20 years. Bringing in younger, new perspectives can be good. That’s why many positions of powers have term limits. Unless the coach is legendary, like Tom Izzo or coach K, 15-20 years is a long time to be somewhere and things can get stale.
My fear is that Richmond men’s basketball is getting stale. We are 10-3 which objectively is a very good record. I also think our team is fun to watch and in many ways is a lot better than last year. Still, and I can only speak for myself, despite all that it’s been harder this year for me to get excited than years past. The Belmont win gave me some hope but went away after Elon and Charleston So losses. I can’t pin it down to one thing, but I think it’s just a build up of a lot of small things. The lack of effort of generating excitement for the games, the lack of good scheduling, the lack of good high school recruiting and needing to rely on getting good 1-2 transfers every year which is hit or miss. It’s the inevitability knowing that every year we are going to lose games to teams we have no business losing to. The fact that the vast majority of seasons we are out of at large contention by December. We’ll probably have a 10-8 or 11-7 conference record, make the A10 QFs and finish the year with a 20 win season. Everyone will pat each others backs marketing this as an improvement.
And yet its improvement by numbers alone. The reality is that our OOC did not matter, our wins and losses don’t matter because we’re out of at large contention by December (again), and the whole season will come down to 3-4 days in the A10 tournament again, and we will have 5+ new players next year where we will have no idea how the team will do because there’s no consistency or solid foundation of younger players we can build upon.
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nothing I've seen suggests we'll be able to pull that off. so yes, I'll be happily surprised and feeling a lot better if we do that well.
I can agree with this, especially now, when we have better facilities and more NIL than most A-10 schools.
Once to the dance every 4 years seems reasonable. I don't think we should ever be under .500 in what has become a very average A-10. So, I would say every 5 years, we should have 2 years in the top 4, 2 more above .500, and 1 at .500 or better.
I also expect to have a coach who wants to play a tougher OOC schedule. For years, Mooney played a very good OOC schedule. But, not anymore. I want a coach who would be so incredibly pissed about last year's OOC schedule, he made sure it didn't happen again this year. Instead, we seem to have a coach who now wants schedules like these. Unacceptable.
Don’t worry about anything. Mooney got his gift with the miracle season when Gilyard carried us to the A-10 title. Then the run beating Iowa in the NCAA tournament. I am suppose to remember this miracle run for 10 years. Nothing else matters losing a few games isn’t a big deal. Not making the NCAA tournament for another 5 years is considered okay. We are just a small school and should appreciate all the effort we put in it. Since we don’t have the resources….
Spider17
Starter
You’re probably right. Looks like 7-9 conference wins is more realistic.
ManiBenton
Walk-on
The under appreciated coach is about to lose by 20 at home in the first a10 game of the season. But I was told to be careful what I wish for
SpiderWill
Walk-on
Not great, but also let's not overreact to one game.
I do feel partly responsible. Friend had an extra to the VCU game so I went to that. i admit last two games have been a gut check
Spider17
Starter
The game before we got spanked by Charleston Southern. Should we not react to that game either?
SpiderPrime
Bench player
I can’t find words to express my anger towards the author’s of Richmond’s mighty downfall, John Hardt and PQ, who has done more harm than good.
ManiBenton
Walk-on
Not to mention the 18 years of bad losses and choke jobs
this guy has to be a botMan, it's hard to win at home.
