Perspective from a Student

[bullfrog]

The students aren’t for local areas anymore. The vast majority of students are out of state at this point. It costs a ridiculous amount of money to even attend Richmond.

That's irrelevant...there was plenty of passion for spiders athletics when I was in school and very few of the people I knew were from VA..the school can help generate passion..they just choose not to....

 

[SFspidur]

This year's entering class was 13% from Virginia, exactly the same as my entering class 30 years ago.

 

[KE Spider]

I've long (as the folks know on the board) been a defender of Monney

Will, I'm a little slow, but how would we know that given you joined the Board December 29, 2025?

 

[*23*]

Will, I'm a little slow, but how would we know that given you joined the Board December 29, 2025?

When your board job is defending monney, that seems like a freaking eternity.

 

[MrTbone]

Thanks for the perspective 28, good stuff. Hope you can have a good mens team to cheer for before you graduate, but not looking good.

I saw the Nevada coach bitching about student support. And the writer of the article said guess what, if you win they will come. I dont blame the students one bit in this case. And Mooney is such a poor poor spokesman for the team and program it doesn't help.

CM could be Abe Lincoln and still not be able to pitch this program. People want to watch winners, it’s really not that complicated.

I’ve long said that you can’t solve what ails us through fan engagement, game experience, or $5 cheap seats.

Fix the product, specifically, the teams gotta win more and play meaningful games.

 

[Urmite]

This year's entering class was 13% from Virginia, exactly the same as my entering class 30 years ago.

Well I feel like it was 21% in 1982. I feel like demographics changed with Cooper.

 

[Fatherspider]

Hey all! I’ve been lurking on this forum for a quite a bit but figured I would make a post given the current affairs in the program.

For context, I’m currently a sophomore at UR and am very into collegiate sports. When I was first applying here, my general idea was that the program was really good at knocking off high majors in the tournament.

However, the current season and the last one have been consistently disappointing to say the least. During my first year, I made an effort to attend almost every single game at the Robins Center. At the beginning of the season, there was a lot of enthusiasm from not only me but my friends and the general student population. However, I was quickly taken aback by how we lost to programs like Maine and Marist, who are historically bad.

As the season went on, it became more and more disappointing and I had less motivation to go to the games. Ultimately, after our awful 10 win finish, I decided that I wasn’t going to go to any games unless they miraculously improved next season.

I think one of the biggest questions I see in this forum is why students don’t attend the games anymore. First and foremost, we just don’t know when it’s going on. The university does an AWFUL job of advertising it to students (it’s usually a slide in a PowerPoint in d hall or a screen). The only game I’ve really seen advertised was the Code Red game, which was absolutely amazing and had the best student section in a very long time. I can confidently say that I didn’t have to drag or be my friends to go; many had got tickets before I’d even brought it up.

Next, the program is just in a bad state. Within the student body, CM and the players don’t necessarily have the best reputation. I would say I’m in the minority of my friends who want CM gone, but there is a general disdain for the lack of consistency and output (ESPECIALLY against VCU).

Finally, there is just no pizazz or draw for us to go. Given we’re at a very rigorous school, there are so many better things we could be doing with our time. I may take for granted how nice the Robins Center is, but there is no draw for me to go to the venue. The food is mediocre, the atmosphere is stale, and the product on the court is usually bad.

Now, all of this is said out of love for the program. I am a huge supporter of our women’s team and have consistently gone to their games as opposed to the men’s. I think Roussell is perceived incredibly well in our student body and Doogan is sort of our own campus celebrity. Despite this, I think change needs to happen to bring students back and it needs to happen soon.

Overall, I’d say I’m pretty unimpressed with the state of the program. Even when I had somewhat of a glimmer of hope going into the Davidson game (the first men’s game I attended this year), we played horribly. Anyways, if it hasn’t been said enough, this program needs a major overhaul to keep students like me engaged and a fan.

Great post. Did you say you are in the minority with your disdain for Mooney? The students still want to keep CM? Or is it the opposite?

 

[Eight Legger]

Honestly I'm surprised that any students have an opinion one way or another in the men's basketball team at this point. It's impressive if they know we have one.

 

[SFspidur]

Well I feel like it was 21% in 1982. I feel like demographics changed with Cooper.

Student body geographic composition had definitely already changed by the time he arrived, which was while I was there. But going from Morrill to Cooper certainly changed the overall vibe of the administration. And the 30% tuition increase in 2005 before he got the boot was another big shift in perception and atmosphere to further align with elite liberal arts colleges.

 

[Gkiller]

I honestly don’t think I can think of a school with more poor marketing for its athletic program than Richmond. I’m on Twitter so I see all sorts of other programs and even places smaller than Richmond do a better job. Just seems like no one there has a clue. I still go back to the comment from Bob Black “that’s fine we’ll find new fans”. Who are those fans gonna be Bob? More old people getting bussed in from the Lakewood retirement home? I can’t tell you how mad that comment made me, just felt like a slap in the face. It’s actually shocking how tone deaf that comment was and the sad thing is I doubt anyone in the athletic department even said as much as “hey Bob that comment might not have been the best thing to say”. Id like to think Greg Beckwith (God rest his soul) maybe said something to him about it. Greg seemed like the type of guy that would have our backs on stuff like this.

Lol bus in from Lakewood retirement home. Bravo. Really well done from a rookie.

 

[Gkiller]

Great post. Did you say you are in the minority with your disdain for Mooney? The students still want to keep CM? Or is it the opposite?

I know a freshman at UR. Son of friend of mine. Normal kid. Saw him over Xmas break. I asked him how many games he’s gone to.

One.

 

[MrTbone]

One thing I’ll say is, the schedule is not that hard to figure out. Go to www.richmondspiders.com and look at the “Schedule” tab under Sports/Mens Basketball.

As a general rule, there is a game pretty much every Wednesday and Saturday. Occasionally a different day.

This is so far removed from when as a pledge I had to go to the RC an hour early for games and reserve a row for my Theta Chi brethren. Times have changed, not for the better in this case.

 

[SpiderWill]

One thing I’ll say is, the schedule is not that hard to figure out. Go to www.richmondspiders.com and look at the “Schedule” tab under Sports/Mens Basketball.

As a general rule, there is a game pretty much every Wednesday and Saturday. Occasionally a different day.

This is so far removed from when as a pledge I had to go to the RC an hour early for games and reserve a row for my Theta Chi brethren. Times have changed, not for the better in this case.

Not knowing when the games are proves then a lot of the students just don't care a lot about sports or Richmond sports. It's one thing to be frustrated and do a quasai boycott and not go, not even knowing if there's a game is just indifference. A 5 second check of ESPN or the website shows that.

One thing i'll point out--it applies to all sports with poor attendance not just mens basketball. I go to some baseball games and no students are there. At the end of the first quarter in football there are no students. The Code Red women's basketball was one game. Generally the women do not get good support. There is no sustained student support.

I standby my comments on Coach and the team needs to do a better job reaching out to the community but no one has pointed out this applies to all sports.

 

[SpiderRick]

Saw a commercial last week advertising The Women's game against VCU, a very well done and upbeat commercial.... from the VCU marketing department. Even tho the UR team is light years better than VCU, of course nothing from our marketing department. NOTHING

 

[Spider17]

I wish all sports at UR had great attendance but the fact of the matter is more people are interested in football and men’s basketball than any other sport. The lack of attendance in other sports is a nationwide pattern not just with UR. I looked at Penn State’s women’s basketball most recent games just to see and they have a lower attendance than we do. A school 15 times our size with a way larger alumni base. Even with football, the biggest attendance comes from successful P4 schools.

At the end of the day, it comes down to culture. Culture is something that is cultivated over time. The recipe for it in my eyes is winning + energy + tradition = strong culture.

Take for instance Duke. Do you think that every student attending Duke just happens to be a huge basketball fan? No way. Still, there are people who go to the games and get excited for it, same way with Alabama football because that’s the big thing to do on campus. Duke does things like tenting to get tickets. There’s always a buzz generated around going to the games. Don’t get me wrong, it helps that Duke is consistently a top 10 team in the country and getting top recruits, but these things feed off itself.

Imagine this. It’s a Friday night A10 game. Spiders have a 17-3 record and heading into a big match up with #20 Saint Louis on ESPN with at-large and A10 tournament seeding implications. Our coach energizes the students through social media and going to dhall. The frats make it a thing to host pregame parties before the game. Spiders win the game and they all celebrate at the cellar before getting ready to go out to the lodges. Our coach buys all the students at the cellar a round of drinks. Those are the kinds of things that generate interest, desire, lasting memories, and over time build on one another. Then next year all the students will tell the new freshmen how exciting the basketball games are, recruits see the atmosphere and want to come here, and the show goes on.

 

[Spider17]

And it’s beyond disappointing when people don’t think this can happen at UR. All these things are literally happening now at SLU (a peer institution in many ways), year 2 under Josh Schertz. A coach, who would’ve definitely come to UR too had we offered. These coaches exist. It’s very much possible to do. The thing about a strong culture is even if our coach then moves up to P4, we’ll just find the next best up and coming coach, plug them in, and they’ll continue where the last one left off. That’s what VCU has done the past 15 years.

 

[Cobweb]

So true

One thing I’ll say is, the schedule is not that hard to figure out. Go to www.richmondspiders.com and look at the “Schedule” tab under Sports/Mens Basketball.

As a general rule, there is a game pretty much every Wednesday and Saturday. Occasionally a different day.

This is so far removed from when as a pledge I had to go to the RC an hour early for games and reserve a row for my Theta Chi brethren. Times have changed, not for the better in this case.

so true, and the seats were much better as we filled the section behind the visitor bench.

 

[CityStadiumFan]

And it’s beyond disappointing when people don’t think this can happen at UR. All these things are literally happening now at SLU (a peer institution in many ways), year 2 under Josh Schertz. A coach, who would’ve definitely come to UR too had we offered. These coaches exist. It’s very much possible to do. The thing about a strong culture is even if our coach then moves up to P4, we’ll just find the next best up and coming coach, plug them in, and they’ll continue where the last one left off. That’s what VCU has done the past 15 years.

As an alum who is old enough to have attended UR when Coach Beilein became our coach I can tell you that it DID happen here. We had suffered through a few rough years in the mid 90's when Coach Beilein was hired and he immediately infused that energy into the program. 3 of our first 4 games his first season were UVA (home) UNC (home game, only home loss of the season) and at Wake. We beat UVA (court storming at the Robins Center) and took Wake to the wire in Winston Salem. Pretty good OOC schedule huh? Then we swept VCU (Yes, it's possible) and won the CAA tournament where myself and tons of students found a way to make it all the way down to the Richmond Coliseum to support the team for 3 straight wins and a trip to the NCAA's. Then we went on to upset #3 seed South Carolina in the dance. Pretty awesome experience that most graduating UR classes since have not gotten to experience. I will also say that John Beilein was the kind of guy who would stop and talk to you and your buddies when you were playing pick-up games in the carpet gym and would engage with the student body. Not a shot at Mooney, just remembering the energy of that time and relaying that it can be done.

 

[*23*]

I cannot stress enough the difference in confidence level as a fan each game with Beilein or Tarrant as the coach compared to Mooney. They obviously did not win every game, and had some blow out losses - but you knew the team was super prepared for the opponent, and many time played over their heads.

 

[*23*]

And Tarrant was a regular guy too. I called into his radio show many a time - they just took calls - they did not have to be vetted or Ivan. Still recall my first football game freshman year. I had on a Richmond basketball shirt, was walking around city stadium - Tarrant was showing around a hoops recruit - saw my shirt. Stopped to compliment me on my shirt and say hi.