Perspective from a Student

[VASpider28]

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.

 

[Kneepad McKinney]

I appreciate the perspective. Please send this to John Hardt instead.

 

[RichmondNative]

@VASpider28 Thanks for posting. Can’t believe that the school doesn’t post anything about the games, but then again we on the Forum know how poor communications are for the Athletics Department so makes sense.

Interesting that CM doesn’t have a good rep on campus, but he does not seem like one who would want to interact with anyone unless he has to.

As for the players, I can easily see them as not being well regarded simply because more and more of them are not traditional students. This is the major problem with college sports today on every campus.

Enjoy the Women’s games and Maggie Doogan. Hopefully the Women’s program can continue to thrive in the void left by the Men.

 

[SpiderWill]

Good perspective. I've long (as the folks know on the board) been a defender of Monney--but I don't get the lack of out reach. Even when things got off to a good start this year, no promotional videos, no going to the students after a win and thanking them etc.

 

[Gallipoli]

Glad to have you join the ranks. Enjoy the highs and lows of college sports at UR. Keep your optimism and enthusiasm.

 

[97spiderfan]

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.

Thanks so much for the student perspective. One follow up question.

1. You say that CM and the players don't have the best reputation but then also say you are in the minority of your friends who want CM gone. That seems incongruent to me, wondering if you can elaborate more as to why some of your friends want Mooney to stay, despite his less than stellar reputation on campus & the lack of results on the court?

Everything else you said completely meshes what alumni feel in regards to lack of engagement with other stakeholders, lack of quality promotion, a very dead and unengaging Robins Center game day environment.

 

[*23*]

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.

 

[Spider17]

Great post 28 and thanks for sharing. First, I think I speak for all of us on this forum that it’s great to be getting new members, especially students, and seeing this community we’ve built here continue to grow. I’m also glad the tradition of Spider(graduation year lives on) lol. I hope you can continue to share your thoughts on here as a student and after you graduate as it’s definitely an appreciated perspective!

It sounds like what you’re saying is what many of us have noticed from an outsiders (meaning not a current student) perspective. Not only is our on the court record bad, but promoting our flagship sport has been lackluster to say the least. There’s no outreach from our marketing team and there’s certainly no outreach from our men’s coach either. The entertainment experience during the games has been poor too. There’s no pregame phone light show, the cheerleaders don’t run out with the Richmond flags, there’s no t-shirt cannon, halftime shows have been boring for the most part. Nothing. The low energy is reflective of our basketball performance and there doesn’t seem to be a desire to change that.

It was very apparent the lack of student attendance this year and I hope it’s something our administration has taken notice of as well. As an alum, I take pride in wanting Richmond to be an amazing college experience for future generations. Get a great degree, make lifelong friends, and have memories that’ll last a lifetime. That was my experience and hope everyone can have that. Having a strong basketball program that the community and student body can support is an integral part of that experience.

P.S. I hope you can galvanize support from your friends and go to the rest of the women’s games this year at least. They’re a tremendous team and have a lot of tough, meaningful games left!

 

[JKS712]

Very good perspective from a student there. I have a different perspective that I’ll elaborate on that needs to be talked about more because it’s going to be a big problem for the school soon.

My dad played football at Richmond and I grew up right down the street from the school so we were always going to football basketball games/my entire childhood all the way up through high school. Then I went off to school, didn’t go to UR because it’s sadly not much of an option for in state kids. Idk if I would have wanted to go being that close to home but would have been nice for it to be an option. I’m now a massive fan of the school I went to and am more of a supporter of them than Richmond now. I’ll still go to games every once in a while now if football or basketball is good but don’t go to nearly as many as I used to. When I say as many as I used to we’d go to every home game and even a lot of road games that were in close proximity for football and men’s basketball. Was there for the good, the bad and the ugly through it all and unfortunately a lot of bad an ugly with Mooney.

Now here’s the problem the school is going to run into. There’s a good base of loyal older fans that still attend games, and support, the red sweater crew all that. Those people aren’t gonna live forever and the average age of the fanbase seems to just keep getting older. When those people die who’s gonna be left? Most of the students now aren’t from the state and move back to the northeast after they’re done so they’re not going to all the weeknight home games like me and my dad and all his friends from the school did when I was younger. Ideally you want a next generation of fans but who is that next generation? The school has done a horrible job of building this next generation. I get it, it’s a small private school so it’s gonna be harder to do that but it seems to me they make no effort. I’m not the only one like this. My dads friends from UR all had kids that grew up going to games with us too and there’s a lot more of us than you think that still live in the area and would love to have some pride and support this thing further.

What makes it hard to support is for one it doesn’t seem there is any urgency to actually trying to win which is a problem in and of itself. Then you have the school not really trying to build much of a local community support and then you have comments like what Bob Black said when I believe someone pointed out kind of what I’m pointing out, said people would stop coming to games if we didn’t make some changes and Bob responded with; “we’ll just get new fans”. I can tell you that really ticked me off, my dad off and a lot of people similar to me. Made it feel like Bob was saying those of us who bled Spider red for years just didn’t matter because we weren’t real fans and we were just expendable. Hard for it to not seem like that’s the attitude of the athletic department as a whole when someone who’s employed there makes that kind of a comment. When the so called “real fans” are gone who’s gonna be left? Genuinely curious.

Some of my best memories as a kid were of going to games with my dad and I wanna carry that on with my kids one day but right now that won’t be at Richmond. It will be at where I went to school which is 3 hours away and I’m a big supporter there but man would it be nice to have the same kind of memories with my kids one day at the same place it all started for me. Once again I’m not the only one in this position, there’s a lot more of us locally here than many would think. Give us a reason to come back, make us feel welcome to be around the school and support and we will. Just my thoughts here. Interested to hear what others think.

 

[VASpider28]

Thanks so much for the student perspective. One follow up question.

1. You say that CM and the players don't have the best reputation but then also say you are in the minority of your friends who want CM gone. That seems incongruent to me, wondering if you can elaborate more as to why some of your friends want Mooney to stay, despite his less than stellar reputation on campus & the lack of results on the court?

Everything else you said completely meshes what alumni feel in regards to lack of engagement with other stakeholders, lack of quality promotion, a very dead and unengaging Robins Center game day environment.

At least with my friends, they believe that CM still has some potential but that we are on a downwards trend.

I’ve had constant discussions about this and a lot of the time I get the response about how we beat Iowa a few years back in the tourney or how we upset a ranked Dayton too. Regardless, there is some animosity just because we haven’t been doing well in recent memory. I would say that the nostalgia of success from a couple of years ago slightly outweighs how bad we’ve been doing but that a lot of students are noticing just how bad we actually are.

It’s sort of a difficult thing to explain, but the bottom line is that students try to give CM the benefit of the doubt but still scrutinize his recent track record.

 

[97spiderfan]

At least with my friends, they believe that CM still has some potential but that we are on a downwards trend.

I’ve had constant discussions about this and a lot of the time I get the response about how we beat Iowa a few years back in the tourney or how we upset a ranked Dayton too. Regardless, there is some animosity just because we haven’t been doing well in recent memory. I would say that the nostalgia of success from a couple of years ago slightly outweighs how bad we’ve been doing but that a lot of students are noticing just how bad we actually are.

It’s sort of a difficult thing to explain, but the bottom line is that students try to give CM the benefit of the doubt but still scrutinize his recent track record.

Thanks that makes sense. And tell your friends, FWIW, those of who have been around CM, he has created some really good memories for us in the past, but those memories are very few and far between for a coach who has been here for 21 years. And now, the present and future are absolutely bleak. If y'all want to experience those great memories yourself, Mooney remaining coach is not your ticket to see that come to fruition.

 

[JKS712]

Thanks that makes sense. And tell your friends, FWIW, those of who have been around CM, he has created some really good memories for us in the past, but those memories are very few and far between for a coach who has been here for 21 years. And now, the present and future are absolutely bleak. If y'all want to experience those great memories yourself, Mooney remaining coach is not your ticket to see that come to fruition.

Trust me I’ve known that for a while. I’ve been checked out on Mooney since probably 2014. I can remember a game we needed to have late that year to possibly secure an at large bid at home where the team we played (think it was GW) basically didn’t attempt a 3 in the second half and killed us inside repeatedly. I still remember my dad screaming for Mooney to try anything out other than the same old matchup zone because it was clear what he was doing wasn’t working. That game made me realize he was not a good coach and it’s really only gotten worse from there.

Sad thing is if the school actually wanted to be good at basketball this could be a really solid and fun program. With the money around, facilities, league we’re in and the right coach I’ve long thought there is no reason we can’t be what Dayton has been, St. Louis, even Xavier back in the day. Yes it would help to bend admissions standards for basketball and you can do that without hurting the overall reputation of the school. When we’ve been good the Robins center is actually a really good atmosphere and I’ll go ahead and say it when it’s good is a better atmosphere than VCU. It’s bigger, crowd feels like it’s on top of you and I think is actually louder. I think back to some games in the 2010 and 2011 seasons and even a few games since then and that has been the case. Why would the school not want this? If the team is good it can be like that every night. Helps advertise the school, more money comes in etc. just can’t fathom why they don’t seem to want that.

 

[Eight Legger]

It's a shame whenever everyone except the people in charge can explain why the program is fundamentally broken.

 

[Spider17]

Now here’s the problem the school is going to run into. There’s a good base of loyal older fans that still attend games, and support, the red sweater crew all that. Those people aren’t gonna live forever and the average age of the fanbase seems to just keep getting older. When those people die who’s gonna be left? Most of the students now aren’t from the state and move back to the northeast after they’re done so they’re not going to all the weeknight home games like me and my dad and all his friends from the school did when I was younger. Ideally you want a next generation of fans but who is that next generation? The school has done a horrible job of building this next generation. I get

There lies the heart of the issue. What are we doing to cultivate interest for future fanbases?we certainly aren’t making efforts to generate excitement for the games. If we aren’t going to try and change the on court performance and we aren’t going to try and change the desire off the court, then why do we even have a basketball team?

A lot of the older fans speak from the perspective of seeing a Dick Tarrant or John Beilein. Some speak from the perspective of the sweet 16 run. A few more years with results like this and there will be spider fans who all they know is this very poor product. There’s going to be no desire to remain connected with our university or athletics.

Then I see posts on the spider gang facebook group commenting that this is our ceiling as a program and Mooney is doing great. Really? What an incredibly disappointing outlook to have with our program. Even by Mooney’s prior standards we’re doing worse, so I fundamentally disagree with that notion on so many levels.

But the bottom line is there’s a contingency of the red sweater elderly crew posting on Facebook basically having more loyalty to our coach then they do to the program itself. People like PQ probably feel the same way too. That’s wild to me. If this mindset permeates throughout our University, we’re going to continue to have these downward trends because nothing right now suggests it’s going to get better. Then in 15-20 years we are going to have nobody attending games or donating because all the loyal supporters who have seen a glimpse of our potential all passed away and all the younger fans have no reason or desire to remain connected to the program. It’s sad.

 

[CityStadiumFan]

Trust me I’ve known that for a while. I’ve been checked out on Mooney since probably 2014. I can remember a game we needed to have late that year to possibly secure an at large bid at home where the team we played (think it was GW) basically didn’t attempt a 3 in the second half and killed us inside repeatedly. I still remember my dad screaming for Mooney to try anything out other than the same old matchup zone because it was clear what he was doing wasn’t working. That game made me realize he was not a good coach and it’s really only gotten worse from there.

Sad thing is if the school actually wanted to be good at basketball this could be a really solid and fun program. With the money around, facilities, league we’re in and the right coach I’ve long thought there is no reason we can’t be what Dayton has been, St. Louis, even Xavier back in the day. Yes it would help to bend admissions standards for basketball and you can do that without hurting the overall reputation of the school. When we’ve been good the Robins center is actually a really good atmosphere and I’ll go ahead and say it when it’s good is a better atmosphere than VCU. It’s bigger, crowd feels like it’s on top of you and I think is actually louder. I think back to some games in the 2010 and 2011 seasons and even a few games since then and that has been the case. Why would the school not want this? If the team is good it can be like that every night. Helps advertise the school, more money comes in etc. just can’t fathom why they don’t seem to want that.

Thanks for your perspective. 2010-2011 were kind of high water mark years for both football (coming off the 2008 National Championship and subsequent move to Robins Stadium in 2010) and basketball (back to back NCAA trips in 2010, 2011). You make excellent points. The last few seasons before football moved on campus we had some outstanding teams who received very good support at City Stadium from the RVA community. That support has dwindled to a barely dripping faucet now that we are on campus. Beautiful footballl stadium but UR has not marketed the games and (just my opinion) doesn't make the games enticing or welcoming to those outside the UR bubble. We are in danger of the same thing in basketball. The Robins Center with it's recent improvements is a great venue but once again ( as you pointed out) we don't market the games or give the RVA community a reason to support the team. It's more difficult than ever to keep the attention of fans and get folks to actually attend live games and we have countered that by seemingly not doing barely any marketing of our two primary men's programs. I'm 49 and I feel like I'm one of our younger fans at both sets of games and it's only getting worse every season.

 

[carolinaspider]

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.

This hits it out of the park, young man! I wish what you just said could be passed up the line to Athletics Admin and Marketing. May be UR Fan 1 or SF can get your comments to the right people. Welcome on board!

 

[SpiderPrime]

Who in the world runs the marketing for athletics? Better yet, who actually does their job correctly in the athletics department?

 

[Long Time UR Fan]

Who in the world runs the marketing for athletics? Better yet, who actually does their job correctly in the athletics department?

Rousell and Chemotti

 

[JKS712]

Who in the world runs the marketing for athletics? Better yet, who actually does their job correctly in the athletics department?

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.

 

[Spiderp31]

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.