What do we want for our men’s basketball program

Arachnid said:
Everyone of them. I suspect UVA alums will disagree about the Grounds being an urban campus. As to VCU, to some folks the concrete jungle is attractive. I do not fall in that category and I don’t believe it’s a recruiting advantage to be labeled as an urban school. What a silly excuse.
NIL Funds, I can’t answer as it’s a secret. However as a duel sport athlete at UR I was proud to win for my school.
National tv exposure? Well you had that Saturday. What do you want the talking heads repeating ad nauseam, winningest coach in UR history, longevity, wedding planner, Princeton offense, played for Princeton and Pete Carrill.
Give me more.
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How many A-10 FridAAys is UR on? When's the last time we were on ESPN in Atlantis or Maui or even the Orlando main tournament (i.e. Dayton vs. BYU and Georgetown) We have what maybe 4-5 CBS sports (thanks VCU for 2 of them) games? We need to win more to get better exposure (chicken and egg)

Urban vs. leafy can be subjective but i bet if you polled most D-1 basketball players of the elk needed to compete in A-10 they'd prefer to be in a city on a campus like VCU, being around likeminded coeds where you can go to lunch/dinner/social 2 min away off campus.

I still think Mooney is the guy but I don't think it's as easy as folks think.
 
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SpiderWill said:
How many A-10 FridAAys is UR on? When's the last time we were on ESPN in Atlantis or Maui or even the Orlando main tournament (i.e. Dayton vs. BYU and Georgetown) We have what maybe 4-5 CBS sports (thanks VCU for 2 of them) games? We need to win more to get better exposure (chicken and egg)

Urban vs. leafy can be subjective but i bet if you polled most D-1 basketball players of the elk needed to compete in A-10 they'd prefer to be in a city on a campus like VCU, being around likeminded coeds where you can go to lunch/dinner/social 2 min away off campus.

I still think Mooney is the guy but I don't think it's as easy as folks think.
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It is not as easy as people think. Richmond has been a school that developed players to become strong role players, with a few great players added to the mix. This option is no longer available, given NIL and payments to players. Now we generally target players who have 2 years left in eligibility. Sometimes, like this year, we get very good, but not outstanding players.

Depending on how we play and who we beat this season, I see us making the NIT at a minimum.
 
I want a program that spends their NIL wisely. 23 called it early when he said we didn't add any good defenders. I'm sure there were plenty of guys out there who, while maybe not having flashy stats, could have been key pieces for us defensively.
 
Yeah - that urban metropolis of Charlottesville is the reason kids go to UVA over UR for basketball.

We don’t get more national games or into better MTEs because we are a middling mid-major program with limited success over the last 20 years. Why is that? That’s the question, but perhaps it’s because we have a mediocre coach leading it?

Look at SLU - they moved on from Crews, then dumped Ford, hired a good coach and within 2 years are ranked. We are so damn scared to move on from mediocrity so we’re trapped.
 
SpiderWill said:
How many A-10 FridAAys is UR on? When's the last time we were on ESPN in Atlantis or Maui or even the Orlando main tournament (i.e. Dayton vs. BYU and Georgetown) We have what maybe 4-5 CBS sports (thanks VCU for 2 of them) games? We need to win more to get better exposure (chicken and egg)

Urban vs. leafy can be subjective but i bet if you polled most D-1 basketball players of the elk needed to compete in A-10 they'd prefer to be in a city on a campus like VCU, being around likeminded coeds where you can go to lunch/dinner/social 2 min away off campus.

I still think Mooney is the guy but I don't think it's as easy as folks think.
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We’re not on tv because we don’t draw eyeballs as a stagnant 53% program.
Are you dissing our coeds?
Who cares what other D1 players want. If CM had five five star player would he win? Could Calipari do this with Kentucky? How’s SJohns this year?

Our beautiful campus is not going to change. What can change is a new staff. Coaching is more important than the players. Watch Indiana tonight. They may not win but great coaching got them to this game,
 
SpiderWill said:
I still think Mooney is the guy but I don't think it's as easy as folks think
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OMG, who said it was easy. It's hard. That is why you need a coach that is super motivated, and very strategic at all levels. Not Mooney. Not Mooney. He changes nothing - see his match up zone - after the metrics show it sucked and went down hill year after year. He knows best. Right. One miracle run with super seniors is about it. The schedule was a joke this year, and as I predicted would make is so we don't even know what we have. We are just starting to see. And the weak schedule does not prepare you. Hell we dont even know our best rotation yet - well some of us do. That is exactly why we should have moved on from Mooney a while back - it is not easy. But he tries to make it easy by scheduling trash?? And his excuse for the schedule - "it is hard to schedule" Un Effing Believable. Yes, it is hard, again that is why you need a coach and AD and staff that are up to the task and are dawgs that will get games. Hell, I listed to 60 year old Dutcher talk about banging on doors and making calls all off season to get games. C'mon Mooney.
 
vt4700 said:
I want a program that doesn't think it's a good idea to have a 6 foot guard on a 6'10 guy underneath, and then when that doesn't work, decides to try a couple of 5'8 guys on him.
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They say old habits are hard to change. The short guards on big forwards and centers is a staple of Mooney's defense. Don't look for a change anytime soon. I'm guessing CM thinks it's successful???? Obviously successful - just ask Avila of St L.
 
SpiderWill said:
I think it proves the point its not an "easy" job. I will admit I am discouraged by St Joe and St Louis games but the job has some disadvantages.
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Not an "easy" job? Not sure about "easy" but possibly best job in America. Where else can one coach spend 20 years with only 3 NCAA's and consistently get owned by cross town rival with a 75 pct loss rate? Accountability is an afterthought in UR Basketball. Everyone should have this type of job.
 
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Spiderguy said:
Not an "easy" job? Not sure about "easy" but possibly best job in America. Where else can one coach spend 20 years with only 3 NCAA's and consistently get owned by cross town rival with a 75 pct loss rate? Accountability is an afterthought in UR Basketball. Everyone should have this type of job.
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Yep, have posted this a few ( or maybe many ) times over the years. About 11 to 12 years ago now was chatting with a coach at an AAU tournament my son was playing in. He had recently left coaching but had most recently been an assistant at UVA, and one year as a D1 HC. When I told him I was a Richmond grad he actually said Mooney had the best job in America. Great pay and situation with no pressure to win. Still rings true to this day.
 
  • Urban campus vs leafy campus - hmm, where have I heard this argument prior? Verrrry suspicous here. Also, UR's campus a hindrance to recruiting? Cmon.
  • NIL $$ is not enough compared with other schools - UR is a rich school and we have a billionaire booster who loves the coach, why is this an issue? If anything Moon has the access to and support of the big booster and should be pushing it hard.
  • Scheduling better MTEs and not winning enough to be on TV regularly - ooooooooohhh boy, if this is not the perfect set up for me and 95% of the people on the board.
    • listing that we don't get into better MTEs as proof that the job is tough - it was Moon's own agent who placed us in our MTEs for two decades. This is an infinite loop criticism if ever there was one. Last year we were in the worst MTE in all of college basketball, perhaps in the history of MTEs. 21 years as coach and can't network with organizers to get us into anything great? Whose fault is that?
    • not winning enough to be on TV more regularly - um, this is entirely on Moon and his 55% overall, 55% in league winning percentage. for you to say that Moon gets a pass here bc it's hard to get on tv if you don't win enough, when he is the one responsible for the team winning and losing, well...I think that is not a great argument. Or the greatest 2026 logic ever, since the world is afire with circular narratives these days.

On one other note about the job being hard, not winning enough, there is an onus on the coach to understand his team:

for the 2nd time in 3 years, Moon has rewarded a guy in his 3rd year with the program with a starting role for an entire OOC, with that player having little historical production. Two years ago it very well may have cost a shot at an at large by starting Noyes over Dji for the OOC, we'll never know. What we do know is that when Dji was in there he made winning plays regularly and the team thrived. This year, Tanner got the starting nod, with little historical production (last year: 3.6 ppg, 39% FG, 29% 3ptFG.) I'm not in practice so I defer to what they see, maybe he was making a leap in practices, but my mid-January he's now coming off the bench and saw 6m of time the last game he was healthy. Similarly, Noyes got hurt and then...completely dropped out of the entire rotation, with Harris taking a role and playing it extremely well.

Seems like maybe the offseason evaluation of the team gets set and then stays that way no matter what.
 
It is absolutely ridiculous that after starting Tanner last year and seeing him do nothing to warrant him starting and eventually having to remove him from the starting line-up on a team that was pretty much devoid of talent. That Mooney said sure lets do the exact same damn thing with Tanner this year. He spent the entire OOC starting him again this year, even though the team had more talent this year, watching him give the same results as last year (which is to put it mildly lackluster).

Tanner went from starting the entire OOC to playing zero minutes in his last game. Meanwhile, the dude who took his place in the rotation, a freshman, showed us more in 1 game than we have seen from Tanner in 3 years. What a frickin waste.

We played an OOC that clearly shouted to everyone, we aren't playing for an NCAA bid, but yet Mooney is wasting away playing mediocre upper classman instead of trying to develop his young core. It makes zero sense, other than Mooney is padding his win total to tell us we are in better shape. Long term of course this hurts the program, but CM doesn't care as long as he gets to collect his check another year.
 
97spiderfan said:
It is absolutely ridiculous that after starting Tanner last year and seeing him do nothing to warrant him starting and eventually having to remove him from the starting line-up on a team that was pretty much devoid of talent. That Mooney said sure lets do the exact same damn thing with Tanner this year. He spent the entire OOC starting him again this year, even though the team had more talent this year, watching him give the same results as last year (which is to put it mildly lackluster).

Tanner went from starting the entire OOC to playing zero minutes in his last game. Meanwhile, the dude who took his place in the rotation, a freshman, showed us more in 1 game than we have seen from Tanner in 3 years. What a frickin waste.

We played an OOC that clearly shouted to everyone, we aren't playing for an NCAA bid, but yet Mooney is wasting away playing mediocre upper classman instead of trying to develop his young core. It makes zero sense, other than Mooney is padding his win total to tell us we are in better shape. Long term of course this hurts the program, but CM doesn't care as long as he gets to collect his check another year.
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Everything you said is spot on. There are other players (unnamed ) that preceded Tanner, but Mooney also played them ahead of younger and better talent. This is a continuing pattern. One year there were 2 guys in starting lineup that fit this criteria if memory serves me right.
 
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Spiderguy said:
Everything you said is spot on. There are other players (unnamed ) that preceded Tanner, but Mooney also played them ahead of younger and better talent. This is a continuing pattern. One year there were 2 guys in starting lineup that fit this criteria if memory serves me right.
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I knew as soon as I saw Tanner was named a starter this year, that it was going to be a long year.

Starters should be Aiden, Johnston, Lopez, Daughtry, and Walz. JRob and Harper should both be getting significant minutes at this point, as they are our potential future with more limited minutes for AP, Tanner, and Tyne (who has also seemingly regressed or at best not gotten any better).

Also did we just waste 2 scholarship years on McGothlin? I would like to see him but given the fact that he can't even get mop up minutes, I doubt he is any good either. Mooney is a self-serving preservationist, but also not a complete idiot. If McGothlin could play, he would be.
 
McGlothin had half a dozen offers, including Mason and San Francisco....I know we don't have the practice-level view, but I sure wish we'd gotten to see some more game opportunities to get a better idea of what he can and can't do.
 
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