spiderstudent17 said:

I will say, I have always felt that one indicator of a great program/coach at the mid-major level is how often its coaches move up to the higher level. Its certainly not the only factor, but it is a sign of success in my opinion. For instance, VCU has had Shaka, Will Wade, and Mike Rhoades all come and go to higher level programs in the past 10-15 years. Typically the coaches that have stayed at one program have had tremendous national level success like Coach K, Roy Williams, Boheim, Mark Few. Mooney is certainly not in that category. But there is a category below that where guys like McKillop and Mark Schmidt from the A10 are in, where I think UR administration feels Mooney falls into. When we think of other coaches at UR like Roussell for women basketball, Chemotti for men's lacrosse, or even Allison Kwolek who left WLax to be coach at Clemson, their names will likely be at least mentioned as an option to fill coaching positions vacancies at bigger name programs every year.

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Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant before Shaka Smart, as well.

VCU (and JMU in football) SEEK OUT coaches that "higher" programs will want to poach some day. It's one of the ingredients in their success relative to ours.

Meanwhile, we FREAK OUT when one of our coaches (rarely) gets courted by higher-level programs. That's how we get saddled with ridiculous 10-year extensions.

It's no coincidence that the best years of our football program were the Clawson-London years, and the best post-Tarrant era for our basketball program was under Beilein.

Neal is back with the Irish national team as they gear up for FIBA World Cup pre-qualifiers.

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97spiderfan said:

Yes it is. VCU and Dayton are both in the same damn league as us. It is a failure to not just strive but to actually be the best program we can be, on par with the our peer schools in our league. All we have to do is look 6 miles down the road to see one of those peer schools doing it. We've been just been conditioned to think this is the best success we can hope for. No one at VCU is saying nonsense like this ever (I'm not calling out you specifically 17) but this is what is parroted by our leadership all of the time. Listen to the VCU AD speak, listen to their media guys talk, listen to their coach talk. They all talk about winning ALL of the time, being a Top 25 program and going to the NCAA's. It is the sole focus of everything they do at VCU, as it should be here and everywhere, but yet it isn't here.

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Personally, I am in agreement with you and would love for us to be vocal about our expectations, but why is keeping it internal a bad thing? We don't know what Mooney says to the players behind close doors. We don't know what Hardt says to Mooney behind closed doors either. I don't think it would be a good look at all for a coach to publicly criticize a player even if its the right and honest assessment. That is something that should be said behind closed doors, which is why it leads to public statements from Mooney about him needing to give more playing time to players or this generic "we need to shoot better". A lot of people get on Hardt too for not being public about expectations. It was Theodore Roosevelt who said "speak softly and carry a big stick". That assertive approach is applicable in a way to demanding excellence in athletics where talking the talk isn't as important as walking the walk. "Big Hardt no cattle" Hardt has helped UR athletics have a season last year where 10 out of its 19 teams finished either 1st or 2nd in the A10. First time since the mid 2000s where our sports programs won 5 championships. The same "Big Hardt no cattle" who many felt was the lazy and easy hire of Roussell because he was from Bucknell. Now Roussell has taken UR women's basketball to new heights never reach before. The same "Big Hardt no cattle" who hired Anne Harrington that has led our Wlax to back-to-back A10 championships, Mik Aoki leading UR to A10 finalist in first season, or hired our new field hockey coach Martu Loncarica who has led UR field hockey to 10+ wins in a season in her first season for the first time since 2019.

And even when we have made public comments like saying we are one of the top programs in the nation, many came here and criticized Mooney for that lol, rather than praising the confidence and belief that we belong in that category. Hallock even had an article in UR magazine where he talked about the value of sports at UR: https://magazine.richmond.edu/artic...m_medium=referral&utm_campaign=magazine-story

Here's a notable quote "It was a starting seed from which I’ve grown a profound appreciation for athletics and a conviction, as the president of a university with 17 Division I teams, that competitive sports bring tremendous value to our university and that Spider Athletics can help take UR to even greater heights."

For me, I would rather have the actions speak louder than words. Even though yes, I do personally wish we were publicly vocal too.

Joe put all his chips on that washed up,vastly overpaid QB.Didnt pan out.

spiderstudent17 said:

. Yes, VCU and Dayton are standards of mid major programs who are able to achieve P5 success and that is the goal we should strive for, but failing to match VCU/Dayton level success is not inherently a failure.

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Yes it is. VCU and Dayton are both in the same damn league as us. It is a failure to not just strive but to actually be the best program we can be, on par with the our peer schools in our league. All we have to do is look 6 miles down the road to see one of those peer schools doing it. We've been just been conditioned to think this is the best success we can hope for. No one at VCU is saying nonsense like this ever (I'm not calling out you specifically 17) but this is what is parroted by our leadership all of the time. Listen to the VCU AD speak, listen to their media guys talk, listen to their coach talk. They all talk about winning ALL of the time, being a Top 25 program and going to the NCAA's. It is the sole focus of everything they do at VCU, as it should be here and everywhere, but yet it isn't here.

Well the short catch phrase answer that many will harp on is because of Mooney's overall lack of NCAA tournament success. However, there is more nuance to this in my eyes. Mooney is coaching at the second highest tiered-level right now, below the P5s so the only way he can move higher on the coaching totem poll is to go to a P5 program. Programs in comparable level conferences like AAC, MWC wouldn't pursue him even if he did have super high level success here. The threshold of coaching in a P5 program is much higher than moving let’s say from the MAAC to Missouri Valley Conference to the A10. In other words, it’s easier to move up the coaching ladder from the 30th best conference to the 21st best conference to the 12th best conference than it is to come from the 8th/9th best conference to the 3rd or 4th best conference.


It’s not just programs like Duke, UNC, etc. but virtually every power conference team has more resources, money, pedigree compared to us where their demands are going to be higher in terms of excellence. Mooney can do well in the eyes of UR administration, but not do well enough in the eyes of P5s where it warrants reaching out to him. So essentially the categories are 1: Mooney performs so well P5s want him. 2: Mooney performs well enough for UR to want to keep him. 3: Mooney performs poor enough that UR wants to fire him. I would say that in the eyes of UR administration, Mooney currently falls somewhere between category 1 and 2, and maybe in the past has been between categories 2 and 3, which is why he hasn't been fired nor has had P5 programs reaching out for him.

Mark Schmidt is in his 18th year at the Bonnies. He has won 2 A10 tournaments and 2 A10 regular seasons. He has been to NCAA's 3 times. He has a win percentage of 57.3% at St. Bonaventure. Let's compare this to Mooney who is in his 20th year with Richmond. He has won 2 A10 tournaments, 1 A10 regular season, been to NCAA's 3 times and has a winning percentage of 56.3% at UR. Should Mark Schmidt be fired as coach too for underperforming?

What I don't understand is why we take every opportunity to harp on Mooney and his lack of NCAA tournament success and not acknowledge that we have also had very good years and high success recently, even if we didn't make the NCAAs. He won coach of the year in the A10 last year. I am not immune to saying Mooney should be let go. If this year continues to be very bad for us and next year is the same case, then I think it warrants discussion about his future as a coach here. But the reality is that mid major programs like us (even in a great conference like A10) likely have different definitions of what warrants success compared to P5 programs. Yes, VCU and Dayton are standards of mid major programs who are able to achieve P5 success and that is the goal we should strive for, but failing to match VCU/Dayton level success is not inherently a failure.

We've doubled our votes in the coaches poll from 1 to 2! Fairfield with their 1–2 record and a pasting courtesy of the Spiders still got a vote too.




Our next three opponents are all currently winless against D-I competition, so yeah, that needle ain't gonna move until we face Oklahoma State in Daytona.

Soulis should be moved to the 3 more years of eligibility line. he had a medical redshirt.
I assume Graham will be on scholarship next year in the 2 years line, putting us at 13.

urmite said:

How many players are eligible to return next season? It is hard to keep track…

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Once this season is over, here's the roster breakdown (not including walk-ons). Hunt, Roche, Neskovic, and B. Artis are currently in their final year of eligibility:

1 more year of eligibility: Walz, Beagle, Roumoglou
2 more years of eligbility: Tanner, Tyne, GW3
3 more years of eligibility: Soulis
4 more years of eligibility: Robinson, McGlothin, Argabright, Richardson, Harper.

So if nobody transfers out, we will have 12 scholarship players going into next season. I'll be shocked if we don't have at least 1 or two guys transfer out.

Keep in mind that the scholarship/roster limit size rules are changing next season, and if we opt into the revenue sharing agreement, our roster allowance will change from 13 scholarships + a few walk-ons to 15 total players, all of which could be scholarshipped or not. At least I believe that's how it will work.

This is from the W&M board. There seems to be a hint of wistfulness, a wondering of what could have been for our rivals down the street. I would love for the series to remain in place and at the end of the season. It's been that way forever. London is a better coach than many give him credit for.

W&M (4-3, 7-4) @ #11 RICHMOND (7-0, 9-2)
The South’s Oldest Rivalry
Series: UR 65-64-4
Spiders close out their CAA membership on a 9 game win streak. The game will likely determine home seeding for UR, the potential to get a seed among the the top 8. The Tribe comes in on a winning yet disappointing season. Their motivation is for a possible playoff shot with a win yet that might still be a stretch. Anything can happen in this game, the series is littered with upsets. UR held last year for a 27-26 win when W&M failed on a final 2 point conversion. I would love to see one more upset in this special series but I feel like UR is better coached and have a more aggressive defense - so I think the Spiders pick up their 10th straight win. W&M will likely have more fans and a band at the game so I would discount any home field advantage.
Side note: despite URs shift to the Patriot, this series will remain an annual affair - whether it is season ending is not yet confirmed though.

97spiderfan said:

Yeah, and not 1 higher level program has even inquired about Mooney for the good part of the last decade. Wonder why???

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one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of Richmond athletics.

SFspidur said:

Only the coaches poll is explicitly mentioned, but they can use whatever they want, including the Stats poll.

FCS Championship: Everything you need to know

North Dakota State University held on to a 28-20 lead to win their eight FCS national championship and closeout a 16-0 single season.

www.ncaa.com

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My bias is for the Coaches' poll, unless we gain ground in the Stats poll.

MDspider8 said:

I've held off on being too critical, but I agree in thinking that we have about 2.5 guys who are currently A10 caliber on this roster. I think we might look back and view this as the least talented Richmond roster in the last decade. If this season continues as poorly as it has started off, I think we're going to be looking at a lot of roster turnover and the need to add another 4-5 guys from the portal. Not a spot you want to be in when the portal is going to be about 20% smaller than the last few years.

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How many players are eligible to return next season? It is hard to keep track…

VT4700 said:

Then, start Roche, or play GW3, Robinson, or McGlothin.

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feel like Mooney has given up on Roche. feels Tanner and AP have more potential.

Dusan needs Hunt type minutes. Give him 35 a game. Roche needs more than 12, and Tyne and Tanner need less.

I've held off on being too critical, but I agree in thinking that we have about 2.5 guys who are currently A10 caliber on this roster. I think we might look back and view this as the least talented Richmond roster in the last decade. If this season continues as poorly as it has started off, I think we're going to be looking at a lot of roster turnover and the need to add another 4-5 guys from the portal. Not a spot you want to be in when the portal is going to be about 20% smaller than the last few years.

spiderstudent17 said:

Giving my completely honest assessment from what I have seen the past 4 games, I think we only have 2 A10 caliber level players on this roster right now. Hunt, who is an A10 level starter, and Beagle who is an A10 level role player. It's a small sample size of 4 games, but that is how I see things are right now. So might as well try something different in terms of player rotations, different line-ups during the game, and see if that helps bring out player abilities more.

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Dusan too.

97spiderfan said:

Yeah, and not 1 higher level program has even inquired about Mooney for the good part of the last decade. Wonder why???

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Excellent point. Been forever since he has been mentioned for a big job, probably since 2012 or so.

Giving my completely honest assessment from what I have seen the past 4 games, I think we only have 2 A10 caliber level players on this roster right now. Hunt, who is an A10 level starter, and Beagle who is an A10 level role player. It's a small sample size of 4 games, but that is how I see things are right now. So might as well try something different in terms of player rotations, different line-ups during the game, and see if that helps bring out player abilities more.