I don't see this impacting UR in anyway as Mooney I believe is safe for at least 2 more years, if not 3 and would expect he puts together a winning season in that timeframe. But interesting to see some of the rumors and happenings around college hoops and some of these could have an impact on the A10.

The shocker in my opinion is NC State and Keatts parting ways. This year has been a down year for them, but overall - he has been at NC State 8 years and they have made the tourney in 3 years, with a final four run just in 2024. I would think that final four run alone buys you 3-4 years after it occurs. He has won 20+ games in 5 out of the 8 seasons, and in 2 years made the NIT. So clearly looks like something behind the scenes happening in NC State. But that will be an opening that will likely get some looks and 2 coaches from the A10 high on the list for probably every major program will be VCU's Odom and Mason's Skinn. Odom will likely get a lot of calls. Skinn will likely be on the list of some programs - but probably a 3rd or 4th option if the search gets that far. But we could see some coaching changes in the A10.

On giving day site they need only 21 more gifts to unlock a $5,000 gift. Even though I have given a reasonable gift to football, I may give another to help unlock. Anybody willing to join me?

Ouch.... didn't think this was coming at all. Was really excited to see how he could continue to develop here, and thought he would have the keys to the starting C spot after next year. Not the kind of guy I wanted to lose.

Now we really need a young big. No depth behind Walz and Beagle once they're gone next year.

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The NY Times is reporting that Trump wants to make Marco Rubio his Secretary of State. This may be premature, but here it is

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Today and tomorrow are UR's Day(s) of Giving. We may disagree politically, but we all love our university. There are numerous ways to specify exactly where you want your money to go; I chose baseball and women's basketball.

Currently 34 overall

only 1-3 in Quad 1 games, Quad 1 is defined as:


A "Quad 1" game in women's NET rankings refers to a game played against an opponent ranked within the top 30 NET rankings at home, top 50 NET rankings on a neutral court, and top 75 NET rankings on the road; essentially, a game against a highly ranked opponent regardless of where the game is played, giving the most weight to home games against top teams.

Next up #329 St Bonaventure tomorrow night at 6pm in RC

Then followed by #130 VCU in the RC on Sunday at 2pm.

See you all there!

For the second year in a row, Roussell has earned a contract extension. Terms not disclosed of course.

"Aaron has built a championship program and his teams play an exciting brand of basketball which has captivated the Spider community," said Hardt. "Under his leadership, our team has climbed to new competitive heights while representing Richmond in a manner that makes Spiders everywhere proud. Extending Aaron's contract was a top priority for the University and Spider Athletics this offseason, and I'm thrilled that Coach Roussell will remain at Richmond and have the chance to continue to construct one of the top women's basketball programs in the country."

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"Coach Roussell is an outstanding and inspiring role model, who prepares our remarkable women's basketball student-athletes to excel as a team and as leaders on and off the court," said University of Richmond President Kevin F. Hallock. "I am profoundly grateful for his deep commitment to our players and our entire Richmond community."

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"First, I want to thank everyone at the university and in our athletic department—specifically President Hallock and John Hardt," Roussell said. "I'm grateful to be surrounded by leaders with such strong alignment and a shared vision of the amazing potential women's basketball has at Richmond. I also want to thank each staff member and player who has been a part of the build of this program. We have shared many incredible achievements and created multiple lifetime memories, each of which sparks a desire for even bigger milestones ahead for this program." [...]

"My excitement, pride, and love for this program are at an all-time high and I can't wait to continue this journey with our fans and Spiders everywhere," Roussell said.

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What an incredible season our women’s team and what an incredible program Roussell is building. Similar to the men’s team, I wanted to make a thread for what to look for going into next season. Unlike the men’s thread, the tone for this one will be a lot more upbeat with the common theme of capitalize.

Capitalize:

How many times has our men’s team had great 1-2 seasons, but we were unable to sustain that and elevate our program at the next level? We have a great opportunity now to do that with the women’s program. The biggest way to do this is pay Roussell a P5 salary that he deserves and give him the NIL resources to continue building Richmond to be a top 25 program. Basketball is our flagship sport: both men’s and women’s. I do not want us to lose out on an elite coach because we didn’t want to pay the money. If we don’t want to pay coaches in our Olympic sports a higher salary to prevent them from going to P5, fine (with the exception of Chemotti with men's lacrosse). In basketball we have to go all in. I don’t care where we draw the money from but find a way to get it done. The ROI we will get from this will be the best out of all our sports.

Keeping Coach Roussell:

• This one is obvious and discussed in more details in other threads, but incredibly important. If he stays here for his career, I think he will go down as the best coach in Richmond history.
• UR really can be a top 25 caliber program and we should do everything we can to support Roussell in that pursuit.

Roster:

• First and foremost, we have to keep our core returning roster. Doogan, Ullstrom, and Sweeney will be an excellent core coming back next year and there is absolutely no reason why we can’t content for another A10 regular season/tournament championship and make the NCAAs again. We need to give them serious NIL money that they deserve.
• I have no doubt that we will also have new players that will step-up whether that is someone currently on the bench, an incoming high school recruit, or incoming transfer. I think we are another 1-2 solid players away from being just as good if not better than the past 2 years.
• I want to see us hit the transfer portal and go after big name players who are transferring from P5 programs or who have produced at a high level at lower conference. With our reputation now and (hopefully) NIL money, we should be a place that everyone we reach out should seriously consider.

Scheduling:

• Hopefully no debate on this one. Let’s focus on building another very strong schedule. Our women’s team should go and try and schedule as many Q1/Q2 games possible next year. We are a very respected team and I am sure the opportunities will be there. More importantly, we have the talent to win a good majority of those games.
• I would love to see us continue to be invited to the elite non-conference tournaments.

Other:

• Let’s build on this momentum and hopefully have an even better turnout attendance wise next year. Kudos to the athletic department for offering a lot of free promotions or other reasons to get people to the games. The attendance and garnering more interest is worth whatever revenue that would’ve been generated with ticket sales. Let’s keep the interest in this team growing.
• Would love to see some red outs (with shirts provided of course) for some women’s games too like against VCU.

PG out of St. Chris down the street. Bunch of lower-level offers, but evidently we feel good enough about him now to offer.


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And we're off and running! First up, Campbell's Colby Duggan. First-team all-CAA forward who averaged 15.7 ppg. Ok, not great, shooter at 46.1% overall and 34.0% from deep. Soph with 2 years of eligibility left. Early entrant into the portal due to McGeehan getting the boot.

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Away(lots of bus rides and 1 plane ride /season) shown in miles-

Lehigh (310)
Wofford (360)
UNC (164)
William & Mary (52)
Bucknell (285)
Georgetown (110)
Colgate (470)

Home

Howard
VMI
Holy Cross (510)
Fordham (354)
Lafayette (315)

Well Munchkin got his way after loading the board with a bunch of list cause attitude folks who did not renew the first black sup of VMI.
Why might you ask………
I grew up in affirmative action and am ok with trying to overturn the failure of the courts to support Black Americas during Jim Crow and the lost cause. I did not care for DEI as it seems to be a minority group trying to jam their social values down our throats. I am opposed to males acting like females in sport competition. I saw my own college sports titled ix from existence. In exchange, I got to see two nieces compete as spiders. The women have made great headway and deservedly so. Why now throw up roadblocks?
Back to Cedric Winn, he was highly praised by his colleagues in the Pentagon.
So why was he not renewed?

to Nashville. Championship football and music.

Memphis sure likes Spiders...

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Figured we could use a thread separate from the betting one to follow how our conference mates are doing.

14 squads in action on opening day, with 13 of them playing D-I competition. Davidson was the exception, hosting D-III William Peace, and of course the Spiders were not in action. The A-10 went a respectable 11–3 on the day, with several squads recovering from early deficits to score wins.

Not a lot of surprises I guess. Mostly beating up on inferior competition, though Loyola only winning by 5 over Chicago State is a bit surprising to me even though Chicago State isn't quite the basement dweller they were a few years ago. SLU falling to Santa Clara was a missed opportunity for a decent win...gotta have those if you've hoping to be a contender. Hope Avila is okay.

I don't know whether to be surprised about Duquesne losing to Lipscomb...it's Duquesne. VCU rolled over Bellarmine with their guards doing a ton of damage. Not a lot of bench production and they really only went 8 deep. Billups only got 4 minutes but had 5 points, while Jennings was scoreless in 15 minutes.

Wins
Bona 70, CSUN 56
UMass 103, UNH 74
Dayton 87, St. Francis 57
Mason 75, NC Central 58
VCU 84, Bellarmine 65
St. Joe's 70, Navy 63
La Salle 65, American 52
URI 96, Fairfield 58
GW 76, Mercyhurst 59
Loyola 77, Chicago State 72
Davidson 88, William Peace 47 (D-III)

Losses
Santa Clara 85, SLU 78
St. John's 92, Fordham 60
Lipscomb 77, Duquesne 72

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Wonder which is the heavier weighted when the mercenaries make their decisions?
Ex: Play for Golden for less money or CM for more money?

Gilly's obviously busy with the parent club right now, but Cayo has been selected to the Hustle's training camp roster. Potentially a long shot given he's coming from the tryout path rather than any sort of team rights, but you never know!


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Was a pleasure to see these 2 coaches involved in Florida’s success this year. We may see one of them back here when King Mooney moves on🕸️🕷️🏀

6’7” wing out of IMG, from Illinois. Offers from Vermont, Wyoming, Ga Tech, and others.


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Goose has wrapped up his MBA at UR, and now it's off to pro hoops back in Finland.

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Think Jacob Gilyard's NBA career merits its own thread at this point. Thrilled as SF also noted his 2 way contract is for the 23-24 season as well.

Thought I’d get this thread started. Vegas giving a ton of respect for our spiders with UCLA only as 14.5 point favorites as the #1 team in the country playing at home against us. Let’s shock the world on Sunday!