Hardt confirms he is a phony

[Spider B]

"Continued support." Support of what? An autrosous record against VCU? A miserable record in A10 tournament? Leading the biggest disappointment of a season I can remember in all of sports? Clearly Hardt and/or his handlers don't care about winning. So sad. It doesn't have to be this way.

 

[urmite]

Surprised he did not use the 36-15 stat...

 

[I-M-UR]

So the ultimate goal is to be on the bubble? (Didn’t many of not most pundents have us out last year). Every team has a bad year and with a bare cupboard we will next year. So UR defines exceptionalism as we tried

 

[Gallipoli]

Spiders AD expresses support for Chris Mooney, says UR is open to NIT if considered

John Hardt, the University of Richmond vice president and director of athletics, Saturday expressed continued support for basketball coach Chris Mooney and said the Spiders would be open to participating

richmond.com

YES!!! How awesome is this!!! Hardt did the right thing. Drink the Kool Aid.

 

[I-M-UR]

For Hardt to fire Mooney would be admitting he made a multimillion dollar mistake with the extension, he obviously isn’t man enough to do that.

 

[Spider B]

So while we are retaining a coach that hasn't done squat in a decade, our rival is headed to the dance again with a young team (funny that's one of Mooney's excuses) and will play for the A10 championship on Saturday. Thanks Hardt!

 

[spider23]

Let's Go Aztecs! Let's go Wahoos! Let's go Heels! And yes , even Let's go Blue Hen Nation!

 

[spider fan]

So no other team in the nation had to deal with Covid issues or injuries? Particularly not any of the teams that will be selected for the NCAA Tournament? Silly me! I did not realize that.

 

[spider23]

I was resigned to the fact that we were done for , until after the next coach, based on the hypotheses that Hardt and Queally would botch the next hire. This keeps my timeliness intact, three more years of Mooney, 4 years of next coach, Spiders basketball resurgence to hopefully start in 2028. When I saw the tweet from JOC I smiled. Today is sunny in New England, going to be a great day!!

 

[I-M-UR]

Was there anything in Hardt’s comment address things need to improve, or we need to relook at, etc.... or is he really all excuses?

 

[spider fan]

Riding the "excuse train" - From the article:

"This season has been exceptionally challenging for Spider men’s basketball due to the pandemic, a rash of key injuries and the overall unpredictable nature of the season.”

 

[Not-A-Homer]

For Hardt to fire Mooney would be admitting he made a multimillion dollar mistake with the extension, he obviously isn’t man enough to do that.

It seems that you are on the right track here. I think the whole retain and support Mooney thing is about covering-up for the AD and the department that he runs. Things that come immediately to mind:
1) Consistent underachievement in most sports, mediocre to poor performance is obvious (reflects poorly on the Hardt administration)
2) Multimillion dollar extension mistake as stated by I-M-UR above (reflects poorly on Hardt and his administration)
3) School saying they will just get new fans (reflects poorly on the Hardt administration)
4) Matt whoever running his mouth regularly (reflects poorly on the Hardt administration)
5) Mooney, and the flagship program are the ultimate in mediocre to poor performance (reflects poorly on the Hardt administration)
6) COVID protocols were a failure, more so than most Universities (reflects poorly on the Hardt administration)
7) Hardt and Mooney were caught lying in the St. Louis debacle (reflects poorly on Hardt and his administration)
8) Mismanaged Hardt's and the schools relationship with the A-10 commissioner (reflects poorly on Hardt and his administration)
9) Sure fire, can't miss basketball season was a disaster (reflects poorly on Mooney and the Hardt administration)

If you flip the script and ask what the Hardt administration has done well, it is difficult to put many positives in his corner. I suspect that in his mind, he feels the need to sell the "everything is going great under my watch" story. That was, in fact, his statement.

It is pretty obvious to me that the bosses in Hardt's chain of command care little about winning. They likely don't know much about sports to begin with because they are academics. They seem to turn it over to Hardt. He tells that "things have never been better," they nod and smile, and follow it up with, that is good to hear.

 

[Eight Legger]

Let’s talk about the injuries, shall we?

Goose missed maybe 6-7 games as I recall. I would have rather had him healthy and available, but is he winning us any games that we lost in that stretch? I think not.

Crabtree has been injured for the past three years. Were we really expecting him to play a huge role this year? Sure didn’t seem like it. Would have been nice to have him, but he was going to play 15 minutes a game at most.

Francis was injured for the last game and a half. He played in every other game, many of which were lost inexplicably. The narrative that we would have won the a10 title of only he had been healthy is bunk.

Grant was injured for three games, but scored 10 points in two of those. He had six turnovers in the Duquesne game, but he also had a game with more than that earlier this year when he was perfectly healthy. And against vcu (also perfectly healthy) he missed 10 of his 12 shots. Maybe a “healthy” Grant helps us win one or two of the last three games, or maybe not. Anyone think that we definitely win the a10 tournament if he never got hurt? Of course not.

The bottom line is that we always end up playing the same game regardless of who is in there or who isn’t.

Hardt raising the covid excuse is garbage. Every team in the country could use that as an excuse. Mooney himself said a number of times that he thought having such a veteran team was a big advantage during a covid year. Can’t claim it as an excuse after you already claimed it as an advantage. Absurd.

 

[KWeaver]

We should offer to donate a statue of Mooney on Monument Ave and on campus. We should advertise everything he has done with regard to getting us toward the national championship, and celebrate the monumental lack of success that he has had. I wonder if the shameless administration would accept such a thing.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Was there anything in Hardt’s comment address things need to improve, or we need to relook at, etc.... or is he really all excuses?

They are blinded to what the concept of "improvement" really means & would dare go there other than lip service.

Everything is working to the constraints & limitations of the coach's ability, lack of leadership from the AD, true acknowledgment of continued failure, and admission that these two represent no hope for the future. They deserve each other & should be shown the door together.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Riding the "excuse train" - From the article:

"This season has been exceptionally challenging for Spider men’s basketball due to the pandemic, a rash of key injuries and the overall unpredictable nature of the season.”

Repeat - There will always be a reason(s). Never ending.

Our bucket of reasons over most of the last 16 years is bottomless. We already know what next year's will be. Then on to the next year & the following years. We can get creative with reasons, but the results never change.

 

[SFspidur]

Perhaps the most disappointing part of this is how quickly this came out. We don't even know if the season is over yet, and Hardt is expressing his unwavering support for Mooney...there hasn't been time for a proper evaluation, sit-down with Mooney, etc. They're not even pretending there's any concern here.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Perhaps the most disappointing part of this is how quickly this came out. We don't even know if the season is over yet, and Hardt is expressing his unwavering support for Mooney...there hasn't been time for a proper evaluation, sit-down with Mooney, etc. They're not even pretending there's any concern here.

If it ain't broke, why fix it?

 

[712_VT]

I was off the board all day yesterday and happened to see this news when I got home around midnight. I told everyone this was exactly what would happen and I was right. I didn’t get to read the actual article because it was behind a paywall but I seem to have the gist of what was said in there. The point Hardt made that makes me the most mad was the cOViD excuse. EVERY team in the country dealt with it this year and I would have to say UR handled it about as bad as anyone in the country. Mooney saying having a veteran team would be an advantage in a cOViD year makes it even worse. Yes it should have been an advantage but it didn’t turn out to be and who’s fault was that? We know the answer very well.
It seems to me that UR doesn’t really care about anyone’s opinions on the basketball program and it’s failures unless you give millions of dollars. The one thing I know they do care about is public embarrassment. They have left us with no choice, we have to embarrass them. We must go all out; email and call the school, call in to 950 and piss off Bob Black, go to games and bring fire Mooney signs, go crazy on social media, hell maybe even put up another billboard. I hate using this comparison but we gotta be like tennessee football fans on this matter, and I really don’t like the look tennessee fans give their program.

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

We should offer to donate a statue of Mooney on Monument Ave and on campus. We should advertise everything he has done with regard to getting us toward the national championship, and celebrate the monumental lack of success that he has had. I wonder if the shameless administration would accept such a thing.

Graffiti is legal now on all statues that go up on Monument Avenue, right?

Asking for a friend.

 

[plydogg]

How much is a billboard in downtown Richmond? I’m in for $5,000 and thinking we can put together the rest

 

[Spiders10]

Hardt, Queally, et al are so desperate to make this situation work that they'll let Mooney stick around for another 15 years, even if it means only 2 more bids (4 bids in 30 years). Why? Because they are absolutely determined to prove they were right, and their stupid fan base was wrong. They know better than you, and don't you ever question it. Just keep cutting them checks.

At this point, all we're doing is beating a dead horse by posting about the same things over and over and over again. Just walk away. I'll see you over on the football board. Godspeed.

 

[SpiderK]

How much is a billboard in downtown Richmond? I’m in for $5,000 and thinking we can put together the rest

LAMAR may give us the billboard. They received national recognition a couple years ago for the Fire Mooney ad.

 

[MrTbone]

Perhaps the most disappointing part of this is how quickly this came out. We don't even know if the season is over yet, and Hardt is expressing his unwavering support for Mooney...there hasn't been time for a proper evaluation, sit-down with Mooney, etc. They're not even pretending there's any concern here.

He is clearly giving him credit for making the tournament last year.

there’s no pretending to feign concern because there isn’t any. It’s a really troubling condition that the AD isn’t self-aware enough to recognize that there’s a legitimate problem.

 

[SpiderTrap]

Saw this one coming a mile away.
1) Last year is considered an NCAA year - I guess I am okay with that, but we will never know.
2) This year we have a multitude of excuses to fall back on - which include injuries, COVID pauses, and the overall difficulty of conducting a season around a pandemic.

And if the reason to bring Mooney back is to just decrease his contract by another year and not have to pay him AND a new coach - then that again just shows what the University thinks of sports and basketball. Again - acting like a University with no money, when it suits them.

And I honestly don't think they fire him after next season. We will finish probably around .500 depending on the schedule, but with such a young and inexperienced roster, we will once again be fed "the future is bright" line and when these young kids are all Juniors and Seniors, we will have a chance to make a run.

Meanwhile - just down the road, VCU is likely on its way to its way to its 7th NCAA appearance in the last 9 seasons, have won the conference tourney once in that time and made it 5 times (including this season). Not to mention - they were picked bottom half of the A10 this year and won the league and probably have the coach of the year in the league in Rhodes. And guess what - all of their top players are underclassmen, with many of them Soph and Frosh. I don' think Mooney has ever had a season the even sniffed the NCAA's with a team mainly of frosh and sophs.

 

[SpiderRick]

And I thought it couldn't get any worse than Keith Gill. Man I wanted him gone.

Be careful what you wish for....

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

He is clearly giving him credit for making the tournament last year.

Well, if we can just make up imaginary bids, I'm going to tell my grandkids about the magical 1990 Richmond Spiders Football playoff run.

 

[SpiderK]

Very predictable. Hardt gave Mooney credit for NCAA last year and nothing but excuses for this season.

I’m sure that Hardt is hard at work getting the NCAA to expand to 200 teams so that he can prove the message board wrong when Mooney leads us to a NCAA appearance.

I am surprised Hardt didn’t imply that UR could have won the national title as well. We were only 9 wins away from winning it all. Mooney should get credit for that.

 

[Spider B]

Even if credited with a tournament appearance last year, 3 NCAA in 16 years is unacceptable.

 

[DTSpider]

Even if credited with a tournament appearance last year, 3 NCAA in 16 years is unacceptable.

Not if you count last year as a Final Four appearance. Pretty sure we’re hanging a banner for that simulation.

 

[spidurfiji]

Holy crap....I thought the original billboard was tacky and counter-productive, but after reading this TD article, I’m starting to think that whoever did the original naughty billboard was a visionary.

The University doesn’t care about your money. If you are upset with the basketball program and threatening to withhold your $1000 SAF donation, then you don’t understand math, and the size of the endowment, and the impact of your withheld $1000 donation.

Do you give $1m to Spider athletics? If not, then NOBODY CARES what you think.

The University doesn’t care about money, because they are bathing in it. But they do care about being embarrassed, which is why the original billboard struck such a nerve with the administration.

Where to from here?

For the good of Spider MBB.

And what’s disgusting with all that $$, they came around asking for money to help due to COVID.

 

[Gospiders06]

Nothing ever changes at Richmond. Continue to build and collect all the money. Complain about the lack of donations? Why donate to a program that doesn't value winning? Having a coach for over 16 years that hasn't produced since 2011. It's beyond ridiculous and makes us irrelevant on many levels. Winning titles and going to the big dance is all people remember. Going to the NIT OR CBI doesn't bring anything to the university. NCAA generates more than 50 percent of revenue from the NCAA tournament, not any other tournament.