Check their message boards that’s probably quickest way for u to find it.
Can you send me documentation on most ADs not doing radio? You clearly said they don’t. I’d like to see that thanks.
Hardt on Black & Drew
- Thread starter ChoppinBroccoli
- Start date
Check their message boards that’s probably quickest way for u to find it.
Can you send me documentation on most ADs not doing radio? You clearly said they don’t. I’d like to see that thanks.
Never said it was the goal. Reread it. I said it would be nice to have another NCAA team that bob explicitly said we did. And that we only have 1 of 10 so far. Odds r if we r playing NCAA team from last year it will help our sos this year bc they will likely still be a solid team again. Not definite but more likely for sure.
However I think projected NCAA teams this year is much better than last year NCAA ones myself. We need more quad 1 and 2 games ooc. Do not have enough.
I was just asking you since it seems like you know. Again, I would think it would be pretty easy for you to give me some teams that those schools played. I was not questioning you. I was interested in who they played. And, no, I don't think a lot of ADs get on the radio much, and yes, I think Hardt has been pretty accessible so far. Could I be wrong about other AD's? I guess I could, but I don't think I am. Sorry, no documentation, but maybe some message boards out there will have discussions of ADs who don't do much media? How about our past AD? Did he do much media? All the other A-10 ADs? Do they do a lot? Maybe they do, and I just haven't heard them much, but regarding Hardt, I think he has been good with the media so far.
Maybe, but don't you think playing Charleston this year could be better than playing Northeastern, who got the CAA bid last year? And, if Bama is a quad 1 game, does it matter if they did not make the dance last year? And at ODU certainly looks like a quad 2 game at worst this year. I think if we win enough OOC games (8 or 9?), do well in the A-10 with some quality wins there, and the conference does well overall, our schedule seems more than acceptable. Bottom line is it is really up to us to win games because the schedule is fine.
Yes
No
Redundant questions I said as much already in my post u responded to.
Odu could easily be borderline. Bart Torvik has them as quad 3. Hopefully they r quad 2 but I would certainly not call them quad 2 at worst right now. We’ll see.
8-5 ooc will suck. Again I’m looking at it from ncaa or bust perspective. For some of the little old ladies at RC they may find it great who knows. R u expecting 14-4 or better in A10? That’s what you’ll need with 8-5.
We weren’t promised fine. We were told toughest in league on multiple occasions.
I agree with you we need to win games that part is long overdue.
If we are talking at large, 14-4 is probably what you need in the A-10. Maybe 13-5 with enough quality wins. I would rather go 8-5 and 14-4 than 10-3 and 12-6(the higher you finish in conference the better with likely so few at larges for the A-10 out there), but it mainly comes down to who you beat and how many higher quad wins you got.
The irony of Mooney, who never sets or discusses publicly any type of goals whatsoever, pre-emptively declaring we'd have the toughest OOC schedule in the league and the best class ever in school history, is not lost on me.
I don't understand why this bothers some of you so much. We have a real good schedule and this class could be the best. Isn't that the main thing regarding his point? We really won't know how accurate his statements were (if those were his exact words) until after the season anyway.
VT I don’t think many AD’s do radio unless they have something to crow about.
Partly, they don’t want to seem to be undermining their coaches by misspeaking regarding
a change. Suppose Mooney wasn’t changing the defense this year? Well, Hardt pretty much
left little doubt that he expects him to. I know CM said he was changing , but suppose he hadn’t
considered It? Someone would look really bad. Lol
For the same reason you would be bothered on this board if I said something that I couldn't prove with facts or evidence. Don't make outlandish statements to placate a fanbase when you know you're not going to live up to them. It's called being principled.
The statements were not outlandish, and time will tell how accurate they will be. This is only a big deal to you because you do not like our coach. If another coach in our conference made statements like this and their team had similar schedules, it would not be a big deal to anyone.
I don't like our coach, but I don't like being lied to either. He could have just said "We're going to try our best to have one of the best OOC schedules in the league." Instead, he promised THE best.
Words matter dude. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Not that complicated.
I think people also get frustrated that we have not made statements or commitments to goals ever with this coach. If you’re winning and hitting postseason at a reasonable clip, that’s ok, no one cares. But when you miss for a long time, and things seem to be going the wrong way, you can’t suddenly start making superlative statements and then miss them.
I can't believe some are discounting the importance of integrity. Nobody forced the coach to advance that narrative.
Best class ever. Not "one of" per big hat no cattle, walk it back Hardt. Also have an awfully good class following the best class ever.
NCAA or bust
Personally I don't have a problem with Mooney's comments but I can see why some fans are bewildered/annoyed after 8 years of not even mentioning what our goals are besides "competing" and "improving" now Mooney comes out with such a definitive statement. And I realize "will become" the best class is not absolutely definitive but it rings similar to Hardt bragging about "hiring" Lunardi as something to satiate the fanbase now that folks are growing restless.
Now, if these guys do end up being the best class ever we will surely be dancing late into March and I will gladly eat crow and attend as many games as I can losing my voice in support of my alma mater...but if this ends up being the same result with little adjustments...Coach's words will ring hollow and folks will have more than a right to be really upset and change will be expected. Mooney has lost a lot of the equity he built up almost 10 years ago. He needs to deliver results now.
Now, if these guys do end up being the best class ever we will surely be dancing late into March and I will gladly eat crow and attend as many games as I can losing my voice in support of my alma mater...but if this ends up being the same result with little adjustments...Coach's words will ring hollow and folks will have more than a right to be really upset and change will be expected. Mooney has lost a lot of the equity he built up almost 10 years ago. He needs to deliver results now.
sman I was responding to this VT400 comment..."if those were his exact words". Was showing what was said.
But I don't think people have a problem with it. I don't. But I have a problem with John Hardt intentionally misrepresenting it, walking it back. Can you see the difference btw what Mooney said and what Hardt said? And the UR bait & switch machine did the same with the schedule. And yes Mooney was clear on his schedule comments. Toughest in A10. Sure the schedule technically is tbd too but you can gauge those early. Follow through.
Anyway I'm glad Mooney said it. I'm excited to be a great team. What I can't understand is even the biggest Mooney backers on here won't say we should definitely be in NCAA. U already have the coach stating NCAA is reasonable expectation. And if this will be the bestclassever you are in NCAA this upcoming season as juniors. NCAA or bust. Should not even be a debate. And if we aren't in NCAA this year Mooney was wrong and there should be consequences, especially after 9 straight years of no NCAA. Again I don't even see a debate there.
Also not sure why you underlined will become...if anyone thought they were already the best class ever after 20 losses in each of last 2 seasons they need a lobotomy.
I have no problem with #bestclassever. It's kind of a pointless and unprovable statement, anyway - like the silly GOAT LeBron/Jordan debate. How do you determine #bestclassever? You'd have to wait until they graduate regardless. If they don't win a ton the next two years, Mooney's wasted #bestclassever. Who cares? Just win.
I was referring to the "Best Schedule in the A10" narrative. He was in his safe space (Spider SportsLine) and admitted to Bob that last year's OOC schedule was so soft - intentionally - because we were inexperienced. At that point he could have just said we'd have a better OOC schedule next season and be done with it. (And it is better, so that would have been true) Instead, he chose #bestA10schedule, and kept beating that drum for the rest of the winter. We're not even close to that...yet....but the schedule is still incomplete.
Yes Captain good points. That's why some people have a problem too. I've heard it from others a number of times. That both the statements were an intentional strategy to distract, to create a smoke screen, especially because it was unlike Mooney. We're not naive that this stuff happens places. Queally, Hardt, Mooney etc decide hey we need to put out some looking ahead very positive statements. At the time of these statements Mooney was feeling some pressure. Put out some over the top statements, even if you don't have full belief in them, just to hold off the fanbase. Later as things die down, we can walk those back. Again I personally was excited to hear them. Mooney is one of the highest if not highest paid individual at the university, and the most public figure. So own it. Nobody respects an intentional smoke screen. Now I don't know if that was the plan, however unfortunately they did indeed walk back the comments and that only gives credence to the theory. Insulting the intelligence of the fanbase or alumni never works. A lesson the University should know all so well from Bill Cooper. Both Hardt and Mooney are accountable.
I had seen these before but finally had chance to go back & look. Here are some games...
URI - Alabama, Providence, West Virginia, Western Kentucky, Maryland, MTSU, likely LSU/Utah State or both in a tourney
Dayton - St. Mary's, Colorado, Indiana St., 3 in Maui Invitational (where they will almost assuredly avoid Chaminade unless they lose first 2 games, a tourney where they don't play 2 bottom feeders)
VCU - have same of Charleston, ODU and St Francis as us. Also have LSU, Wichita St., Purdue, either Florida St. or Tennessee, Missouri St.
Davidson - Vanderbilt like us, plus auburn, Nevada, Wake Forest, Northeastern, Loyola-Chicago, Marquette and likely 2 other good teams, they're in a 8 team tourney where they get no bottom feeders.
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I'm happy with the schedule we have. what is the "best" schedule in the A10? the hardest? I think that would be foolish coming off 20 loss seasons to have the hardest schedule in the league. If that's what Mooney was trying for, I'm glad he didn't get it. I want a schedule that we can succeed with.
I would have to say that Rhody has put together the most difficult OOC so far.
Example:
Home: Alabama, Providence, Western Kentucky Away: at Maryland, at West Virginia
Yes best = hardest. The only way to judge it. There's no way to quantify some subjective, flimsy "best but not hardest" schedule. Every single person could have a different take on it. That sounds too much like the "eye test". The eye test is not Richmond's friend or any non p6 for that matter typically. That's why the committee uses numbers, we want them to use numbers like SOS, Quad wins. Even tho those also favor P6 inherently they don't favor them as much as the dreaded eye test.
When coaches say best it means hardest/toughest. And it's best in A10. Are we really going to compare best for Richmond schedules vs. best for GW etc. Impossible. That's why we keep standings and all these other NET rankings or RPI in the past too. When you are comparing to rest of league you are ranked based on non conf SOS, that's it. If you want to publicize your own Spiderman's rankings that differ from SOS you can but I think barely anyone will notice or care (I'm 1 exception I respect u enough to look at your own personal rankings).
Mooney scheduled weak intentionally last year - VT4700 of course said otherwise - Mooney admitted as much on that. He was looking to schedule hard & aggressively this upcoming season and next. The point of non conf scheduling is post season consideration. When you have a NCAA or bust team like we do you can't risk having softer scheduling than you wanted. Err on the side of being harder, u have to imo. I don't think hardest is foolish. we have an expected ncaa team, an expected #bestclassever, we can take difficult. And if we don't have that team what's the point, what are we doing at Richmond waiting on a coach 10 years for a bid?
I personally don't think we have enough quad 1 and 2s on the schedule, but we'll see where we end up relative to A10. Ultimately if our OOC is good enough to get in, then the credit will come regardless. I'll be right there in line. If we end up on bubble but out, the schedule will likely be a big reason why, and that will be on Mooney and Hardt and his Lunardi screw up. If we end up much farther out than that, it will also be on Hardt and Mooney but Joey Bags will get a pass.
Who knows? Sums up this board, doesn't it? I guess haters will hate, but my goodness, there is not anything close to wrong with what he said.
I'm not sure where that specific quote came from, but he certainly did say at least once that this would be the best class ever at UR.
My sense is very few people have a problem with the statement itself, frankly it’s unknowable for another two years.
What I think you’re seeing is about two things: 1) UR staff hedging on the statement which in and of itself isn’t an issue except some fans see a repeated pattern of commitment to statements [i need to get <him> more time, we have to get better on defense, we’re young but the experience will come, etc.], and 2) cognitive dissonance between the talent we have and the results provided.
I don’t personally care a ton about this particular statement but I get where people are coming from.
When I think of a player class I think of a four year body of work. To me the best class is a group that accumulates wins throughout their college career and not just a one or two year period.
If this current Junior class is indeed "the best class ever", we will be going to the NCAA the next 2 years, simple as that.
lol yes, I know best meant hardest. I'm not arguing whether or not he said that. I'm saying in my opinion it was foolish to even try to put together the hardest schedule in the league. we lost 20 games ... twice. yeah, I do think we'll be much better but this group doesn't know how to win yet. giving them the toughest schedule in the league doesn't give us the best chance to dance. a decently tougher schedule and a high winning percentage gives us the best chance.
that quote came right from the video linked above. I don't know if he said it again another way.
In the context of when he first said it, yes "hardest" is what he meant. I agree that it would be foolish to go out and schedule Duke, Virginia and Michigan State to accomplish that. But we can be smart about it. Two seasons ago, we "tied" with VCU, and they went out and scheduled the #2 OOC in the country last season. They were the only team in the A10 that got any at-large consideration. Davidson and Dayton were 2/3 in the league, and they didn't even sniff the tourney. Their OOCs last season were better than what we've announced....so far. If we don't schedule hard enough, we are condemning our players to needing to win the A10 tourney to dance.
Alabama was a really smart addition - a good, not great (probable) Quad 1 team - only Quad 1 if we play them at Alabama. Their fans may not be too fired up for what looks like a buy game. It's a chance at an upset and a resume booster either way. Gimme two more of those, every year.
Taken to an extreme, we could "succeed" with a schedule of 13 Quad 4 games, but that won't get us into the tourney. Maybe some fans would be appeased by the winning record that would produce ("winningest coach in UR history!!!! yipee!"), but I don't think any of us want that.
When Mooney seizes on a narrative, he repeats it a ton.
Again, it's a silly, pointless thing for him to push. Who cares? If you can lose to Longwood and Hampton at home with 4/5 of #bestclassever, what does that say about you as a coach?
that would be the most successful class. and yes that's what we're all more interested in.
CM clearly wasn't talking about cumulative success together after losing 20 games twice. and he wasn't talking about a recruiting class because they came at different times. Blake just got here, Nick missed last year, Grant had his redshirt year, and Nathan wasn't great as a freshman.
but at the end of the day if they stay together the next two years we'll graduate a class of five guys ... Grant with over 2,000 points, Jacob, Nick and Blake with over 1,500 points, and Nathan with over 1,000 points, and in their college careers.
whether they do anything great together remains to be seem, but it's still an impressive group.
