Looking into next season - women's basketball

[spiderstudent17]

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.

 

[spider23]

Agree, I think we are at a crossroads with women's basketball and Roussell. Pay him and give him the resources, or lose him and slide to mediocrity.

Look at Mooney's first 6 years at Richmond vs Roussell's. Both went back to back NCAA's in year 5 and 6. Then Mooney goes on to one more in 14 years. WOW. While I have soured on Mooney over the years, I do buy into the narrative a bit that the administration created this monster of mediocrity. Starting with the 10 year contract, so that part was self inflicted.

With Roussell, you can pay him well and incentivize the heck out of a shorter term contract, and give him resources to avoide the moon man slide.

 

[UR Fan 2]

Don't sleep on Alicia Newell's importance on the team. She stepped in and played significant minutes until Faith Alston had recovered from injury and honestly as a freshman, she looked really, really good! At 5'9" she is the perfect compliment to Sweeney at the pg next year.

 

[Eight Legger]

I liked that during the postgame press conference, Doogan was talking about Budnik and said "I don't know what I'm going to do without her next year." I interpreted that, rightly or wrongly, to mean Doogan is planning to come back. We'll see.

 

[Eight Legger]

Not that I really want to entertain the idea, but... does anyone know which women's jobs may come open that we need to be worried about?

This site is tracking openings here, and so far I don't see a ton that concern me.

 

[UR Fan 2]

Also, if Katie Hill is only a Sr does it mean she could come back for a 5th year?

 

[Gallipoli]

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.

I am not sure Richmond has the institutional wherewithal to fund this list.

 

[spiderstudent17]

Not that I really want to entertain the idea, but... does anyone know which women's jobs may come open that we need to be worried about?

This site is tracking openings here, and so far I don't see a ton that concern me.

Don’t know too much but saw this posted regarding Wisconsin. Don’t have the subscription but will assume Roussell is one of them based on the fact his picture is shown.

Also, if Katie Hill is only a Sr does it mean she could come back for a 5th year?

This year was the last for the COVID eligibility. Hill has used up her 4 years of eligibility.

I am not sure Richmond has the institutional wherewithal to fund this list.

We do have the means to support this, whether we choose to is a different question. I don’t mind if we choose not to compete with P5 schools for our coaches in basically most sports as I understand that we have only so many resources we can provide and need to allocate appropriately. But basketball isn’t one of those sports. This is our premier sport. We opted in NCAA house settlement for a reason. If we aren’t going to do everything we can to keep an elite coach here, then why bother doing all these investments. Now, at the end of the day it’s still up to Roussell, but at the very least we can say that we’ve done everything in our power to keep him. I don’t know what the salaries for P5 coaches are, but he needs to be paid whatever the median is. Secondly, we need to give him $750K-1 million for NIL. If we can’t find the funds to support our flagship sport when we finally have a coach who is a wonderful person and an elite coach, then we only have ourselves to blame.

 

[8LeggedFreak]

This is cool and appreciate the effort and enthusiasm. But I would be shocked if Roussell is back next year. Bet his agent is talking to Wisconsin today, at the very least. He will be a hot name. He's also originally a Midwest guy.

And Richmond will not even come close to matching salary, assistant salaries, NIL funds, etc. Think the money gap has gotten unbelievably wide between the power conferences (particularly B1G and SEC) and the mid-major leagues.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Gallipoli]

We do have the means to support this, whether we choose to is a different question.

The school recognizes that the NCAA Men's tournament is a path towards increased recognition and stature. The women's basketball program may be a way for us to develop some of that stature, in a more cost effective manner.

The issue is whether we have the institutional desire to support an elite women's program.

 

[spiderstudent17]

This is cool and appreciate the effort and enthusiasm. But I would be shocked if Roussell is back next year. Bet his agent is talking to Wisconsin today, at the very least. He will be a hot name. He's also originally a Midwest guy.

And Richmond will not even come close to matching salary, assistant salaries, NIL funds, etc. Think the money gap has gotten unbelievably wide between the power conferences (particularly B1G and SEC) and the mid-major leagues.

Fingers crossed.

Call me delusional, but is the ceiling at Wisconsin that much higher than Richmond? Theoretically I guess with Big 10 name, but still. Richmond has been garnering top 25 votes throughout the year. We were tied with the #1 team in the country at halftime, we only lost to Texas who is also a #1 seed by 10 earlier in the year. We were leading Alabama with under 4 minutes left, beat an Ok State team that's been ranked, and to top it off dominated a Georgia Tech team that was as high as #13 in the country. Sure looks to me like UR can create the reputation of a Gonzaga in men's basketball and be considered a power level team. The building blocks are there for us to only exceed this year. Imagine having the NIL resources of a P5 with Roussell's recruiting/coaching ability and bringing in 4 star players.

So hopefully, Roussell is able to overlook the Big10 name a bit (even though the A10 is getting better and better) and recognize that he basically has a power conference caliber team in Richmond here. Factor in things that don't have a price tag like the familiarity with Hardt and the University. Also things like him and his family liking it here, the opportunity to build a legacy at UR, and having the resources to succeed here without the external pressures of a P5, then I hope remaining at UR becomes more and more enticing.

Basketball is our priority sport. Unlike P5's, we don't have football to influence things that much. When we have the opportunity to seize the situation and capitalize on our success, we need to take it. The return of investment is there. The money to go towards staff salaries and NIL will be worth it for the national exposure we get, increased ticket revenue, and money from the NCAA for making the tournament and advancing farther. We got 2 units this year I believe and each unit is $113K (correct me if I'm wrong). I don't know how much we keep but if we keep even 70% of the $226K then that's significant.

 

[spiderstudent17]

The school recognizes that the NCAA Men's tournament is a path towards increased recognition and stature. The women's basketball program may be a way for us to develop some of that stature, in a more cost effective manner.

The issue is whether we have the institutional desire to support an elite women's program.

No question that men's tournament will have greater exposure in recognition. Still, the women's game is growing significantly. The unit budget for NCAA is going to increase from 15 million this year to 20 million next and 25 million in 2027. Plus, from a national landscape perspective, women's basketball still gets talked about in media more than sports like tennis, field hockey, etc. We should aspire to be elite in as many sports as possible at UR. Even men's lacrosse who is currently #10 in the country gets us some level of recognition and stature. However, without question the priority is to do so with basketball: both men and women. Let's capitalize on the opportunity to go all in on women's basketball. This is our sport at UR and we finally have after all these years an elite women's coach who can elevate this program to national stature. If this isn't worth investing in and wanting to support, then why bother opting in house settlement, building 15 million dollar practice facility, or putting in 10s of millions renovating robins center. Again, it's ultimately up to Roussell and what he/his family wants. But at the end of the day, we should not let a quality coach and person with character of his caliber walk out the door because we did not want to pay him. Not in basketball. Find the means to support this program. If UR wants to show it cares about athletic success, then this is where we can show it.

 

[8LeggedFreak]

Call me delusional, but is the ceiling at Wisconsin that much higher than Richmond? Theoretically I guess with Big 10 name, but still. Richmond has been garnering top 25 votes throughout the year. We were tied with the #1 team in the country at halftime, we only lost to Texas who is also a #1 seed by 10 earlier in the year. We were leading Alabama with under 4 minutes left, beat an Ok State team that's been ranked, and to top it off dominated a Georgia Tech team that was as high as #13 in the country. Sure looks to me like UR can create the reputation of a Gonzaga in men's basketball and be considered a power level team. The building blocks are there for us to only exceed this year. Imagine having the NIL resources of a P5 with Roussell's recruiting/coaching ability and bringing in 4 star players.

So hopefully, Roussell is able to overlook the Big10 name a bit (even though the A10 is getting better and better) and recognize that he basically has a power conference caliber team in Richmond here. Factor in things that don't have a price tag like the familiarity with Hardt and the University. Also things like him and his family liking it here, the opportunity to build a legacy at UR, and having the resources to succeed here without the external pressures of a P5, then I hope remaining at UR becomes more and more enticing.

Basketball is our priority sport. Unlike P5's, we don't have football to influence things that much. When we have the opportunity to seize the situation and capitalize on our success, we need to take it. The return of investment is there. The money to go towards staff salaries and NIL will be worth it for the national exposure we get, increased ticket revenue, and money from the NCAA for making the tournament and advancing farther. We got 2 units this year I believe and each unit is $113K (correct me if I'm wrong). I don't know how much we keep but if we keep even 70% of the $226K then that's significant.

I do think the ceiling is quite a bit higher, yeah. I think he could build a perennial NCAA qualifier at Richmond, but he could be getting to Final Fours at a place like Wisconsin. I have no idea what his personal goals are, but he would go from playing in front of dozens of people to thousands, nationally televised games, etc. Maybe he's the rare one that would rather build something at a mid-major, but seems unlikely, he's a competitive guy.

I think the harder thing is just the money. Recruiting is completely NIL driven now even if he wanted to compete against the P4 schools (he's done it here with remarkably unheralded recruits thus far). I'm guessing Roussell is around 250k + incentives at Richmond?? He's probably looking at $750k plus incentives in the B1G. Chartered flights to every game, double or triple salary for his assistants, more staff, and all that stuff. I love Richmond but I wouldn't say no to that even as an alum.

 

[spider23]

I know on the men's side, it's a double whammy. Typically the coach takes the big job, and brings his best 2-3 players to have instant roster continuity - at least players that know the system and can trust. Just like the players in constant negotiating mode, we know all these coaches are doing the same. I'm sure DeVries, and Odom, and Medved now had these deals worked out in advance. Hopefully there is an opportunity to keep Roussell. But I think he is a different cat than moon. Moon was scared of BC (and rightfully so he would have failed miserably), and then hardly mentioned for a position since = if at all. Roussell is a hot commodity now, and I'm afraid he will not be able to turn down the opportunity.

 

[SFspidur]

Moseley was making $650k base at Wisconsin...$400k from the university and $250k from the fundraising foundation. There were about another $150k in bonuses available per year.

I don't know what we're paying Roussell, but my wild guess is in the $400k range, maybe $500k after last year's extension. So I don't think it's impossible for us to be competitive with P5 programs on that front if the desire is there. But if one of the top ~20 big names comes calling, they're paying $1m+ and I don't see us going there.

 

[PhillySpider]

I think he is Wisconsin bound and there is little we can do about it. Our only hope was that another viable candidate had a better NCCA run and Wisco became enamored of that other person. Instead, we are/were the talk of the first two rounds and how good we looked etc. and they will be (and I hear are) enamored with him. My concern will be he takes Duggan with him!

 

[spiderstudent17]

To me this is the little ole Richmond mentality. If we played Wisconsin right now, we would beat them by 20. Conference affiliation is important but has its limits. UConn was just as good in the American as they are in Big East as they would be in the A10 or any other conference. At the end of the day, coaches and players don’t play for a conference, they play for a university. We have all the prerequisites to be a top 25 program and no reason to think we can’t if put in the institutional support that I am imploring Richmond to do. There has to be an invaluable element of building a program from the ground up and knowing we have not reached our ceiling yet. Support, national exposure will continue to grow as this program gets better.

As far as money goes, my point is we pay him that money, even if it’s a lot. We don’t have football to compete with. We spent 10s of millions of dollars over the years with facility upgrades, salaries, NIL presumably to have a top program. We now have that chance to capitalize on that. We have to prioritize our flagship sport and pay the money to maintain that. Other non-basketball sports, I would accept not paying as much and recognize that there’s a lower limit in financial support. But not with basketball, our most cherished sport and especially not when we have seen a snippet of the potential we can achieve.

 

[PhillySpider]

To me this is the little ole Richmond mentality. If we played Wisconsin right now, we would beat them by 20. Conference affiliation is important but has its limits. UConn was just as good in the American as they are in Big East as they would be in the A10 or any other conference. At the end of the day, coaches and players don’t play for a conference, they play for a university. We have all the prerequisites to be a top 25 program and no reason to think we can’t if put in the institutional support that I am imploring Richmond to do. There has to be an invaluable element of building a program from the ground up and knowing we have not reached our ceiling yet. Support, national exposure will continue to grow as this program gets better.

As far as money goes, my point is we pay him that money, even if it’s a lot. We don’t have football to compete with. We spent 10s of millions of dollars over the years with facility upgrades, salaries, NIL presumably to have a top program. We now have that chance to capitalize on that. We have to prioritize our flagship sport and pay the money to maintain that. Other non-basketball sports, I would accept not paying as much and recognize that there’s a lower limit in financial support. But not with basketball, our most cherished sport and especially not when we have seen a snippet of the potential we can achieve.

One hope we might have is that Roussell should know Mosely (outgoing coach at Wisco) pretty well from Patriot League time (at Bucknell and BU) and its possible she points out a few " the grass isn't always greener" facts about Wisco that better positions us to keep him.

 

[8LeggedFreak]

By 20 is a bold prediction, but we would certainly out-coach them

I appreciate the optimism. It is a big moment for Hardt and to me will indicate a lot about the direction the University wants to go with its athletics programs. We haven't had a bball coach on either team try to be poached by a bigger conference in a very long time and the landscape of college sports has changed a lot since. Would love it if he stayed.

 

[spiderstudent17]

One hope we might have is that Roussell should know Mosely (outgoing coach at Wisco) pretty well from Patriot League time (at Bucknell and BU) and its possible she points out a few " the grass isn't always greener" facts about Wisco that better positions us to keep him.

If Roussell wants to go to a P5 school and that’s his dream, then I will wish him nothing but the best. When I was younger growing up, I dreamed about going to a Stanford or Duke kind of school. In hindsight, I would have not traded my experience at UR for anything else and am incredibly thankful to have gone to UR. Richmond not only was able to help me achieve my career aspirations, but I bet exceeded in some ways the opportunities I would have gotten at these “big name” schools because of the unique aspects of UR. I now work with many people who have gone to these “big name” schools and can honestly say I am just as successful at my job as they are. At the end of the day, to each their own, and people can find happiness and success wherever they go. Sometimes you don’t know how good something was until it’s gone.

 

[UR Fan 2]

I think the band stays together next year for what will undoubtedly be a special year. We will likely be pre-season favorites to win A10, will have no problem scheduling elite teams at home or on the road, and have a really good shot of winning games in NCAA tournament again.

The bigger threat to losing Roussell will be the following year when Doogan and Ullstrom graduate and a premier job opens up.

But to spider17's point....Richmond is a special place. I too probably had choices higher than UR on my wish list but looking back, I doubt I would have achieved what I did without the Univ of Richmond in my life. TN Lady Vol basketball was nothing before Pat Summit, UConn Lady Bball was nothing before Geno Auriemma! Gonzaga was just another mid major in Men's College bball before Mark Few.

Aaron Roussell might just decide he likes it here and can achieve his goals here. Go Spiders!!!

 

[fan2011]

If Roussell leaves I would imagine a lot of the team will go with him. Maybe we can get a Gonzaga/Few situation going though. Hopefully we pay up.

 

[GKiller]

Roussell is a Midwest guy. So yeah Wisco is 1 out there. but idk know enough about women's coaching carousel if this is a good year for jobs or not. Next year might be better and if has another big year can potentially in line for better jobs. Coaches do calculate that although comes w risk too.

whether the Midwest thing means much too him now idk, but if or when he ever goes anywhere B10 probably best odds.

 

[Wood Hall]

I am not sure Richmond has the institutional wherewithal to fund this list.

We are a school of 3k students and a $3.5 billion endowment. We can fund whatever we want to. Time to put some of that unrestricted endowment to work.

 

[Eight Legger]

Wisco fans seem to think their gig is a trainwreck currently.

Found this linked on their message boards, which seems encouraging for us, especially them not opting in to revenue sharing:

 

[SFspidur]

South Dakota State is the only non P5 remaining in this year's tournament, and they play UConn tonight. Is it reasonable to think we can regularly compete in the current atmosphere?

 

[Wood Hall]

South Dakota State is the only non P5 remaining in this year's tournament, and they play UConn tonight. Is it reasonable to think we can regularly compete in the current atmosphere?

View embedded media

I've always considered our men's Sweet 16 appearances to be the equivalent of our Final Four. I think it is almost impossible for us to make it any further.

Same with the women, although that's even harder, because the talent in WBB is concentrated so much more among the power-conference teams. UCLA already had an outstanding program before it got some of the best players from Stanford, Washington State, Oregon State in the portal. That's what we've up against.

That said, Day of Giving is coming up and I plan on bumping up my donation to WBB.

 

[SFspidur]

Yeah, certainly not saying we can't be a dominant A-10 team regularly making the dance and sometimes winning a game or even two, but I'm not sure our ceiling is much higher than we are now. Roussell says we're not at Apex Mountain, but I think we're pretty close.

 

[spiderstudent17]

South Dakota State is the only non P5 remaining in this year's tournament, and they play UConn tonight. Is it reasonable to think we can regularly compete in the current atmosphere?

View embedded media

Maybe I’m naive and you can sell me ocean front property in Idaho, but I really do think we can compete. We have beaten 2 teams this year who are P5 schools and ranked at some point and played 2 teams in Texas and UCLA who are now 1 seeds and Alabama a 5 seed, close. Like UR Fan 2 said, every program has its inception of success. Lady Vols with Summit, UConn with Auriemma. Why can’t it be UR with Roussell? Even if it’s not to the level of UConn, who’s to say we can’t be very successful and better than 90% of the programs out there. You have to dream big to achieve big. The formula for success is some combination of having an elite coach + elite players + institutional support. Success builds off its self. Reputations can change instantly too. Everyone comments now saying Richmond is a very respected program and one of the top mid majors in the country. They don’t mention how we are a program that has historically underachieved. If we keep this trend up, our reputation and respect will continue to grow and it becomes a self fulfilling cycle.

 

[spiderstudent17]

Our apex may not be becoming a UConn level program, but I think it’s definitely higher than where we’re at now. I am giving my honest opinion here but watching the game yesterday, we looked like we belonged on the court against #1 UCLA. We looked just as talented as them in many ways. The difference is we didn’t have Lauren Betts on our team. If she didn’t play, I think we would’ve won that game.

 

[Wood Hall]

We just made it to the NCAA's round of 32. We are already better than 90% of the teams out there.

The challenge is taking the next step. As you saw last night, there's a big difference between a # 1 seed and a # 8 seed in WBB, a far bigger gulf than in men's hoops. And it's only growing.

 

[spiderstudent17]

We just made it to the NCAA's round of 32. We are already better than 90% of the teams out there.

The challenge is taking the next step. As you saw last night, there's a big difference between a # 1 seed and a # 8 seed in WBB, a far bigger gulf than in men's hoops. And it's only growing.

Success builds off itself. Can these past 2 seasons mean we can go lure Lauren Betts to transfer here? Of course not. What it means though is we can build upon this foundation and get players to come here over other very good non P5 schools or even P5 schools that otherwise would not have considered UR. We just missed out on a recruit who went to U. Miami last year (see below). Maybe now our success is enough that we can get these caliber of recruits to come here, especially if we fund our women’s bball competitively, which I am begging our administration to do. Build on this over the span of 15 years then eventually we will become the landing spot for a Lauren Betts caliber player.

"It just felt right": Miami women's basketball lands 2025 forward Natalie Wetzel

Natalie Wetzel, a top forward in the 2025 recruiting class, said her decision to commit to the Miami Hurricanes made too much sense.

www.on3.com

 

[GKiller]

Spiderstudent17 these exact same things were said re: John Beilein and WVU. Fwiw. Hopefully nothing.

 

[GKiller]

We are a school of 3k students and a $3.5 billion endowment. We can fund whatever we want to. Time to put some of that unrestricted endowment to work.

I’ve said that b4. It’s only way. If we really want to be at the big boys and girls table with basketball.

Problem is UR saying no. They say “philanthropy” and revenue (which probably means cuts) is how they fund. Is there really a lot of philanthropy coming to women’s hoops. Be nice but doubt it. Even after this great season. How much can we really do with those 2?

Those 2 things r important but I say maneuver money set up a little side fund thru endowment.

That’s where our advantage really lies but I’m skeptical of such institutional support for it. It doesn’t help to have Hardt and Mooney who won’t be drivers of change there either.

 

[spider23]

I find it interesting that we can dream in womens basketball, but in men's we have a mediocre coach and it is the best we can expect? We can't dream of another Beilein or Tarrant?
I do get this current landscape is making it harder, I do believe that. Just more camouflage for moon to hide behind.

 

[GKiller]

I find it interesting that we can dream in womens basketball, but in men's we have a mediocre coach and it is the best we can expect? We can't dream of another Beilein or Tarrant?
I do get this current landscape is making it harder, I do believe that. Just more camouflage for moon to hide behind.

no to little ol Richmond for women but yes to little ol Richmond for men. Schedule hard for women. Schedule weak for men.

 

[97spiderfan]

I find it interesting that we can dream in womens basketball, but in men's we have a mediocre coach and it is the best we can expect? We can't dream of another Beilein or Tarrant?
I do get this current landscape is making it harder, I do believe that. Just more camouflage for moon to hide behind.

Right same guy who says Mooney is the best we can do but on the Women's side we should be competing for Final Fours seems like a stretch.

Ironically, our biggest selling point to Roussell might be Mooney. Hey Aaron, our men's coach turned 2 straight NCAA's early in his career into a lifetime gig, where we can pay you really well and we will never fire you. Or you can go to Wisconsin and if you don't build that program up to where you built your current team in a max of 4 years, they are going to fire your ass. And you don't have to uproot your family.

 

[spider23]

Yes Gkiller and yes 97. I guess really it's just lol ol leafy campus mens basketball. Poor us.
I do think it would be easier to enter an arms race for women's hoops but agree it's not something admin is likely to back.

 

[8LeggedFreak]

Man, I don't know. It's a world of haves and have-nots out there. The Atlantic 10 as an *entire league* averages a top 100 recruit maybe every 3 years, and they're typically barely in the top 100. Lauren Betts was the top recruit in her class! The transfer portal, league consolidation, TV contracts, and NIL have complete changed the model of college sports.

I have to pay an extra $10 a month just to watch Richmond games. I can more easily access B1G women's soccer games then Richmond women's basketball games and I don't even live somewhere with a B1G team. There just isn't the exposure. When we do have nationally televised games the Robins Center is still only about 1/3 full, so not sure where a fanbase is either.

Don't think it's as simple as "just win."

 

[spiderstudent17]

Ok, I’ll bite since this looks like it’s referring to me. 1) I am not going to go into the differences in scheduling mentality between men’s and women’s hoops. I’ve outlined that enough and think there is a distinction in approach and provided my reasons why. 2) We can and should dream big for both men’s and women’s basketball. I do not think Mooney is the best coach UR can do, especially considering we’ve had Tarrant and Beilein. Mooney’s situation is more complicated for the administration in ways that I have addressed before.