Many of you want to highjack every post with negative comments about the coach, so let discuss Mooney. The conversation should not be fire Mooney, because that is not going to happen. It should be will he get an extension?
The school is not going to spend millions and buy out his contract. The school’s expenses have increased significantly because of Covid and they potentially lost their number one donor, who has helped funded most of their majors projects over the past decade, which is going to cause them to tighten their budget.
Since the billboard went up and the school made a recommitment to Mooney, the team has done well before this year. They should have qualified for the NCAA, then last year they had the highest ranking in the school’s history and despite multiple Covid interruptions and injuries, still made it to the 18 team NIT. This year, despite some bad losses, we still have a chance of going to either the NIT or if we win the tournament, the NCAA. If we make a tournament he probably gets an extension. In addition, he looks great compared to the football coach.
Starting with Golden and Sherod’s recruiting year, the quality of Mooney’s recruits have improved significantly, which should lead to better teams in the future.
He runs a clean program and the players are extremely loyal to him. With the new transfer rules this is a valuable asset for a coach. It is also an indication that the player’s think he is doing a good job.
Bottom line is that Mooney is a good coach, but not a great coach. He has not done a great job of having the players play up to their potential as a team, but still has one of the top records in the A 10 since the billboard went up.