Stop with the A10 title already. UR tied for a regular season best record… tied. The A10 Champs are the team that wins the A10 tourney.
OOC Grade is in!!! No surprise, it's an F
- Thread starter brooklyn brownstone
- Start date
Just for reference
VCU is currently 3-0 with a convincing win over BC.
Dayton is 3-0 with a 5 point over Northwestern.
Loyola is 4-0 with a 5 point over Princeton (FYI - Princeton finished 55 in the NET last year).
So yes it is possible to build on the momentum, and I thought UR did with the transfers we brought in - especially when we started to get guys from UCONN and Michigan. But so far, Michigan has been seated on the bench and UCONN helped Marist win with a late tech.
Not likely we win 15 in a row. But I think likely we have some form of repeat from last year. We struggle in OOC until about the W&M, where I think we win that game, then we beat VMI, FGCU and open with 3-4 wins in the A10, maybe more as our opening schedule is not too terrible in the A10. Maybe we string together a few games like we did last year where we won last 3 OOC games and then won the first 8 A10 games before falling to VCU (of course). Not sure we could open up with 8 A10 wins, but I didn't see that coming last year - but our schedule could easily produce 4, maybe 5 wins to start the A10 season. But then again - we would be in same position as last year - even if we won the A10 regular season with our poor OOC, we would need an A10 tourney win to make the dance.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
the curse of the big exhale, after ruminating on it I wouldn't be surprised if this was partially caused by Moon knowing that he had done enough to fight off any substantive hot seat talk and with another 4-5 years of check cashing coming his way could relax again.
Mooney sucks. He gets lucky every several years and it's a big celebration. He is not in Beilein or Tarrant's league.
8legs1dream
Graduate Assistant
Any average coach could have reached 3 NCAA's in 20 years here. Or are we supposed to believe this is as good as it gets?
So true. But yes, I think so. Or forced as Captain A said. Really rough feeling. But they’ve reconditioned things to make you think his tenure is top success and great performance and made us “one of the top basketball programs in the nation”. We were better pre Mooney. It now gets u minimum 24 years job security.
I made this comment in another thread because I had to LMAO after student17 said a down year is inevitable. Mooney has them 40% of the time. 40! IF if this year is another non winning .500 or below season that will be 8 out of 20 years for Moon. That’s insane for a vet coach. If he gets swept by vcu he’ll be at 25% win. 25! Look at those numbers. One would then think he’s crushing it the rest of the time. Nope. 3 NCAAs.
You know how many inevitable down .500 or below years coaches Tarrant and Beilein had at U of R in 17 combined years?
One.
Mooney has definitely lowered the bar. It's crazy to think about, the excuse mongering and woe is me messaging this dude generated over the years. Just wild.
Take for instance the fact that we can't win an OOC road game. Not like we are playing juggernauts, but moon is always whining about how hard it is to win on the road. He again sets the bar low.
Take for instance the fact that we can't win an OOC road game. Not like we are playing juggernauts, but moon is always whining about how hard it is to win on the road. He again sets the bar low.
Competing is all that matters, no matter the level of the opponent.
Yup. To use 4700’s constant timeline just bc he uses it to prove success. I see it differently (note this is not a jab at 4700 just my differing view of what he uses as a successful program period. If you expand the view even more as GK did, it looks even worse.)
Legendary 24-7 year. Very good year, no doubt. Likely in ncaa but still close to the cut line bc of things like getting shelled by Radford in the OOC. If had lost first A10 tourney game things may have been dicey. Will never know but it was a fun season.
Following year, same exact veteran team, 14-9, inexplicable losses, SLU abandoned a game against UR bc of lack of program control, an NIT loss. Anyone who think that season was a success is has vastly low expectations since it was a team full of upperclassmen called the best class ever by the coach.
Following year, team of all upperclassmen many taking 5th years, underachieved to 6th in A10 with little consistency, but Gilyard got piping hot in A10 tourney and Grace and Burton made big plays late against Davidson. Big upset of Iowa in NCAA, total egg game vs Providence. Still, an NCAA and a win. Successful season of the kind I personally want and expect bc I use NCAAs as my metric.
Following year, transfer portal haul looks great, team plays with no cohesion and it’s a losing season despite A 10 being nothing special. A10 POY candidate starts out on fire until teams game plan him, then makes A10 2nd team. Absolutlely disappointing season. Lost to W&M by scoring in the 50s. Again, a losing record with veteran players and 5th year program returnees as starters. Really bad.
Last year, weak OOC results doom any shot at an at large bid. Despite team gelling once the best players started, and a program best result in A10 play, team had to win A10 tournament to sniff NCAAs. Despite having #1 seed, zero wins achieved in A10 tourney, followed by a blowout loss in NIT. Nice season, ultimately unsuccessful by the only real metric that matters (NCAA bid) as UR was nowhere near the at large conversation or the auto bid and ultimately irrelevant to the landscape.
This year. transfer portal haul looks great, team plays with no cohesion. Has the program had a worse 3 game stretch? Has a Moon team ever blown a 21 point lead? Miami NIT was 17 I think. Either way, it’s not good. These are hand picked upperclassmen players plucked from the portal. Zero cohesion and the eye test is really bad.
I just believe that hoping for one above average season in exchange for a losing season the next is not this program’s ceiling.
In this time frame one season of six in at large consideration. only one actual NCAA.
This is not sustained success and regular greatness and a program reaching its potential. It’s mediocrity and disappointing results with tons of resources.
Legendary 24-7 year. Very good year, no doubt. Likely in ncaa but still close to the cut line bc of things like getting shelled by Radford in the OOC. If had lost first A10 tourney game things may have been dicey. Will never know but it was a fun season.
Following year, same exact veteran team, 14-9, inexplicable losses, SLU abandoned a game against UR bc of lack of program control, an NIT loss. Anyone who think that season was a success is has vastly low expectations since it was a team full of upperclassmen called the best class ever by the coach.
Following year, team of all upperclassmen many taking 5th years, underachieved to 6th in A10 with little consistency, but Gilyard got piping hot in A10 tourney and Grace and Burton made big plays late against Davidson. Big upset of Iowa in NCAA, total egg game vs Providence. Still, an NCAA and a win. Successful season of the kind I personally want and expect bc I use NCAAs as my metric.
Following year, transfer portal haul looks great, team plays with no cohesion and it’s a losing season despite A 10 being nothing special. A10 POY candidate starts out on fire until teams game plan him, then makes A10 2nd team. Absolutlely disappointing season. Lost to W&M by scoring in the 50s. Again, a losing record with veteran players and 5th year program returnees as starters. Really bad.
Last year, weak OOC results doom any shot at an at large bid. Despite team gelling once the best players started, and a program best result in A10 play, team had to win A10 tournament to sniff NCAAs. Despite having #1 seed, zero wins achieved in A10 tourney, followed by a blowout loss in NIT. Nice season, ultimately unsuccessful by the only real metric that matters (NCAA bid) as UR was nowhere near the at large conversation or the auto bid and ultimately irrelevant to the landscape.
This year. transfer portal haul looks great, team plays with no cohesion. Has the program had a worse 3 game stretch? Has a Moon team ever blown a 21 point lead? Miami NIT was 17 I think. Either way, it’s not good. These are hand picked upperclassmen players plucked from the portal. Zero cohesion and the eye test is really bad.
I just believe that hoping for one above average season in exchange for a losing season the next is not this program’s ceiling.
In this time frame one season of six in at large consideration. only one actual NCAA.
This is not sustained success and regular greatness and a program reaching its potential. It’s mediocrity and disappointing results with tons of resources.
It appears that losing 3+ starters -- regardless of how good the talent is that replaces them -- presents a situation that Mooney cannot figure out. Granted, that's tricky for any program but the good ones don't miss a beat anyway. We seem to miss every beat and start all the way over at square one. You can't build a sustainable program that way, you can only build very good teams from time to time.
Exactly. The 6 year time period shown shows there is little in the way of consistent greatness. On the contrary some nice minor achievements but little greatness overall.
The early results in the portal era show that the first year of a big group of new players is going to be a really disappointing, losing season.
Why UR can never build upon its success to have a sustained period of high level winning that becomes self-fulfilling - i.e. becoming the actual great program that it claims to be - makes no sense. Other programs do it. But UR has to go out to the wilderness and hope that year 4 or year 5 MIGHT bring something tangible following an NCAA appearance. Well this is year 3 and we're reaching new lows by the game.
March 2025 will be 3 years since the Iowa NCAA win. How has the program used that to elevate itself since then? With a losing season in year 1 afterward, and then - I'll be shocked if it's not - another losing season in year 3. How has the program followed up its first ever A10 regular season (shared) title? By losing 6 straight Division 1 games since claiming a share of that title.
The early results in the portal era show that the first year of a big group of new players is going to be a really disappointing, losing season.
Why UR can never build upon its success to have a sustained period of high level winning that becomes self-fulfilling - i.e. becoming the actual great program that it claims to be - makes no sense. Other programs do it. But UR has to go out to the wilderness and hope that year 4 or year 5 MIGHT bring something tangible following an NCAA appearance. Well this is year 3 and we're reaching new lows by the game.
March 2025 will be 3 years since the Iowa NCAA win. How has the program used that to elevate itself since then? With a losing season in year 1 afterward, and then - I'll be shocked if it's not - another losing season in year 3. How has the program followed up its first ever A10 regular season (shared) title? By losing 6 straight Division 1 games since claiming a share of that title.
So we have a large dataset to look at here and I think the answer is fairly straightforward. The “system” we run requires a lot of things to go right in order to win. It generally requires better than average 3pt shooting and low turnovers. Other things that could move the needle like suffocating defense, forcing turnovers, and rebounding margin are all de-emphasized if not a actively avoided.
CM seems unwilling to deviate from this strategy either in game or systematically. So I suspect we will never capitalize on a single years success because the success is inherently difficult to repeat given our system.
