No my point is replacing Mooney would do more to help improve the situation more than a practice facility and cost a lot less. And yes having the privilage of living here I'm faced with the decision of whether I should continue to make substantial contributions, buy tickets and continue to attend games or not. Are you? The OSUs of the world have enought football and basketball revenue so money is not as big an issue for them as it is for us. they would buy out a contract in a second if they wanted to. Spending money on a new facility is not, in my opinion, as important as finding the right person to lead the program.
Putting up your money for The Cause
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It's a multi-faceted issue. This facility is something that was will last past Mooney. Also, as Hardt said on ESPN Richmond this morning, it is a physical manifestation of our school's commitment to basketball. Does this make Mooney a better coach? Yes and no. It's easier to coach players who are more talented from the getgo and these facilities are a great way of attracting higher talented recruits. He still has to develop players, have an offensive and defensive scheme that's effective, etc. but it certainly helps with 3/4 star recruits than 0 star recruits.
And the argument that winning is what helps the most, I agree. However, we have to do something to get the ball rolling. If you build it, they will come. And once they come, we will start winning (with the right coach. Which may or may not be Mooney). And when we win, the cycle continues and continues
VCU's the worst they've been in 7 years, and their recruiting seems to be downtrending.
We'll see. This is undoubtedly good news, but should be completely independent of the coaching decision.
I was just passing along the discussion that was had on the air on 950 this morning. Hardt literally said that he took a guided tour from Mike Rhodes of Vcu's facilities and was blown away. He commented that UR better have a plan to keep up if that what was already built across town. Then he had discussions with Queally who informed him that wheels were already in motion. Now do I think that Mooney is going to start bringing in 4 star recruits with the help of this new facility? No. Frankly, it's my opinion that our next coach will get the most use out of these upgrades. We will see but at least we are going to have the building in place.
It's not an either-or situation.
Mr. and Mrs. Queally were not going to donate $7.5 million to help UR buy out Mooney. It was designated for a specific purpose, to help fund a practice facility that will benefit the men's and women's basketball programs for decades to come.
So saying the money should be spent one way or the other is a non-issue. The donation is tied specifically to the practice facility.
Mr. and Mrs. Queally were not going to donate $7.5 million to help UR buy out Mooney. It was designated for a specific purpose, to help fund a practice facility that will benefit the men's and women's basketball programs for decades to come.
So saying the money should be spent one way or the other is a non-issue. The donation is tied specifically to the practice facility.
have you guys forgotten that we have been talking about a practice facility for about 10 years
The money was designated for the practice facility because PQ can't put his name on a contract buyout.
I seriously think that a 50% down payment wouldn't cause a delay. Any bank would lend on
that type of commitment while the rest of the money is raised.
But the architectural design, gathering the materials like the collegiate gothic exterior and the technology
to make this a superior facility, along with the challenges of the infrastructure make one year a pretty fast turn around.
As I understand it, there’s a fiduciary obligation to have the full $15M committed before they begin construction.
That may be the case-I hadn't heard that. Why would they have that with the schools record of financial
security?
Idk but I think it’s pretty common practice with capital projects. The point is to not finance this kind of thing, so financial risk isn’t a mitigating factor.
You can't recruit a 4 or a 5 star athlete to a program that wins 10 games and repeatedly fails to make the NCAA tournament.
I think that it is fine to have a practice facility, but it isn't going to make Mooney a better coach.
I was promised a whole wing of the new practice facility devoted to rebounding!!!! Sign above the door will say “BOXOUT” that all must jump up and touch as they enter.
This is a tremendous gift by the Queally's that will pay dividends for our hoops teams for years to come. We needed this and the Queally's delivered. Thank you.
I can probably empathize with the belief that it inst going to make him a better coach. I suppose where we disagree is that I think hes a good coach but recruiting or stockpiling talent has been a major issue the last few years. I think this facility will help get him the players that will complement his coaching skills. It will be easier to have more fluid practices with court space to work on things more individually with each player. It gives a central meeting location for all the players/staff to meet. But the biggest thing is this will more then likely lead to acquiring more talented student athletes in future years. I think its fair to say or entertain the belief this has been a major issue in taking the next step as a program.
If are going to cherry pick a small part of my statement and conveniently leave out the part where I talk about us acquiring other student athletes we would want in our program to prove a point that you think Mooney can't coach it would be helpful to be factually correct. A quick google search has Cal (<10 wins, bad team we have beaten recently when they were ranked) with a top 100 recruit this year. Okay so hes in a power 5 right? What about the kids SLU is pulling in the last couple of years? An A10 brethren and a program that has been miserable for a few years now as well. We have removed a major argument that can be used against us in recruiting and some on this board only want to talk about how they think Mooney sucks and what message this sends.
At the end of the day it really doesn't matter what you or I think or say about his abilities as a coach or human being. It matters to recruits, some of which we have missed out on because other schools recruiting them had some things we couldn't offer. A basketball practice facility was one of them. Its not happening (Dismissing Mooney), so lets take a step back and enjoy something that has been hard to come by this season, good news.
So will we give Mooney a pass on the next two years, too, since the thing won't exist for at least 2 and a half years? I think many of us are simply tired of hearing one excuse after another. Injuries. Bad recruiting. Transfers. Practice facility. Hard schedule. Too young.
At some point, just win games, make it to the conference tournament title game, win a regular season title. Something.
I can't get past the fact that last year we had an all-time great player who was a senior and another senior who is a top-10 scorer in the history of the program, and we still crapped the bed OOC and missed the NCAAs. And now we just hear "Wait til this team gets older." Well, no offense, but what happened when TJ and SDJ got older? We still missed the tournament.
At some point, just win games, make it to the conference tournament title game, win a regular season title. Something.
I can't get past the fact that last year we had an all-time great player who was a senior and another senior who is a top-10 scorer in the history of the program, and we still crapped the bed OOC and missed the NCAAs. And now we just hear "Wait til this team gets older." Well, no offense, but what happened when TJ and SDJ got older? We still missed the tournament.
Yes, the excuses have been piling up the last 7 years. Two all time greats last year and nada. I am not blaming them at all, but TJ needed some kind of help inside - we brougt in a guy that averaged 1 ppg at Northeastern and did not have anyone else ready (and no, you can't rely on GG even if healthy as a Non RS freshman).
Might as well up the price tag to $20M while we are at it to cover the cost of building increases.
No pass. He’s clearly on notice. And he clearly missed on this year’s senior and junior classes (sans Fore), which is where the missing help for TJ and SDJ was.
But on the other side, 2014-15 was a bag job by the committee. That team deserved to be in the tourney (granted, I get it, they didn’t make it), and last year if Grant doesn’t have a heart issue and is out for the year, would that have been enough help for TJ and SDJ? I honestly don’t know, but I do hate the sentiment that we’ve been nothing the passed 7 years. 19 wins twice, 22 and 21 wins in 2 others, and this is the first losing season since Mooney’s second year. He needs to get the squad over the hump, but let’s not pretend we’ve been terrible the last 7 years.
You can let me know when Mooney starts signing 4 and 5 star recruits due to the practice facility.
2014-15 was not a bag job we were a 19-12, 5th place A10 team that couldn't win a game in the conference tournament. We closed the season strong but we were 13-12 at one point. We lost to JMU and Northeastern and Lord knows who else. And when we got to the NIT, we couldn't hold a 14 point second half lead on our home court.
Agreed. Not sure the definition of 'bag job' but i don't fee like anyone here was particularly outraged that we were left out that year.
I didn't think we even deserved being first four out. Couple of nice wins over VCU and one over Davidson, and had a tough schedule overall, but we flunked every OOC test. RPI was around 60.
Seems the admin and a handful of fans enjoy watching reruns of that movie year in and year out. Plenty of popcorn and Ukrops rolls at the RC make for an entertaining environment. Seems repeats are a specialty.
Cute comment that but that’s not what I said. I said these things matter to top rated recruits as well as ones that will help the program. Do they not? Time will tell.
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Yeah, everyone on this board was completely shocked that we got a 1-seed in the NIT. There's a lot of revisionist history happening with anyone who suggests we somehow got screwed out of an NCAA bid that year.
We got left out behind Ole Miss that year. We deserved to be in ahead of them. They went 5-5 down the stretch, we were 7-3. Our RPI was better than theirs (though it was a tight margin). I think if we had the name Ole Miss and SEC next to our name, we would’ve been in.
Maybe bag job was admittedly hyperbolic, but I think we deserved to be in that year. But my bigger point was that we haven’t been as shambolic post KA as the sentiment of this board implies. I share in the frustration of not having reached the tourney over that period, however there’s a lot of revisionist history happening with anyone who suggests we’ve been bad the last 7 years.
Maybe bag job was admittedly hyperbolic, but I think we deserved to be in that year. But my bigger point was that we haven’t been as shambolic post KA as the sentiment of this board implies. I share in the frustration of not having reached the tourney over that period, however there’s a lot of revisionist history happening with anyone who suggests we’ve been bad the last 7 years.
That is why many have said that with a better coach, a large number of those teams would have made the NCAA tournament. There has been enough talent (not overboard fabulous but pretty good). The coaching blunders (most glaringly player management) have caused them to come up short.
Any chance this practice facility will be used to attract a big name coach? Maybe Hardt and admnisitration will surprise us all and get rid of Mooney and pay the buyout, continue with this training facility and look what you have to offer the new incoming coach - one of the best arena's in the conference, a brand new $15 million practice facility, and all 5 starters potential returning (assuming no transfers). Could be used as a pretty enticing pitch to some up and coming coaches or high profile assistants from bigger schools.
But in reality - the chances the of this happening are slim to none. But worth a thought.
But in reality - the chances the of this happening are slim to none. But worth a thought.
I disagree with the "enough talent" statement. We have had a few good recruits since 2011, like K0, TJC, SDJ, and perhaps TA. Current 2nd year players not withstanding, like DM, NS, and GG, the rest of our recruiting has been flat out dismal. Think of all the D3 level or worse recruits we have had since the NCAA years. If two or three of those players (including TD and DT who did at least play a lot) lived up to their hype and were serviceable A10 level players, we may have been able to get over the the hump of CM's consitently weak in-season/in-game coaching and made the dance once or twice in the last 7 years.
Any way you slice it, it's all back on Mooney. I'm ecstatic that we will have a best-in-class practice facility, but it won't help the state of our program until we have a better coach at the helm. And I fear the new facility will become another weight ( a very heavy one) on the "let's give Mooney another chance" side of the scale.
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A state of the art "practice facility" can add cachet to the notion of being very committed to a quality basketball program but until we start winning more games and participating regularly in the NCAA tournament we remain "a work in progress." With that "progress" needs to be a measurable quantity.
