The Times Dispatched rejected my letter to the editor piece for living outside of VA:
I have been a die hard fan since I enrolled as a student in 1993. I have maintained season tickets despite living out of state in NC, MD, and even PA and have attended nearly every game for the last 28 years. I drove 1700 miles to Denver, stopping once to rest for 6 hours, in order to attend the NCAA tournament 10 years ago when we made the Sweet 16. I didn't have time to stay for the doubleheader that Saturday after our game and instead turned around and drove back home, arriving at 4 AM on Monday morning so that I could go to work that day. I had a blast, and I would certainly do it all again. And I am not really even a sports fan. I just simply love my Spiders and have tremendous pride in my school.
However, today I find myself at a crossroads. My school has let me down, not because we have missed the NCAA tournament for 10 straight years, but because we are choosing to ignore the problem rather than fix it. We have an incompetent, under-performing, and overpaid coach. For reasons I have yet to understand, we continue down the same path over and over again. Spider fans have a lot of pride in their school, but more and more we are feeling disenfranchised - not because we have experienced a series of bad and under-performing years but because the administration appears unwilling to make any adjustments to ensure future success. Despite all the efforts to build the program like a majorly renovated Robin's Center, tremendous improvements on fan experiences and game day atmosphere, as well as a new state of the art practice facility, and willingness to pay a coach top dollar, we are left wondering if the athletic administration is apathetic towards success. I want to believe the university desires sustained real success as much as I do, but myself and our fan-base are becoming very restless. From my point of view, the decision to retain Mooney was a slap in the face to die hard fans. We have endured years and years of disappointment and underachievement, and at this point, we need the following questions answered about the future of our program and coach:
1. What is our definition of success? Was this year a success because we were above .500? We came into the season ranked as a preseason top 15 with sleeper picks for the Final Four according to some sports prognosticators. We finished the season 8th in our own league, losing in the first round of the A10 tournament, and not only missing the NCAA tournament but also the NIT. Yet, we retain our coach. This isn't the first time. We've seen this rerun 10 times running. We have the longest running span among Division 1 basketball programs of missed NCAA tournaments under the same coach. At what point, do we change course?
2. How is Mooney part of the winning strategy? He does not emphasize even the basics of basketball such as rebounding and playing defense. Instead of realizing he has long been the losing-est coach in University of Richmond history, we celebrate that he is the winning-est coach only because he has been here for 16 years.
3. If he continues to under-perform, is there a point we finally part ways? Seriously, what does it take? 2 NCAA tournaments in 16 years, the most recent being 10 years ago.
4. What are our explicit goals? All the fans ever hear is we want to compete for championships. Every team in the country has this goal. By fielding a team at all, you accomplish the goal of competing. Please give us some specifics so that we can decide if it is worth our time and passion.
We have nearly everything in place to be highly successful. Combined with our past history of success and recent enhancements, there is no reason to believe we cannot make regular NCAA appearances and runs. Regular top 25 appearances is certainly within reach. Many schools across the country would love to have the resources we have committed to athletics. Yet, there are 197 different schools who have made the Dance since we were last there. Somehow, shockingly, we continue to double down on our coach anyway.
Obviously, myself and many fans disagree wholeheartedly on the approach of retaining our coach. Despite my strong disagreement with this strategy, I could accept it if I knew my university shared the same highly attainable goals for success. If our goals are still aligned and we are doing everything in our power to achieve high success (even if I don't agree with the approach), then I'm all in because I love my school. I strongly believe that we can have basketball successes which align with the excellence we achieve in every other aspect of the school. If, however, the school doesn't have high aspirations and is OK with the status quo, then I have no interest, and the university can have my fan card back.
I have been a die hard fan since I enrolled as a student in 1993. I have maintained season tickets despite living out of state in NC, MD, and even PA and have attended nearly every game for the last 28 years. I drove 1700 miles to Denver, stopping once to rest for 6 hours, in order to attend the NCAA tournament 10 years ago when we made the Sweet 16. I didn't have time to stay for the doubleheader that Saturday after our game and instead turned around and drove back home, arriving at 4 AM on Monday morning so that I could go to work that day. I had a blast, and I would certainly do it all again. And I am not really even a sports fan. I just simply love my Spiders and have tremendous pride in my school.
However, today I find myself at a crossroads. My school has let me down, not because we have missed the NCAA tournament for 10 straight years, but because we are choosing to ignore the problem rather than fix it. We have an incompetent, under-performing, and overpaid coach. For reasons I have yet to understand, we continue down the same path over and over again. Spider fans have a lot of pride in their school, but more and more we are feeling disenfranchised - not because we have experienced a series of bad and under-performing years but because the administration appears unwilling to make any adjustments to ensure future success. Despite all the efforts to build the program like a majorly renovated Robin's Center, tremendous improvements on fan experiences and game day atmosphere, as well as a new state of the art practice facility, and willingness to pay a coach top dollar, we are left wondering if the athletic administration is apathetic towards success. I want to believe the university desires sustained real success as much as I do, but myself and our fan-base are becoming very restless. From my point of view, the decision to retain Mooney was a slap in the face to die hard fans. We have endured years and years of disappointment and underachievement, and at this point, we need the following questions answered about the future of our program and coach:
1. What is our definition of success? Was this year a success because we were above .500? We came into the season ranked as a preseason top 15 with sleeper picks for the Final Four according to some sports prognosticators. We finished the season 8th in our own league, losing in the first round of the A10 tournament, and not only missing the NCAA tournament but also the NIT. Yet, we retain our coach. This isn't the first time. We've seen this rerun 10 times running. We have the longest running span among Division 1 basketball programs of missed NCAA tournaments under the same coach. At what point, do we change course?
2. How is Mooney part of the winning strategy? He does not emphasize even the basics of basketball such as rebounding and playing defense. Instead of realizing he has long been the losing-est coach in University of Richmond history, we celebrate that he is the winning-est coach only because he has been here for 16 years.
3. If he continues to under-perform, is there a point we finally part ways? Seriously, what does it take? 2 NCAA tournaments in 16 years, the most recent being 10 years ago.
4. What are our explicit goals? All the fans ever hear is we want to compete for championships. Every team in the country has this goal. By fielding a team at all, you accomplish the goal of competing. Please give us some specifics so that we can decide if it is worth our time and passion.
We have nearly everything in place to be highly successful. Combined with our past history of success and recent enhancements, there is no reason to believe we cannot make regular NCAA appearances and runs. Regular top 25 appearances is certainly within reach. Many schools across the country would love to have the resources we have committed to athletics. Yet, there are 197 different schools who have made the Dance since we were last there. Somehow, shockingly, we continue to double down on our coach anyway.
Obviously, myself and many fans disagree wholeheartedly on the approach of retaining our coach. Despite my strong disagreement with this strategy, I could accept it if I knew my university shared the same highly attainable goals for success. If our goals are still aligned and we are doing everything in our power to achieve high success (even if I don't agree with the approach), then I'm all in because I love my school. I strongly believe that we can have basketball successes which align with the excellence we achieve in every other aspect of the school. If, however, the school doesn't have high aspirations and is OK with the status quo, then I have no interest, and the university can have my fan card back.
