Atlantic 10 Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose | Jul 18, 2020

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 12: A general view of the Barclay Center prior to the start of the 2020 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Tournament - Second Round on March 12, 2020 in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. Tournament games will be played without fans amid growing concerns of the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 13: Head coach Chris Mooney of the Richmond Spiders (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images) /

10. Chris Mooney – Richmond (2005-2020)

There are plenty of names that could’ve fit on this list, but we begin with Mooney, a man who was raised in the Princeton offense. After playing for the Tigers in the 1990s, his coaching career really got started as an assistant and later head coach at Air Force. Following just one season, opportunity knocked and he moved across the country, taking over the Richmond program in 2005.

There have been plenty of ups and downs during his 15 years in charge, but we’ll focus for now on the positive. The obvious highlight is his 2011 team, which not only won 29 games and the Atlantic 10 Tournament but marched to the Sweet Sixteen as a 12-seed. Mooney has led the Spiders to a pair of NCAA Tournaments and a slew of other postseason appearances.

Consistency has been a problem for the program, though Richmond’s second-place finish in 2020 certainly bought Mooney some much-needed goodwill. There is still plenty of work to be done, especially for a program nearly a decade removed from an NCAA Tournament bid, but last year’s 24-win run might be the step in the right direction that Mooney needed.

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