Richmond men’s basketball announced that coach Chris Mooney will be stepping away from the team for the rest of the season as he recovers from heart surgery that he will undergo next week. Assistant coach Peter Thomas will step in as interim head coach while Mooney is away.
“I want to thank Richmond Athletics leadership, my coaching staff, and our players for doing everything they can to make a difficult situation a little bit easier,” Mooney said in a statement. “I’m grateful to have a tremendous medical team to rely on, and I’m thankful to have the opportunity to fully focus on my health for the next few weeks.”
Mooney’s recovery is expected to last between four and eight weeks, which takes him through the end of the season. Thomas graduated from Richmond and was the school’s director of basketball operations for five seasons. He spent nine years away from the program but returned as an assistant coach in 2022.
“For the past 18 years, Chris has been a coach, a mentor, and a friend, and my primary concern is that we assist him in every way possible during his recovery,” Thomas said. “A part of that is preparing and playing to the standards he has set during his time at Richmond, and our team and our staff are ready to accept that responsibility.”
Now in his 18th season as the Spiders head coach, Mooney has led Richmond to the NCAA tournament three times since 2009, including last season. Richmond currently sits in 11th place in the Atlantic-10 with a 6–8 conference record and 13–14 overall. He is the school’s all-time wins leader and also was the head coach for the program’s most successful regular season.
