Q&A with interim men’s basketball head coach Peter Thomas

After taking over as the University of Richmond men’s basketball team’s interim head coach, Peter Thomas, ‘07 reflected on his experience taking over the team, his relationship with UR basketball and going from a walk-on player to a coach. 

THE COLLEGIAN: On Feb. 17, Chris Mooney announced he would be undergoing heart surgery and that he would take a leave of absence from the men’s basketball team. You were then named interim head coach. What was that process like and how has it been stepping into that role so far?

PETER THOMAS: So the process was: Coach Mooney’s pretty informal with a lot of stuff, and I think he just grabbed us as a staff, I think it was after the Fordham game, … about a week and a half before he decided the time he was gonna step away for his surgery. He just grabbed us as a staff and told us about what was gonna happen, that he had the issue with his aorta, and that he was gonna get surgery and basically just said, ‘and Peter, you’ll be the interim.’ That was about as informal as it was, as far as how that process happened. But that gave us some time to kind of figure things out as a staff of how we wanted to move forward with everybody having to step into a little bit different and bigger role. Then it was an emotional meeting with Coach Mooney and the guys when he let them know and emotional for everybody just because of how much Coach cares for the program and certainly how much the guys care about Coach. Not easy when your head guy has to step away for something as serious as heart surgery. Then for me personally, to step into the role, it’s certainly been an honor to be trusted to be in this role and try to help us, help lead us through the end of the season here. It’s been a really great experience for me so far. I think it’s been a great experience for our staff. Just a chance for everybody to step up and have to do a little bit more, and think a little bit more about preparation, and how we’re gonna sub, and how we’re going to motivate the guys and how we’re going to play in practice. All the things that often fall on the head coach have now fallen to our staff and I think in the long run, it’ll be a great experience for our staff and hopefully be able to help Coach Mooney moving forward better because of it. And being able to get that first win against Saint Louis was great, I think really great for all the guys to have belief that we could win without Coach here. Also great for Coach, certainly being the first game, him stepping away, give him a little relief to know that we could still be alright out there even though he had stepped away. 

C: And obviously, Richmond basketball has played a significant role in your life. You were a player from 2003 to 2007, you were the director of basketball operations from 2008 to 2013 and then you rejoined the staff this season as an assistant coach. Now, you’ve taken the reins here as the season winds to a close. What does Spider basketball mean to you and how has it shaped your life up to this point? 

PT: Well, I think I've been in just about every possible role you can be in associated with Richmond basketball. So, … basketball was a big part of why I came. When I decided to come to Richmond as a freshman, I had applied on my own, gotten in on my own and ended up talking with Jerry Wainwright, who was the head coach at the time, and he offered me a walk-on spot. I don’t think they had any walk-ons on the team at the time, and I really wanted to come to Richmond already. Being able to play basketball here, which I had grown up playing and loved and really wanted to compete, certainly made that choice a little bit easier. But, I fell in love with Richmond the first time I came and going from a walk-on to a scholarship player to then on staff here and going to NCAA Tournaments here as a player and a coach. Even when I was away the last nine years coaching with Campbell University, I still live and die with Richmond basketball even not being on staff. So, it’s meant so much to me. I met my wife here at Richmond, we got married in Richmond, Richmond’s really like my second home and home now to my family. And Coach Mooney has meant so much in my life. He’s really the reason I always thought about coaching, but then when Coach Mooney took over my junior year, one, he gave me a scholarship, which was incredible as a walk-on to receive a scholarship for your last two years. He gave me the opportunity to play, and the way that he coached and the values he had, not only as a coach in basketball but just kind of how he went about things, really inspired me to become a coach. He helped me to get my first job at Eastern Kentucky University and then hired me back here to come back and be on staff after one year at Eastern Kentucky. So, it’s been everything to me. It’s been my career, my wife was a cheerleader here and that’s how I met her. And so it’s just an integral part of my life and couldn’t be more excited to be back here as an assistant and certainly honored to be in the role I am now. 

C: As mentioned, when you were a player here you were originally a walk-on. Chris Mooney was the one who ultimately offered you a scholarship and you were the captain of the squad your senior year. Now, you’re leading the team you once played for in your former coach’s position. Obviously unfortunate circumstances to be named interim head coach, but can you speak to that sort of redemption story of sorts, going from walk-on to interim head coach? Have you thought about that at all throughout this process?

PT: I haven’t quite had time to think about the walk-on to now interim head coach story. I’m sure after the season, it’ll hit me a little bit…. It certainly is overwhelming to think about that that is the position I’m in now. One year ago, I was associate head coach at Campbell University, it would be hard to imagine being in this position a year later. So, I haven’t completely probably wrapped my head around what that means, but I think this has been a great experience for me personally. Again, like you said, you’d never want the circumstance for you to become or have an opportunity to be … where your head coach has to have serious surgery. But, at the same time, it certainly has been, I think, a great experience for me to learn what being a head coach is all about, obviously in a limited timeframe here. But, my hope is that one, this will help me down the line to know better how to be a good head coach if I do become one, which is certainly my goal. In the more immediate future, I hope this experience really helps me to help Coach Mooney by having a little bit different perspective, as an assistant coach who has now had to sit in this chair for at least part of a season. 

C: You’ve been on the sidelines as a coach all year, but now you truly have a front row seat to the ins and outs of the program. How do you take over a squad and keep the team focused in the midst of fighting for seeding in the A-10 and replacing a coach who has been at the helm for the last 18 years? 

PT: I think the main thing that our staff has tried to do is just to try to stay positive with the guys. This has certainly been a difficult time in their careers. I think any time you lose a guy who has been the center of Richmond basketball for 18 years and has been the voice and has directed everything, it’s gonna be a bit of a shock and I think big credit to our guys that we have really, really high character in our locker room. They’ve been as big a help to me as I hope I have been to them in that I think there are probably some teams around the country where if an interim head coach was named for the last five games, four regular season games and the tournament, they may tune them out or they may just do their own thing. I think we’ve had the opposite here. I think we’ve had guys who have tried to dig in a little bit more and try to support each other. That’s kind of how we’ve approached it, that this is their team. We’ve got several seniors who have been here for a long time and we always kind of talk about how it’s their team and they have to lead each other and I think that’s even more important now, and I think they’ve done their best to do that so far. We’ve just tried to stay positive and make sure everybody’s staying together, knowing that there’s gonna be some ups and downs in Coach’s absence. 

C: One more regular season game to go and then the A-10 Tournament in Brooklyn. An up and down year of sorts, some stretches of winning and some of losing and a flipped record it seems where the team has been successful at home but not as much away from the Robins Center. What is this team capable of down the stretch and as you head into the A-10 Tournament? 

PT: Well, it’s a bit of coach speak, but you do try to take it one game at a time and not look too far down the road. Certainly the A-10 Tournament is coming up here quickly, but I think the focus for us right now is senior day. We have a very good George Mason team comin’ in here who we played tough on the road. I think that was our first A-10 game of the season this year, and that was actually I think New Year’s Eve that we played well and had a chance to win that game. [George Mason’s] playing very well right now and we’ve been good at home. … Right now it’s just kind of making sure we put our best effort out on Saturday because Tyler Burton and Andre Gustavson and Matt Grace have meant just so much to this program and have put in, two of those guys for five years, [Burton] for four years to Richmond basketball. [They] have been a part of a lot of very good teams, a lot of success here. We owe it to those guys to finish the regular season strong. I think there are enough guys on the team that going into last year’s Atlantic 10 Tournament where we were the sixth seed and obviously that resulted in an A-10 Championship. So, I think you always go into those tournaments knowing that whoever’s playin’ the best basketball going in, it has a chance to be successful in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. I think that’s more true this year in the Atlantic 10 than ever. I think there have been a couple of teams that have separated themselves a little bit at the top, but you look at teams 3, 4, 5, though really 13, 14, 15 and any of those teams can beat any of the other teams on a given night. So, there’s a lot of parity in the league, and I think when we’re playing our best basketball. We’ve got a chance to win games and so while we’re focused on Saturday. I think the guys know if we’re playing our best basketball heading into the Atlantic 10 Tournament, we do have a chance to win games.