University of Richmond set to build $15 million basketball training and performance facility

The University of Richmond announced Wednesday before its men's basketball game against visiting Massachusetts that a training and performance center for the men's and women's hoops programs will be built adjacent to the Robins Center.

The new facility, expected to cost $15 million, launches with a $7.5 million lead gift by Paul and Anne-Marie Queally, 1986 UR graduates. Construction is expected to begin late in the spring of 2019, following the completion of a successful fundraising effort, and the projected opening is fall 2020.

The Queally Athletics Center will be located behind the Robins Center, as one faces the arena's main entrance. Future Spiders will "enjoy the benefits of one of the absolute best training and performance facilities in the country," John Hardt, a UR vice president and director of athletics, said in a school release.

Included in the Queally Athletics Center will be coaches' offices, locker rooms, a practice gym, sports medicine and strength-and-conditioning areas, an academic-support area, and a Spider Heritage Hall that celebrates the tradition of UR athletics.

"We've always been a place where we've really tried to get good players, but more importantly, really help those guys develop and become great players," said men's coach Chris Mooney, who recognized the recruiting assistance the facility will supply, as did Michael Shafer, the women's coach.

Shafer, in the school statement, called the Queally Athletics Center "a strong statement that the University of Richmond is committed to the success of its basketball programs and its student-athletes."

About one-third of the 14 A-10 schools have basketball training-and-performance centers of some sort. They are beneficial from a practical standpoint, but also are recruiting tools as demonstrations of basketball commitment.

Typically, these support facilities include coaches' offices, locker rooms, meeting rooms, strength-and-conditioning areas and sports-medicine areas. Some have two full courts.

VCU is an A-10 member, as is Richmond, and the Rams opened their $25-million Basketball Development Center in 2015 behind the Siegel Center.

Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena, opened in 2006, features a built-in practice facility. At Virginia Tech the $21-million Hahn Hurst Practice Center opened in 2009. At Old Dominion, the $8.5-million Mitchum Basketball Performance Center opened in 2017. At George Mason, an existing gym was renovated and became a practice facility. That 2017 remodel was part of a $2.2-million phase of the school's Basketball Excellence Plan.

The Queally Athletics Center is the latest among a few significant facility upgrades at Richmond in recent years. UR in January began gutting much of the Robins Center's ground floor, the first phase of a $7 million project that will deliver a new football locker room, a new sports medicine area, a new strength-and-conditioning setup, a new equipment room, a new men's lacrosse locker room and new men's and women's coaches' locker rooms.

The Robins Center upstairs arena underwent a $17-million renovation in 2013, and renovations of some Olympic sports locker rooms and offices were recently completed.






Of course, now Richmond is not mediocre, but down right ****** this season.. timing is always great, lol.