1988 Men's Basketball Team of Distinction (2006) - Richmond Athletics Hall of Fame

1988 Men's Basketball Team of Distinction

Induction:
2006
Class:
1988

Picked to win the Colonial Athletic Association in 1988, coach Dick Tarrant's team did not disappoint by going 11-3 in the league and finishing the season with a school record 26 wins. More memorable than the CAA Championship and the 11-3 mark in the league, is what the team did with its NCAA Tournament berth. The Spiders became only the second team in NCAA Tournament history to oust the defending National Champion from the first round, when they topped Indiana 72-69 in 1988. Rodney Rice scored 21 points, including a jumper with less than a minute to play which gave the Spiders the lead for good. Richmond, which avenged two previous postseason losses to Indiana, held the Bob Knight-led Hoosiers scoreless over the last 2:40 to secure a berth in the NCAA Tournament's second round in Hartford, Conn.

Led by Peter Woolfolk's 27 points, the Spiders advanced to their first-ever NCAA Sweet Sixteen by topping the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 59-55, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Hartford, Conn. The Yellow Jackets, led by Dennis Scott and Brian Oliver's combined 30-point effort, were held to a dismal 5-of-22 showing from three-point. Woolfolk keyed the win by going 11-for-21 from the floor and hauled in nine boards. The victory was the second of the season for Coach Tarrant's team over the Yellow Jackets. The Spiders won at Georgia Tech, 73-67, Dec. 22.

Richmond went on to fall at the hands of the nation's top-ranked Temple team in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, 69-47, but set the school mark for most wins in a season with 26. The 1988 team still holds all-time records in the following categories: single-season wins (26), single-game three-point field goal percentage (75.0, 6-of-8 against ECU on 2/20/88), single-season three-point field goal percentage (43.8, 116-of-265) and single-season assists (546).