Men's Basketball Looks For Second Atlantic 10 Road Win Wednesday At La Salle

Jan. 23, 2007

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Richmond men's basketball team will look to win its second Atlantic 10 road game in three tries on Wednesday night when the Spiders play at La Salle at 7 p.m.

The Spiders are 2-6 in Tom Gola Arena, but have won in two of the last visits to La Salle.

Despite a poor shooting game at Dayton on Saturday, the Spiders are still shooting 45.8 percent from the floor, which ranks sixth in the Atlantic 10. The Spiders have shot over 40 percent from the floor in all but five of their 18 games this season. Richmond has shot over 50 percent from the field in five games and over 45 percent in 10 games.

Wednesday's game at La Salle will be a homecoming of sorts for several members of the Richmond contingent, who hail from Philadelphia or the surrounding suburbs. Expect a large Richmond contingent as head coach Mike McKee, assistant coach Brian Morris, Kevin Hovde and Dan Geriot are all from Pennsylvania.

The Explorers (8-11, 1-4 Atlantic 10) have lost two-straight, including a setback at St. Bonaventure on Saturday. La Salle allows 76.4 points per game, while scoring 72.1 points per outing. Darnell Harris leasds the team in scoring at 15.6 points per game. He has a 17.4 average in five conference games. Rodney Green is second on the team at 13.9 points per game.

NOTES

Youth Being Served
Richmond continues to struggle in its search for consistency with a young squad. The Spiders are a young team with five freshmen who play at least 13.8 minutes per game. Richmond has started four freshmen in six games and at least three freshmen in 16 of 18 games. The Spiders receive 69.3 percent of their scoring from freshmen, by far the largest percent of freshmen scoring contribution in the league.

Guarded Optimism
Last season, in head coach Brian Morris has scored in double-figures in five of the last eight games. Red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler has also been solid and leads the team in 3-pointers with 26 on the season, including three against George Washington on Jan. 17. Butler led the Spiders with 11 points and seven boards vs. Dayton on Saturday.

3's Company
Richmond's offense relied heavily on the 3-point shot in 2005-06 as the Spiders took 47.7 percent of their field goal attempts from behind the arc, but shot just 29.5 percent. Richmond did not have the complement of 3-point shooters that thrive in this type of offense, but have added several players who can make the outside shot. That has showed as nine different players have made a 3-pointers and seven of them have made at least 11 trifectas. The Spiders are shooting 35.9 percent (125-of-348) from behind the arc, which is fifth in the conference, and in 3-pointers per game (6.9 pg). Richmond has made a season-high 11 3-pointers twice and has made at least five 3-pointers in all but five of 18 games. Red-shirt freshman Brian Morris is second with 23.

Adjusting To New Roles
Four of Richmond's five true freshmen - Brian Morris, David Brewster and Kevin Hovde - were the leading scorer's on their high school teams last season, each averaging over 20 points per game. (Freshman David Gonzalvez was the sixth man for Notre Dame Prep, the No. 1 prep team in the nation). While each of the freshman has scored in double-figures at least once and Geriot is leading the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game, they have obviously found it tougher to score consistently in their first year in college. The challenge for head coach Chris Mooney and his staff is to get these former high school stars to perform in all areas of the game, even when they are not scoring. The freshmen have showed signs of putting it all together, just not all in the same game.

Gunning Down The Running Do not think the Spiders are going to get run out of the gym. Richmond has allowed only one of 18 opponents to score more than 10 fast break points in a game this season and are allowing 5.53 fast break points per game. Richmond had a season-high 22 fast-break points against Dayton on Saturday.

Moliva's Return On Hold
Richmond had senior Gaston Moliva back from injury last Saturday against Fordham, but Moliva suffered discomfort in his foot and did not play at St. Bonaventure on Jan. 10. The Spiders looked like a different team on Jan. 6 against Fordham with the addition of 6-foot-7, 230 pound senior Gaston Moliva, who was out for the first 13 games of the season with a stress fracture in his foot suffered in preseason practice. Moliva has missed the last three games and it appears he might not return this season, in which case he would apply for a hardship waiver in hopes of regaining his final season of eligibility.

Tenacious D
Last season the Spiders led the nation in fewest points allowed for most of the season, not allowing 60 points or more for the first 10 games of the season and finishing the year allowing 57.8 points per game. This season, with six freshmen seeing the bulk of the minutes, the Spiders have not had as much success defensively, giving up over 60 points in 15 of their first 18 games, but the defense has shown signs of things to come and the return of junior Oumar Sylla should help. On Dec. 5 in Tampa, Fla. the Spider freshmen seemed to finally get what the coaches have been stressing. Richmond had South Florida stuck on 28 points with just over eight minutes to play and only allowed 46 points for the game. The Spiders have held opponents to 50 points or less 12 times in 48 games under second-year head coach Chris Mooney. The Spiders have held teams to 60 points or less 19 times under Mooney and allowed over 70 points just eight times.

Like Player, Like Coach
fn Richmond has started four freshmen in its first two games of the season and while "freshmen are freshmen," Richmond head coach knows that freshmen can step right in and contribute. Mooney pulled the rare accomplishment of starting as a freshman for Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril at Princeton, doing so on a defending Ivy League championship team that had all five starters returning. Mooney was the runner-up for Ivy League Rookie of the Year and helped the Tigers to the Ivy League title and a NCAA bid.

Needing Some More Windex
fn Head coach Chris Mooney knew rebounding was going to be a problem entering the season. The Spiders have been out-rebounded in 16 of 18 games this season. While Mooney believes the Spiders can get by without winning the rebounding battle, he knows they can not get beat too much on the glass. As Mooney said earlier this season, "rebounding will bother us all season because we're such a small team. If we get out-rebounded by nine then we have a chance, but we cannot get out-rebounded by 18 and expect to win." Richmond has rebounded well in four of the last six games. As head coach Chris Mooney said after the game, rebound is "usually an indication of how hard you are playing."

Two-Dimensional
Richmond is not relying as heavily on the 3-point shot this year. The Spiders took 47.7 percent of their shots from behind the 3-point arc last season and are down to taking 41.2 percent of its shots from behind the arc this year. The Spiders are scoring inside more than last year, averaging 25.5 points in the paint per game.

Who's Playing The Four
Do not ask who is playing the power forward or small forward position for Richmond because the Spider coaching staff does not assign that specific a role for a player. Head coach Chris Mooney and his staff want "everyone to do everything" and that can lead to lineups that do not follow the traditional point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center mix. The Spiders play two guards, two forwards and a center.

Walk This Way
fn Walk-ons will continue to play a prominent role in the Richmond men's basketball program in 2006-07 as freshman Kevin Hovde is averaging 13.8 minutes per game and scored a career-high 24 points against VMI. Senior Peter Thomas is a former walk-on turned team captain who has started 48-straight games and is second on the team in scoring at 8.6 ppg.

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