University of Richmond Athletics
Spiders Host Temple On Wednesday At 7:30 P.M.
01/30/2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team will host Temple on Wednesday night in the Robins Center for University of Richmond Staff Appreciation Night.
All University of Richmond faculty and staff members and immediate family members receive free tickets, plus a voucher for two free hot dogs and two free sodas. The game is also a Richmond Times-Dispatch Family Four-Pack Press Pass Game. Use the Press Pass coupon available in the Times-Dispatch or call the Robins Center Ticket Office at 1-877-SPIDER-1 and get four tickets, four hot dogs and four sodas for $40.
Head coach Chris Mooney will face a familiar foe on the sidelines Wednesday night, but it will be the first time Owl coach Fran Dunphy and Mooney have coached against each other. Dunphy was in his second year at Penn when Mooney was a freshman at rival Princeton in 1990-91.
With Mooney as a freshman starter, the Tigers took both meetings in 1990-91 and swept the season series again in 1991-92. In Dunphy's fourth year at Penn, the Quakers won both and did so again in 1993-94, leaving Mooney 4-4 against in the Ivy League rivalry. Dunphy finished his 17-year career at Penn with a 20-15 record against Princeton.
The Spiders are a young team with five freshmen who play at least 13.9 minutes per game. Richmond has started four freshmen in six games and at least three freshmen in 17 of 20 games. The Spiders receive 68.1 percent of their scoring from freshmen, the largest percent of freshmen scoring contribution in the league.
Despite shooting poorly in the last three games, including a season-low two 3-pointers against St. Bonaventure on Saturday, Richmond is still shooting 44.9 percent from the floor on the season. The Spiders have shot over 40 percent from the floor in all but six of their 20 games this season. Richmond has shot over 50 percent from the field in five games and over 45 percent in 10 games.
The Spiders have made 33 steals in the last three games, including a season-high 13 against St. Bonaventure on Saturday.
Junior Drew Crank is coming off posting career highs in points (23), rebounds (9), field goals (10, field goal attempts (13) and tied a career high for steals against St. Bonaventure on Saturday.
Guarded Optimism
Last season, in head coach Brian Morris has scored in double-figures in five of the last 10 games. Red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler has also been solid, having scored in double-figures in two of the last three games. He leads the team in 3-pointers with 29 on the season, including making three treys in two of the last three games.
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 have been struggling from the outside lately, but are still shooting 34.8 percent (134-of-385) from behind the arc. Richmond has made a season-high 11 3-pointers twice and has made at least five 3-pointers in all but six of 20 games. Red-shirt freshman Ryan Butler leads the team with 29 3-pointers.
Gunning Down The Running
Do not think the Spiders are going to get run out of the gym. Richmond has allowed only one of 20 opponents to score more than 10 fast break points in a game this season and are allowing 5.0 fast break points per game. Richmond has not allowed a fast-break bucket in the last two games.
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.
Moliva's Return On Hold
Richmond had senior Gaston Moliva back from injury Jan. 6 against Fordham, but Moliva suffered discomfort in his foot and has not played since. 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 17 of 20 games, but the defense has shown signs of things to come. 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 50 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 nine times.
Needing Some More Windex
Head coach Chris Mooney knew rebounding was going to be a problem entering the season. The Spiders have been out-rebounded in 18 of 20 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 40.5 percent of its shots from behind the arc this year. The Spiders are scoring inside more than last year, averaging 26.3 points in the paint per game, actually more than their opponents (26.2).
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
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 13.9 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 50-straight games and is second on the team in scoring at 8.6 points per game.
