University of Richmond Athletics
Fourth-Seeded Spiders Play Fifth-Seeded Saint Joseph's In Quarterfinals Thursday At 2:30 P.M.
03/12/2008 | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2008
PRE-GAME COVERAGE: Richmond A-10 Tournament Guide
SpiderTV: MONDAY PRESS CONFERENCE 
IN-GAME COVERAGE: WATCH | LISTEN | GAMETRACKER 
TELEVISION COVERAGE:
Richmond Quarterfinal Thurdsay at 2:30:
Comcast Sports Net Mid Atlantic (In Central Virginia)
Fox Sports Net Ohio
Cox New England
Comcast Sports Net Philadelphia
SportsNet New York
Time Warner Cable Charlotte
Richmond Semifinal Friday at 6:30 p.m.:
CN 8 (In Central Virginia)
Time Warner Cable Charlotte
Comcast Sports Southeast
Fox Sports Net Ohio
Cox - New England
SportsNet New York
Championship Game, Saturday at 6 p.m.
ESPN
RADIO:
ESPN Radio 950 AM, 93.1 WOLF FM and RichmondSpiders.com with Bob Black and Greg Beckwith.
One of the goals listed showed the team's confidence: Finish in the top-4 of the Atlantic 10.
Check.
The Spiders finished fourth in the A-10, equaling their best regular-season finish in seven seasons in the league, and earned a first-round bye in the conference tournament which opened Wednesday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
The Spiders will play in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. against fifth-seeded Saint Joseph's, which defeated 12th-seeded Fordham 80-62 in the first round Wednesday.
Despite the 8-22 record in 2006-07 with a freshmen-dominated squad and the fact the 2007-08 team would have just two seniors and one junior, the players still set their sights high. Not many people on the other side of that locker room door would have believed the Spiders could finish top-4 in the Atlantic 10.
In early December with the Spiders off to a 4-6 start and the Atlantic 10 enjoying one of its most successful non-conference seasons in history, a top-4 league finish seemed about as realistic as the New York Giants knocking off the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
But coming out exam break the Spiders won their last four non-conference games, including a victory over Virginia Tech. Richmond continued its success through January and won four of its first five games in February to move into second place in the Atlantic 10.
The Spiders receive 80 percent of their scoring from freshmen and sophomores and still have experienced growing pains, but what third-year head coach Chris Mooney has done with the team is very remarkable.
Mooney was hired in May of 2005, taking over a program that had earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament just 14 months earlier. But by the time Mooney coached his first game at Richmond in November, all of the guards recruited by his predecessor had either been kicked out of school for poor grades or disciplinary reasons, and the incoming recruits were not admitted to Richmond.
So in that first season Mooney had two guards on the roster, freshmen walk-ons Duncan McLean and Mark McGonigal. McLean, who had originally planned on walking on to the soccer team at Richmond, averaged 13 minutes a game in Mooney's first season. Current back-up forward Oumar Sylla was the starting point guard and the two-guard was walk-on forward Peter Thomas.
While the 13-17 record might have been looked at as a disappointment, it should have been a sign of things to come. Guard play is essential in college basketball and to win 13 games with no scholarship guards that season might have been one of the best coaching jobs in the country.
"The situation that we inherited was very challenging for us," Mooney said. "There are no quick turnarounds at school's like Richmond."
Last season Mooney had his first recruiting class in uniform, but starting four freshmen and with only two upperclassmen available for more than half of the season, the physically immature Spiders struggled. Richmond did knock off two of the top teams in the conference - Saint Joseph's and Rhode Island - in the final two weeks of the season and showed signs of turning things around.
Confidence was definitely up after the Spiders lost a 63-61 Atlantic 10 Tournament first round game to fifth-seeded Fordham last March. Then an infusion of athletic, talented incoming freshmen arrive last June for summer school. After a few pickup games, the goal sheet was typed up and taped to the locker room door. While nobody outside of that door may have believed it possible, the Spiders never had any doubts.
"We knew we were that close," Richmond sophomore Dan Geriot said.
Opposing coaches have been singing the Spiders' praise all season and as Massachusetts coach Travis Ford said after his Minutemen escaped with a 78-74 win over Richmond, "that's a team that could go to our conference tournament and make a lot of noise."
"We have good players in the program now," Mooney said. "We are excited about where we are and we can continue to build on this. We certainly think we have some good young players. We hope we can do something in this tournament, but the overall perspective is that we feel pretty good about ourselves and where the program is."
The players feel pretty good, too. But they are not content with the top-4 finish. One of the other goals on that sheet of paper was to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament and get the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
THE LATEST
Quick Hitters
Richmond is 12-2 this season when it shoots less than 20 three-pointers...Richmond¡¦s 78-74 loss to Massachusetts on March 1 was the first time since joining the Atlantic 10 in the 2001-02 season that Richmond had scored 70 or more points against a conference team and lost. That stretch spanned 120 games against A-10 teams, including conference tournament games...the Spiders have tied for their second-most wins (16) since the 2001-02 season. The 2003-04 NCAA Tournament team won 20 games...Dan Geriot became just the third Spider sophomore to reach 750 career points, he now has 767...David Gonzalvez has made six or more field goals in seven of his last 13 games after doing so just twice in the first 16 games ...only twice in the last 19 games has the opposition made more field goals than the Spiders...Richmond¡¦s top two scorers, Dan Geriot and David Gonzalvez, have scored in double-figures in just 10 of the 29 games...eight different Spiders have scored in double-figures this season...Richmond is 13-2 when it has a higher shooting percentage than its opponent...Richmond has been no worse than in a one-possession game at the half in 22 of 29 games this season...the Spiders are third in the Atlantic 10 in turnover margin at +2.17...Richmond is fifth in the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage for conference games, shooting 45.3 percent...the Spiders have led by at least six points in 24 of 29 games this season...in the last 18 games, Richmond is 9-0 when the opponent does not out-rebound the Spiders by more than three...the Spiders had gone 50-straight games dating back to last season without four players scoring in double-figures in the same contest, but have done so twice in the last seven games...Richmond is 5-1 in overtime games under Chris Mooney...the Spiders are 8-0 all-time in triple OT games after a 75-74 3OT win at La Salle.
Spiders Piling Up A-10 Honors
Richmond freshman Kevin Anderson was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year and earned a spot on the conference¡¦s All-Rookie Team, while sophomore Dan Geriot was named to Third-Team All-Atlantic 10. Geriot became just the second sophomore to earn Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors this season on March 2. Anderson has been named A-10 Rookie of the Week in six of the last eight weeks. Only four players in Atlantic 10 history have earned conference Rookie of the Week honors more than Anderson¡¦s six awards. Anderson becomes the first conference Rookie of the year for the Spiders since Charles Stephens won the CAA Rookie of the Year in 1999. Anderson gives the Spiders All-Rookie selections in each of the past two seasons, joining 2007 All-Rookie selection Geriot. The Spiders have four players on the roster who have earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week in the past two seasons. Freshman Kevin Smith earned the award in early January after scoring 13 points in the win over Virginia Tech. Sophomore David Gonzalvez and Geriot earned the honor last season.
Stealing The Show
The Spiders are second in the Atlantic 10 and 38th in the nation in steals at 8.4 per contest. Richmond has double-digits steals in 10 games this season, at least seven steals in all but four games and at least six steals in all but one game. Richmond has three players in the top-15 in the conference in steals. Freshman Kevin Anderson is second in the A-10 at 1.79, sophomore Ryan Butler (1.45) is 10th and sophomore David Gonzalvez is 14th (1.38). Senior Oumar Sylla is the fourth Spider averaging over a steal per game (1.00).
A-10 On The Rebound
After a few down years the Atlantic 10 looks to be back among the nation¡¦s elite conferences. The conference, which has had at least four teams in the NCAA Tournament on five occasions since 1996, will look to put three or more teams in the NCAAs for the first time since 2004. That season Richmond was one of four A-10 teams in the Big Dance and No. 1 ranked Saint Joseph¡¦s and Xavier advanced to the Elite 8. This season the A-10 has been as high as fifth in the RPI and is currently seventh. The conference has had as many as three teams ranked in the same week this season. The non-conference winning percentage of .649 (122-66) is the fourth-highest winning percentage since the formation of the league in 1976-77 and the highest since the 1993-94 campaign (.663).
Youth Movement
fn Richmond has just three scholarship players in their junior and senior seasons and the Spiders are receiving 80.3 percent of their scoring from freshmen and sophomores. Richmond¡¦s top four scorers are freshmen or sophomores. Sophomore Dan Geriot (14.2) leads the team in scoring, followed by sophomore David Gonzalvez (12.0), freshman Kevin Anderson (10.5) and sophomore Ryan Butler (5.6). Freshman Kevin Smith is sixth on the team in scoring (4.4 ppg).
Causing Turnover
The Spiders are third in the A-10 in turnovers forced, causing 16.6 turnovers per game. They have forced the opposition into 20 or more turnovers seven times this year.
Two-Dimensional
The Spiders finished the 2006-07 season ranked 35th in the nation in two-point field goal percentage shooting 52.6 percent from inside the arc. Richmond is shooting 49.4 percent on two-pointers this season.
Gunning Down The Running
The Spiders did a good job of stopping up tempo teams in 2006-07, allowing the opposition to score more than 10 fast break points in just three of 30 games last year. The Spiders allowed 5.4 fast break points per game last year and have allowed 4.7 fastbreak points per game this year. Richmond has held the opposition to eight or less fastbreak points in 24 of 29 games this year.
The Big Man On Campus Sophomore 6-foot-9 center Dan Geriot scored the third most points by a Spider freshman last season with 356 and has 411 through 29 games this season (14.2 ppg) giving him 767 points through 59 college games (13.0 ppg). He has the fourth-highest career scoring total for a sophomore at Richmond. Geriot was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week on March 2 after scoring a career-high 35 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the win over St. Bonaventure. Geriot put on quite a scoring exhibition in a five-game stretch from Nov. 10 through Nov. 24. He scored over 20 points four times and reached double-figures in all five games. Over that five-game stretch, the Springfield, Pa. native averaged 19.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He shot 54.5 percent (33-of-66) in the span, including 44.4 percent from three-point land (8-of-18). Geriot is averaging 15.3 points per game in Atlantic 10 play, which ranks 15th in the A-10, and leads the team with an overall scoring average of 14.2. He also leads the Spiders in rebounding (5.6 rpg). He has scored in double-figures 19 times this season and 38 times in his career. Sophomore David Gonzalvez has 626 points, which is the eighth highest career-scoring total among sophomores at Richmond.
Cutting Down Threes
Through the first nine games of the 2007-08 season the Spiders were letting three-pointers fly at a clip of 20.5 per game, making an average of 6.8 per game and shooting just 33.5 percent. In the last 19 games Richmond is averaging 18.6 three-pointers and has made 6.9 per game. Richmond shot 20 or more three-pointers in seven of the first nine games, but has shot 20 or more threes just seven times in the last 19 games. The Spiders are 12-2 when they shoot under 20 three-pointers, 4-10 when the shoot 20 or more.
Tale Of Two Halves
The Spiders had clearly been a first-half team for the first 10 games of this season, averaging just 26.7 points in the second half and shooting just 38.5 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three after the break. While the Spiders have improved their second-half play, including scoring 40 second-half points in the win over Temple, Richmond still has had it struggles after the break. The Spiders were tied with Rhode Island at the half, but were out-scored by 14 in the second session. Richmond let leads of 17 (with 13 minutes to play), 11 (with four minutes to play) and seven (with three minutes to play) slip away in the second half of three losses.
Tenacious D
In Chris Mooney¡¦s first season at Richmond in 2005-06, 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 year. The Spiders finished the year allowing 57.8 points per game, which ranked seventh in the country. Last season, with five freshmen seeing the bulk of the minutes, the Spiders did not have as much success defensively, giving up over 60 points in 27 of 30 games. This season the more mature Spiders¡¦ are getting back to their defensive stinginess from two years ago. Richmond is fourth in the Atlantic 10 in fewest points allowed at 66.2 per game. Richmond has held 15 teams to 65 points or less this season and has not allowed over 66 points in regulation in seven of the last 10 games. The Spiders have held opponents to 50 points or less 15 times in 89 games under Mooney and have held teams to 60 points or less 28 times under Mooney, including nine times this season. Richmond has allowed over 70 points just 21 times in Mooney¡¦s three seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just seven times.
Rising Stock The Spiders are beginning to catch the eye of media across the country. ESPN¡¦s Andy Katz had Richmond first on his list for ¡§Job Well Done¡¨for the 2007-08 season. Katz had the Spiders heading a list that also included Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Miami (Fla.), Cincinnati, Pitt, Kentucky, Davidson, Cornell and Memphis. After its win over Charlotte on Feb. 2, Richmond was tabbed the Rising Stock team of the week by the Dallas Morning News in its Sunday College Basketball section. Richmond is being called the Cinderella team of the Atlantic 10 by USAToday.com and the Providence Journal picked Chris Mooney as their choice for Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.
Duinker Dunks In ROBC
Sydney, Australia native Josh Duinker arrived in the United States for the first time, landing in Richmond two weeks ago after a 30-hour trip. The 6-foot-10, 215 pound forward/center began taking classes and practicing with the team two days later. He has showed athleticism, living up to his name with several dunks and displayed a smooth shooting stroke and the ability to dribble. The plan is to have Duinker redshirt this season and begin play as a freshman with the Spiders in 2008-09. Darrius Garrett, of Powder Springs, Ga., and Quebec native Francis-Cedric Martel have signed letters of intent to begin play in 2008-09.
