Men's Basketball Plays Mississippi State Friday At 6 P.M. ET

Nov. 26, 2009

PRE-GAME: GAME NOTES

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - The Richmond men's basketball team will play Mississippi State on Friday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time in the South Padre Island Invitational.

The Spiders (4-1) are off to their best start since the 2000-01 season and will face a Mississippi State team (3-1) that was ranked in the preseason Top 25.

The game will be televised live on the Fox College Sports Channel and will be live on ESPN Radio 950 back in Richmond and on the web at RichmondSpiders.com

THE LATEST

Richmond is off to its best start since the 2000-01 team opened 7-1. The only Spider teams to start the year 4-1 since the 1985-86 season were the 1987-88 NCAA team, the 1990-91 NCAA team and the 2000-01 NIT team.

The Spiders are 2-0 in the South Padre Island Invitational, winning games in Richmond against Chattanooga and Longwood. The Spiders face Mississippi State on Friday at 5 p.m. CT/6 p.m. ET at the South Padre Island Convention Center and then meet either Missouri or Old Dominion on Saturday.

Mike Winiecki (1,031) for 35th, four points to tie Spike Welsh (1,033) for 34th and 13 points to tie Danny Higgins (1,042) for 33rd. Anderson has scored 20 or more points in three-straight games and nine of the last 12 contests. He is fourth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring (19.8 ppg) has scored in double-figures in 50 of the last 52 games.

Only 11 Richmond players have scored 1,000 points in their junior year and the current roster boasts two of them (senior David Gonzalvez and Anderson). Gonzalvez is 18th on Richmond's scoring list with 1,270 points, needing just two points to tie Kenny Foster for 17th. Junior Dan Geriot needs 166 points to become the 12th Richmond junior to reach 1,000.

The Spiders are holding the opposition to 58.2 points per game and has held the opposition to 53 or less points in three of its five games. In its four victories, the Spiders have held the opposition under 60 points.

In Richmond's four wins, the Spiders have held the opposition to under 35 percent shooting and forced at least 19 turnovers.

Richmond has had at least eight steals in every game this season and has had double-figures in steals in all four wins. Richmond is averaging 10.8 steals per game and forcing 19.8 turnovers per game.

Chris Mooney has wins over teams from a BCS conference in all five seasons as a head coach, including the last four years at Richmond.

Quick Hitters
Richmond has led by double-figures in all five games and has led by at least 30 points in two games this season...the Spiders tied the school record for steals last season with 262 and have already grabbed 54 in five games this season....even with allowing William & Mary to shoot 51 percent from the field last Thursday, the Spiders are holding their five opponents to just 36.8 percent shooting...Richmond has forced over 20 turnovers three times in five games and at least 19 turnovers in four of the five games...the Spiders are scoring 23.2 ppg off of turnovers, compared to just 10.2 for their opponents...the Spiders are averaging 38.8 points per game and the paint, while holding the opposition to just 20.8 points in the paint per game...Richmond defeated VMI 103-59 on Nov. 16, marking the first time since a game against George Mason on Jan. 29, 1996 that the Spiders scored 100 points....Richmond dished out a school record 31 assists against VMI... the Spiders made 41 field goals against VMI, the most field goals for Richmond since making 41 on Dec. 3, 1994 in a win over VMI...The 44-point margin of victory was the fourth largest for the Spiders since 1955 and tied for the 13th largest margin of victory all-time...in Richmond's three victories, the Spiders are holding the opposing team's starters to 27.5 points per game...Kevin Anderson has scored in double-figures in 50 of his last 52 games...two of Richmond's signees for next season play on teams ranked in USA Today's Preseason Top 25 and both Derrick Williams (St. Anthony's/Jersey City, N.J.) and Cedrick Lindsay (Gonzaga College Prep/Washington, D.C.) were mentioned in the poll.

Preseason Hype
Richmond has been picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10 by almost every preseason poll, including the conference's coaches and media poll from which they received four first-place votes. USA Today and FoxSports.com have the Spiders in the 2010 NCAA Tournament field, while FoxSports' Jeff Goodman had the Spiders on his list of Twenty More To Watch outside the Top-25. ESPN's Jay Bilas, Fran Frachilla and Andy Katz mentioned the Spiders multiple times in their blogs and the Denver Post ranked Richmond as the No. 4 on its list of program's on the rise. Jay Bilas and Fran Fraschilla both picked the Spiders as the nation's sleeper team for this season. Lindy's ranked Kevin Anderson as the No. 17 best point guard in the nation and Dan Geriot as the No. 23 center, while FoxSports.com's Goodman tabbed Gonzalvez the No. 39 best shooter in the country.

Gonzo Rising In Record Book
Senior David Gonzalvez enters Sunday's game 18th on Richmond's all-time scoring list with 1,277 points, needing two points to tie Kenny Foster for 17th. Gonzalvez is also fourth on the school's all-time list in three-pointers with 169.

Anderson Scores 1,000th Point
Junior Kevin Anderson scored his 1,000th career point on Nov. 22 against Chattanooga, becoming the 38th Spider to reach the milestone and just the 11th Richmond junior to do so. David Gonzalvez reached 1,000 points as a junior and Dan Geriot needs 166 points to also do so as a junior.

A-10 tion
Only four of the 14 Atlantic 10 teams have finished in the top-5 in the conference standings in each of the past two seasons, Xavier, Temple, Saint Joseph's and Richmond.

Preseason Honors
The Spiders have piled up the preseason honors as the only Atlantic 10 team with three players earning preseason all-conference honors. Junior Kevin Anderson was named to the Atlantic 10 Preseason All-Conference First-Team, while senior David Gonzalvez was tabbed to the Second-Team and junior Dan Geriot was named to the Third-Team. With Anderson, Gonzalvez and Geriot, the Spiders boast three of the nine A-10 players who have earned all-conference honors in their career. Anderson was a Second-Team All-Atlantic 10 pick last season, while Gonzalvez was honorable mention all-conference. Geriot was named Third-Team All A-10 as a sophomore, before missing last season due to injury.

4 Man
With three players earning Preseason All-Conference Honors the Spiders are looking very capable of scoring on the offensive end, but do not forget about forward Justin Harper. A sportswriter passed on that when doing a preview for one of the summer preseason publications, Atlantic 10 coaches mentioned Harper as the league's best NBA prospect. The 6-foot-10 forward had a 28-point, nine-rebound performance in a win over Rhode Island last season with a Los Angeles Lakers scout in the Robins Center, earning him Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors. Harper also had 20 points and eight rebounds in Richmond's win over No. 17 ranked Xavier. Harper is third on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game.

Like Father Like Son
Richmond junior Ryan Butler and his father Jeff Butler are the second father-son duo to play for the Spiders, joining Pat DiServio (1981-83) and Tony DiServio (1945-47). Jeff Butler was a star for the Spiders from 1975-77, leading the team in scoring both seasons. He averaged 14.3 points per game in 1975-76 and 16.3 points per game in 1976-77. Jeff Butler was later an assistant coach for the Spiders under Hall of Fame coach Dick Tarrant, who regularly attends games in the Robins Center. Ryan Butler grew up in the shadow of campus, and starred at Douglas Freeman High three miles from campus.

The Posse Revisited
Tulane coach Perry Clark used a second unit called the Posse in the early 1990s to speed up the pace of the game and utilize his deep bench. Chris Mooney has begun using his own version of the posse in the first two games. Starter David Gonzalvez goes to the bench a few minutes into each half and returns two minutes later with Francis-Cedric Martel, Darrius Garrett, Darien Brothers and Kevin Smith. The group will look to press and push the tempo more while giving the Spiders' deep bench some minutes.

Spiders Sign 3
Chris Mooney announced the signing of guard Cedrick Lindsay (Washington, D.C.), guard Wayne Sparrow (Baltimore, Md.) and forward Derrick Williams (Staten Island, N.Y.) to National Letters of Intent. "We are thrilled with this recruiting class," Mooney said. "These three players come from three of the best high school programs in the country." Lindsay is a 6-foot-0 guard who plays for coach Steve Turner at No. 20 ranked Gonzaga College Prep, Sparrow a 6-foot-3 guard from St. Frances Academy who plays for former Temple star Mark Karcher and Williams is a 6-foot-6 forward who plays for legendary coach Bob Hurley at No. 24 ranked St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City. Lindsay averaged 17.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.1 steals as a junior as he helped lead Gonzaga College Prep to a 29-5 record and final national ranking of No. 9 last season. Sparrow averaged 15.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game as a junior at St. Frances, earning First-Team All-Maryland Interscholastic League and First-Team All-Baltimore City. Williams is a 6-foot-6 forward who played his first two years at Life Center Academy, earning Second-Team All-State Independent as a sophomore before transferring to St. Antony's. He helped lead St. Anthony's to a 24-5 record as a junior. and is ranked as the No. 96 senior by Hoopscoop.

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. with a complex match-up zone that frustrated opponents. The Spiders finished the year allowing 57.8 points per game, which ranked seventh in the country. In 2006-07, with five freshmen seeing the bulk of the minutes, the Spiders did not have as much success defensively, but the past two seasons Richmond has been better on the defensive end, allowing 67.5 ppg in 2008-09 and 66.0 ppg in 2007-09. After a slow start on the defensive end last season, Richmond held back-to-back opponents (Rice and George Washington) to under 50 points for the first time since the 1950-51 season. The Spiders have held opponents to 50 points or less 19 times in 132 games under Mooney and have held teams to 60 points or less 60 times. Richmond has allowed over 70 points just 35 times in Mooney's five seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just 12 times. The Spiders are holding the opposition to 58.2 points per game through four games.

Guarded Optimism
Last season Richmond was the only Atlantic 10 team with two players in the top 10 in scoring with Kevin Anderson seventh in the league in scoring at 16.6 points per game and David Gonzalvez averaging 16.0 points per game.

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