Off To Best Start in 22 Years, Spiders Play At Wake Forest New Year's Eve On ESPNU

Dec. 30, 2009

PRE-GAME: GAME NOTES

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Richmond men's basketball team opens a four-game road swing at Wake Forest on New Year's Eve in a nationally televised game at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

The Spiders (10-3) have won three-straight and are playing their final two non-conference games of the season this week, at Wake Forest and at Bucknell on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Wake Forest (9-2) has won five-straight, including a win at nationally ranked Gonzaga.

THE LATEST

Richmond opens a four-game road swing Thursday that will take the Spiders into Atlantic 10 play. The Spiders will be heading from Winston-Salem to Lewisburg, Pa. to face Bucknell on Saturday.

The Spiders are off to their best start since 1987-88 and the fifth-best 13-game start in school history. Just four Spider teams, (1926-27, 1934-35, 1985-87, 1987-88) have started better than 10-3, including just the two teams (1985-86, 1987-88) in the last 75 years.

Chris Mooney has 9 victories over teams from a BCS conference in 6 years as a D-I head coach, including 7 in his 5 seasons at Richmond. The Spiders have won 4 of the last 5 games against BCS teams dating back to a win over St. John's last March.

The Spiders are 3-1 vs. teams from BCS conferences this season, giving Richmond the most wins against teams from the Power 6 conferences since the 1985-86 team defeated Providence, Wake Forest, Stanford and Virginia.

The Spiders toughed their way through a brutal six-game stretch from Nov. 27 through Dec. 19 in which Richmond played six-straight games against current Top-110 RPI teams, including just one of them at home. The Spiders finished the six-game stretch 4-2 with wins over Mississippi State (47), Missouri (107), Old Dominion (35) and No. 13 ranked Florida (91), with losses on the road to VCU (11) and South Carolina (58). The Spiders only other loss this season is on the road at William & Mary, which is seventh in the RPI.

The Spiders will be looking for their fourth win over a Top-100 RPI vs. Wake (51).

Richmond was 23rd in the latest RPI according to CollegeRPI.com and the Spiders are receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today Top-25 Coaches Poll for the fourth week.

The Spiders will be looking for their sixth win against teams that played in the Post Season last year. Richmond has wins over Chattanooga (NCAA), Mississippi State (NCAA), Missouri (NCAA), Florida (NIT) and Old Dominion (College Insider.com Champion).

Richmond is fourth in the Atlantic 10 and 18th in the nation in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 37.9 percent. The Spiders are third in the Atlantic 10 and 39th in the nation in scoring defense (60.5), having held 7 teams to 60 points or less.

Richmond's defense held Florida to its lowest point total in a loss in Billy Donovan's 16 seasons as head coach of the Gators. It was just the 5th time in 446 games under Donovan that Florida did not reach 54 points.

Richmond guard Kevin Anderson needs 7 points to move into 25th on Richmond's all-time scoring and 10 points to move into 24th. His backcourt mate David Gonzalvez is in 14th on the scoring list with 1,399 points, needing 28 points out of the top-10.

The Spiders volunteered their time Tuesday night with the CARITAS program that helps transition homeless adults into stable housing. The players served food and interacted with 34 homeless men at Derbyshire Baptist Church.

Quick Hitters
Richmond has had more steals than turnovers in the last three games, with 9 steals and 8 turnovers in the win over then No. 13 Florida, 15 steals and 12 turnovers in the win over UNC-Greensboro and 11 steals and 8 turnovers in the win over UNC-Wilmington...the Spiders have won 2-straight vs. ranked opponents with wins over No. 13 ranked Florida on Dec. 22 and No. 17 ranked Xavier last March...Richmond has won 3 of its last 5 vs. ranked teams in the last three seasons under Chris Mooney...the Spiders have erased deficits of 9 or more in its last four wins and are 3-1 when trailing at the half...the Spiders have shot their two lowest field goal percentages of the season in the last three games vs. Florida (38.2) and vs. UNCW (37.5) but won both games...Richmond has two of the 11 Spiders who have reached 1,000 points as juniors (David Gonzalvez and Kevin Anderson) and junior Dan Geriot (909 points) needs just 91 points to become the 12th...Richmond has allowed just 27 fastbreak points in 13 games...other than allowing 13 fastbreak points against South Carolina, Richmond has allowed a total of 14 fastbreak points in its other 11 games...the Spiders have held the opposition to 64 points or less in its 10 wins...Richmond has led by double-figures in nine of its 13 games and at least 8 points in every game...Richmond has won by 26 points or more three times this season...Richmond held Missouri to the second-lowest point total under fourth-year head coach Mike Anderson...the Spiders have held three of the top-8 teams in the nation in scoring last season to 62 points or less this year (VMI, Missouri, Miss. St.) and 4 of the top-25 teams, including Florida...the Spiders tied the school record for steals last season with 262 and have already grabbed 117 in 13 games this season (8.9 spg)....Richmond has forced over 20 turnovers 5 times in 13 games and at least 19 turnovers in 6 games...the Spiders are scoring 18.8 ppg off of turnovers, compared to 10.7 for their opponents...the Spiders are averaging 30.3 points per game and the paint, while holding the opposition to 24.5 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.

South Padre Island Champions
The Spiders won the 2009 South Padre Island Invitational, defeating defending SEC Champion Mississippi State in the semifinals and defending Big 12 Champion Missouri in the title game. Kevin Anderson was named tournament MVP, while Ryan Butler and David Gonzalvez joined him on the All-Tournament Team. The four previous winners of the South Padre Island Invitational were Illinois (twice), Vanderbilt and Oklahoma State. The last time the Spiders defeated BCS teams in back-to-back games was in the 1988 NCAA Tourney with wins over Indiana and Georgia Tech. Richmond has won three-straight games against BCS conference teams, including the win over St. John's last season, Richmond's longest winning streak against teams from the BCS conferences since winning four-straight in the 1985-86 season. Chris Mooney has defeated 7 BCS teams in 5 seasons at Richmond and 9 BCS teams in 6 seasons as a head coach.

Gonzo Rising In Record Book
Senior Mike Skrocki for third.

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. Anderson has 1,128 points, which ranks 26th on Richmond's all-time scoring list, 31 points out of 25th

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 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. After watching Richmond down Mississippi State and Missouri in the South Padre Island Invitational, Mizzou beat writer Steve Walentik wrote of the Spiders, "I'll be surprised if they don't wind up as an NCAA Tournament team."

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 9.8 points per game, while he only scored a total of 15 points in the wins over Missouri and Mississippi State, Fox College Sports analyst Reid Gettys said Harper "could be the most athletic player on the floor" during the Missouri telecast.

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. Butler scored a career-high 19 points in the win over Mississippi State and was named to the All-Tournament Team as the Spiders won the South Padre Island Invitational.

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 140 games under Mooney and have held teams to 60 points or less 63 times. Richmond has allowed over 70 points just 36 times in Mooney's five seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just 12 times. The Spiders are 39th in the nation and third in the A-10 in scoring defense (60.5) Richmond entered the week 18th in the nation in field goal percentage defense and is fourth in the A-10, holding teams to 37.9 percent shooting. The Spiders have held seven of their 13 opponents to 60 points or less.

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.

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