Men's Basketball Opens Atlantic 10 Play Wednesday At Duquesne

Jan. 4, 2010

PRE-GAME: GAME NOTES

IN-GAME: WATCH

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Richmond, picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10, opens conference play at Duquesne on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Palumbo Center.

The Spiders finished arguably the toughest non-conference schedule in school history with an 11-4 record with victories over Mississippi State, Missouri and Floriday. Duquesne is 9-5, including a 6-0 mark in the Palumbo Center. The Dukes one home loss was in overtime to Pittsburgh at Mellon Arena.

Richmond has won 12-straight over the Dukes since joining the Atlantic 10. Duquesne had won the first eight non-conference meetings between the two schools.

THE LATEST

Richmond is 5-3 in Atlantic 10 openers and has won their first conference road game in all four years under Chris Mooney, including a 62-48 win at Duquesne in 2006. The Spiders and Rhode Island tied for the best road record in Atlantic 10 league play last season at 5-3.

This will be Richmond's second-straight game in Pennsylvania, after playing at Bucknell on Saturday. Richmond plays three games in the state of Pennsylvania this season, including a visit to Saint Joseph's on Feb. 3 and Richmond plays six games against teams from the Keystone State.

Richmond senior Ryan Butler's father Jeff is a native of Greensburg, Pa and was a Second-Team Junior College All-American at Robert Morris before transferring to Richmond and starring for the Spiders. Ryan's uncle Jerry Butler has organized a bus trip from Greensburg and all 54 seats are taken. Jerry also brought a bus load of Butler supporters two years ago when the Spiders played at Duquesne. Richmond radio analyst and Spider Hall of Famer is from nearby Uniontown, Pa.

The Spiders have equaled - with the 2000-01 team - their best start since 1987-88 and the seventh-best 15-game start in school history at 11-4.

The Spiders' strength of schedule is 36th after playing 7 of its last 10 games against Top-80 RPI teams. Richmond went 7-3 in that stretch and the Spiders are currently 23rd in the RPI according to RealTimeRPI.com. While the Spiders are not receiving top-25 votes this week, they have in four different weeks this season. Richmond finished non-conference play 11-4 and that included facing a brutal six-game stretch against top-80 RPI teams, only one of which was at home. In the last 10 games the Spiders have wins over Mississippi State (68), Missouri (73), Old Dominion (41) and then No. 13 ranked Florida (76), with losses on the road to VCU (19), Wake Forest (30) in OT and South Carolina (80). The Spiders only other loss this season is on the road at William & Mary, which is 2nd in the RPI.

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 2nd in the Atlantic 10, behind only Duquesne, and 19th in the nation in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 37.7 percent. The Spiders are third in the Atlantic 10 and 42nd in the nation in scoring defense (60.7), having held 8 teams to 60 points or less.

Point guard Kevin Anderson was named A-10 Player of the Week after averaging 26.7 ppg in 3 games last week. He scored 24 points, all in the second half, against UNC-Wilmington, had 31 in the overtime loss to Wake Forest and 25 in the win over Bucknell. Anderson is 22nd on Richmond's all-time scoring list with 1,208 points.

Quick Hitters
The Spiders tied the school record for steals last season with 262 and have grabbed 126 in 15 games this season (9.0 spg), which is 2nd in the A-10...Kevin Anderson leads the A-10 and is 31st in the nation in steals (2.3)...Richmond had had more steals than turnovers in 3-straight games from Dec. 19-Dec. 28 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 are 3-2 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...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 6 games against BCS teams dating back to a win over St. John's last March...the Spiders have erased deficits of 9 or more in four of their last five wins and are 3-1 when trailing at the half...Richmond has two of the 11 Spiders who have reached 1,000 points as juniors (David Gonzalvez and Kevin Anderson) and junior Dan Geriot (917 points) needs 83 points to become the 12th...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 449 games under Donovan that Florida did not reach 54 points...Richmond held Missouri to the second-lowest point total under fourth-year head coach Mike Anderson...Richmond has allowed just 35 fastbreak points in 15 games...Richmond has held 13 of its 15 opponents to 4 fastbreak points or less...the Spiders have held the opposition to 64 points or less in its 10 wins...Richmond has led by double-figures in 10 of its 15 games and at least 8 points in every game...Richmond has won by 26 points or more three times this season...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...Richmond has forced over 20 turnovers 5 times in 14 games and at least 19 turnovers in 7 games...the Spiders are scoring 18.4 ppg off of turnovers, compared to 10.5 for their opponents...the Spiders are averaging 29.1 points per game and the paint...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 4 of the last 6 games against BCS conference teams since last March. Chris Mooney has defeated 7 BCS teams in 5 seasons at Richmond and 9 BCS teams in 6 seasons as a head coach.

Stealing The Show
The 2009-10 Spiders have three players, among the top-8 on Richmond's career list for steals. David Gonzalvez is sixth with 140 steals, just five steals behind Johnny Newman for fifth and eight steals behind Jonathan Baker for fourth. Ryan Butler and Kevin Anderson tied for seventh with 138 steals.

Gonzo Closing In On Top-10
Senior Mike Skrocki for third.

Anderson Closing In On Top-20
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, joining teammate David Gonzalvez. Anderson is 22nd on Richmond's all-time list with 1,208 points, needing 13 points to tie Eric Poole for 21st and 25 points to tie Warren Mills for 20th.

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.

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."

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 20 times in 142 games under Mooney and have held teams to 60 points or less 64 times. Richmond has allowed over 70 points in regulation just 36 times in Mooney's five seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just 12 times. The Spiders are 42nd in the nation and third in the A-10 in scoring defense (60.7) Richmond is 19th in the nation and second in the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to 37.7 percent shooting. The Spiders have held eight of their 14 opponents to 60 points or less.

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 Atlantic10 Player of the Week honors. Harper also had 20 points and eight rebounds in Richmond's win over No. 17 ranked Xavier last March.

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