University of Richmond Athletics
SpiderTV: Men's Basketball Practice Going Strong
10/24/2011 | Men's Basketball
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - After the winningest four-year stretch in school history, including back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and Top-25 finishes, defending Atlantic 10 Champion Richmond looks to a strong and athletic core of returnees who have been key to the past success.
Seniors Francis-Cedric Martel (4 three-pointers) and Darrius Garrett (5 blocks) played huge roles in the NCAA Tournament victory over a Vanderbilt team ranked in the preseason top-10 this season. Junior guard Darien Brothers and sophomore guard Cedrick Lindsay made big contributions throughout last season and a host of younger players showed glimpses of what they can do when Kevin Anderson, Justin Harper, Dan Geriot and Kevin Smith graduated.
Richmond opens the 2011-12 season on Friday, Nov. 11 against American. The 2010-11 Sweet 16 and Atlantic 10 Championship team wiil be honored in a special pregame ceremony.
PRESEASON NOTES
• The defending Atlantic 10 Champion Spiders are coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, including the 2011 Sweet 16 and have won 55 games over the last two years. Richmond has advanced to the Atlantic 10 Championship game in each of the last two seasons and has gone 28-6 in its last 32 Atlantic 10 regular season games, including 13-3 league records each of the last two years. The Spiders did graduate the winningest class in school history and a total of over 5,000 career points with the departure of Kevin Anderson, Justin Harper, Dan Geriot, Kevin Smith and Kevin Hovde. But this year's senior class of Darrius Garrett, Francis-Cedric Martel, Josh Duinker and Conor Smith have played a large part in the Spiders winning 75 games over the last three years. This year's senior class needs 17 wins to surpass last year's class as the winningest class in school history and Garrett (5 blocks) and Martel (4 three-pointers) deserve a lot of credit for the Spiders win over Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament last March.
• Richmond's underclassmen also have plenty of experience in winning big games. Junior Darien Brothers hit key three-pointers in the NCAA Tournament, but is naturally more of a slasher than the shooting specialist he has been through his first two years. Point guard Cedrick Lindsay was on the court in crunch time last year as a freshmen with key buckets in the Atlantic 10 Championship run and NCAA Tournament victories.
• Richmond has finished the last two seasons ranked in the final Top-25 ranking, finishing 2009-10 as the No. 24 ranked team in the nation in the AP Poll and last season as the No. 21 ranked team in the ESPN/USA Today Poll.
• Richmond has finished in the top-5 in the Atlantic 10 in each of the last four seasons and has received a bye in the Atlantic 10 Tournament in three of the last four years. Richmond, Temple and Xavier are the only Atlantic 10 programs to finish in the top-5 in the standings in each of the last four years and Richmond and Temple are the only programs to do so and win a conference tournament title in that span.
• Richmond won its 1st Atlantic 10 Championship in 10 years in the league with a 67-54 win over Dayton last March in Atlantic City. Richmond defeated No. 24 ranked Temple in the semifinals. Kevin Anderson was the MVP of the Atlantic 10 Tournament after averaging 22.0 ppg and Harper was named to the All-Tournament Team.
• Richmond had a 10-3 road record last season, tying the 1952-53 and 1985-86 teams for the second most road wins in a season in school history, one win behind the 1934-35 team (11-0). The Spiders were in the top-10 in the nation in road wins and went 7-1 on the road in A-10 play, clinching the best A-10 road record for the 3rd-straight year. Richmond has a 16-3 record in the last 19 A-10 road games.
• Richmond was 17-5 away from home last season, including 7-2 on neutral courts. The Spiders were 3-1 on neutral courts against nationally-ranked teams this season with wins over No. 8 Purdue, No. 24 Temple and No. 25 Vanderbilt.
• Richmond's Justin Harper and Kevin Anderson were 1st-Team All-Atlantic 10 selections last year, the 1st A-10 teammates to do so since 2006-07. It was Anderson's 2nd-straight season on the All A-10 1st-Team and his 3rd-straight season earning All-Conference honors. Senior catalyst Kevin Smith was named to the A-10 All-Defensive Team.
• The Spiders have the most wins over the last 2 seasons (55), 3 seasons (75) and 4 seasons (91) as in any other 2, 3 or 4 year spans in 99 seasons of Richmond basketball. Richmond won a school record 29 games last season, passing the previous mark of 26 shared by the 2009-10 and 1987-88 teams.
• Richmond is 7-3 in the last 10 games against ranked teams. Richmond has won 8 of its last 13 games against ranked teams since 2008.
• The Spiders have won 9 of the last 12 games against teams from a BCS conference and Chris Mooney has 14 wins over BCS conference teams in 7 years as a D-I head coach.
