2017-18 Review: Building Up

Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells once memorably stated "You are what your record says you are." For Parcells disciples, the 2017-18 Richmond Spiders basketball team finished with a record of 12 wins and 20 losses while going 9-9 in Atlantic 10 play, which tied for fifth in the conference.

But beyond the box scores and inside the standings, there's much more to the 2017-18 Spiders. It's a story of how one of the nation's youngest teams developed into a formidable foe and built a foundation for future success.

After going 2-10 against a non-conference schedule rated as one of the 25 most-difficult in the nation, the Spiders opened A-10 play with a 1-3 record and sat at 3-13 when they faced off against George Washington at the Robins Center on January 13. But Richmond raced past the Colonials behind a big game from redshirt freshman Grant Golden, spurring a five-game conference win streak that tied for the program's third-longest in the Chris Mooney era.

The Spiders ultimately finished with a winning record (9-7) over the second half of their season, a mark that included some marquee wins. Richmond twice beat eventual A-10 champion Davidson and swept the season series with city rival VCU for the first time since 2001, when both schools were members of the CAA. January 17 at the Siegel Center, the Spiders held the Rams to 52 points, VCU's lowest total ever in an A-10 game, in a 15-point win, tied for Richmond's third largest in the history of the series. February 7 at the Robins Center, Richmond rallied from a 12-point deficit with eight minutes to play for a thrilling 77-76 win that wasn't secured until the Spiders stole VCU's deep inbounds pass at the end of regulation as fans stormed onto Dick Tarrant Court.

Richmond wrapped up its regular season with back-to-back wins against UMass and George Mason. The Spiders 25-point margin of victory against the Minutemen was their largest since 2015, and Richmond followed up it up by beating the Patriots at EagleBank Arena for the first time since 1998, denying GMU the final double-bye in the Atlantic 10 Tournament in the process.

At the A-10 Tournament in Washington, DC, the Spiders coasted past Duquesne to reach the quarterfinals for the fifth straight season. There, Richmond ran up against No. 2 seed St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies entered on a 12-game win streak and seemed on their way to a 13^th straight victory when they took a 17-point lead over the Spiders with just over six minutes to play in the second half. But Richmond battled all the way back and had two shots to tie the game with less than a minute remaining before the Bonnies regrouped to win 83-77.

As they had for much of the season, a pair of Spiders freshmen made history for Richmond against the Bonnies. Redshirt freshman Grant Golden broke Mike Perry's school record for points by a freshman, a mark that had stood for 40 years. And true freshman Jacob Gilyard broke UR's single-season steals record, finishing the season with 89 – the most by any Division I freshman since 2012-13. Gilyard also snapped the Spiders record for assists by a freshman, finishing with 130, the ninth-most by ANY player in a season in team history, and finished his first year with 366 points, tied for the sixth-most by a freshman at Richmond.

Golden averaged a team-high 15.6 points per game and was one of just seven freshmen in Division I to averaged 15.5 points and six rebounds in 2017-18. For his efforts, Golden was named A-10 Rookie of the Week three times during the season and earned a spot on the A-10 All-Rookie Team in March. Golden was also a Third-Team All-A-10 selection, making him the first Spiders freshman to earn all-conference honors in 20 years!

2016-17 A-10 Rookie of the Year De'Monte Buckingham embraced his new role as one of the team's leaders and finished his sophomore season averaging 12.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. Buckingham, who was named Preseason Second-Team All-A-10 and selected to the Erving Award Watch List in October, was one of only 16 players in Division I to average 12 points, seven rebounds, and three assists on the season.

Sophomore Nick Sherod emerged as the team's most efficient scorer, increasing his scoring average from 9.8 points in non-conference play to a team-high 16.9 points from the start of the A-10 schedule through the end of the season. Sherod was one of just two players to average 17 points per game and shoot 52 percent from the field in A-10 play along with VCU's Justin Tillman. Sherod shared the conference's Player of the Week Award with Tillman on January 29, making him the first Spiders freshman or sophomore to be named Player of the Week since Kevin Anderson in 2009.

Juniors Khwan Fore and Julius Johnson, the most experienced players on the roster, provided scoring and veteran leadership, with Johnson leading the team in scoring at Fordham and vs Dayton and Fore making the game-winning free throws vs VCU and scoring a career-high 25 points against St. Bonaventure in the A-10 Tournament.

While Fore, a junior, led the Spiders in scoring in their final game of the season, more than three quarters (77 percent) of Richmond's points came from freshmen or sophomores. Only 15 teams in Division I had a higher percentage of their points come from first or second-year players as the Spiders joined Michigan State, Iowa, and North Florida as the only schools to have four freshmen or sophomores average at least 11 points per game.

In 2017-18, Richmond entered the season as one of the 10 youngest teams in Division I and the only school tasked with replacing a pair of top-10 scorers in program history (T.J. Cline and ShawnDre' Jones). But game-by-game, the Spiders emerged as a team capable of playing with any other in the Atlantic 10 and one that has the potential to contend for a title for years to come.

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Players Mentioned

De'Monte Buckingham

T.J. Cline

Khwan Fore

Jacob Gilyard

Grant Golden

Julius Johnson

ShawnDre' Jones

Nick Sherod

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