University of Richmond Athletics
Spiders Named a Final Four Sleeper and a Defense to Watch By NCAA.com
10/13/2020 | Men's Basketball
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. -- Richmond's men's basketball team recently received a pair of plaudits from NCAA.com, with Andy Katz identifying the Spiders as one of his seven "Final Four sleepers" and the site naming Richmond's defense as one to watch in 2020-21.Â
Katz, who has Richmond 25th in his preseason power rankings, says the Spiders are one of a few teams across the nation with a chance to make a surprise run to this year's Final Four. On his March Madness 365 podcast, Katz said he thinks that four Spiders -- Blake Francis, Jacob Gilyard, Grant Golden, and Nick Sherod -- could have decided to play professionally this season instead of at Richmond, and that it "says a lot" that they decided to remain with the team.Â
Katz continued: "This is a veteran team; a senior-laden team. ... They should be A-10 favorites and a team that I think could make a deep run. No question about it. ... If they stay healthy and stay together -- experience will matter this season -- I really like this Richmond team."
While Katz feels like the Spiders experience will be an asset in 2020-21, Andy Wittry of NCAA.com thinks Richmond's defense could set the Spiders apart this season. Wittry took the 36 teams in Katz's latest Power Rankings and calculated each team's offensive and defensive efficiency during the final two months of the 2019-20 season plus the percent of last season's minutes each returns in 2020-21 to get an idea of which teams are the best bets "to pick up right where they left off" this November.Â
Wittry found that the Spiders return 94 percent of their minutes from a team that allowed just 0.88 points per possession in February and March last season, best of the 36 teams in Katz's preseason poll. Richmond allowed 54, 53, 47, 59, 50, 75, 70, 71, 63, and 62 points in its 10 February/March games last season, going 9-1 over that span.Â
Katz, who has Richmond 25th in his preseason power rankings, says the Spiders are one of a few teams across the nation with a chance to make a surprise run to this year's Final Four. On his March Madness 365 podcast, Katz said he thinks that four Spiders -- Blake Francis, Jacob Gilyard, Grant Golden, and Nick Sherod -- could have decided to play professionally this season instead of at Richmond, and that it "says a lot" that they decided to remain with the team.Â
Katz continued: "This is a veteran team; a senior-laden team. ... They should be A-10 favorites and a team that I think could make a deep run. No question about it. ... If they stay healthy and stay together -- experience will matter this season -- I really like this Richmond team."
While Katz feels like the Spiders experience will be an asset in 2020-21, Andy Wittry of NCAA.com thinks Richmond's defense could set the Spiders apart this season. Wittry took the 36 teams in Katz's latest Power Rankings and calculated each team's offensive and defensive efficiency during the final two months of the 2019-20 season plus the percent of last season's minutes each returns in 2020-21 to get an idea of which teams are the best bets "to pick up right where they left off" this November.Â
Wittry found that the Spiders return 94 percent of their minutes from a team that allowed just 0.88 points per possession in February and March last season, best of the 36 teams in Katz's preseason poll. Richmond allowed 54, 53, 47, 59, 50, 75, 70, 71, 63, and 62 points in its 10 February/March games last season, going 9-1 over that span.Â
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