March 17, 2008
PDF GAME NOTES 
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The Richmond men's basketball team will look for its first season sweep of Virginia Tech and Virginia since the 1991-92 season when the Spiders open the inaugural College Basketball Invitational against the Cavaliers on Tuesday at John Paul Jones Arena at 7 p.m.
Richmond is also going for a pair of victories over ACC teams in the same season for the first time since the 1985-86 season. The Spiders defeated Virginia Tech, the ACC's fourth-place team, on Jan. 3 in the Robins Center.
Tuesday's game is being shown nationally on Fox College Sports (check your local listings or contact your cable provider). The game can be heard on the radio at ESPN Radio 950 AM and on 93.1 The Wolf.
Richmond's game at Virginia is the first of eight first round games in the 16-team tournament. The College Basketball Invitational is single-elimination, up until the Championship Series, with all games being played at campus sites.
Prior to the Semi-finals, the four remaining teams will be re-seeded. The Championship Series will be a best of three series (home-away-home), in which the higher seed will get the first and last (if necessary) home games.
The winner of the Virginia-Richmond game will meet the winner of Rider at Old Dominion on March 24. The CBI includes teams from the ACC (Virginia), Pac 10 (Washington), Big East (Cincinnati), Atlantic 10 (Richmond), Mountain West (Utah) and Conference USA (Houston).
TICKET INFO: Reserved seat tickets for the game are $10. There is a $5 charge for parking. Tickets may be purchased online at www.virginiasports.com, by telephone at 1-800-542-UVA1 (8821) or in person through the Virginia athletics ticket office. The ticket office is located in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium and is open between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
THE LATEST
he youthful Spiders, who were picked 12th in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll, finished fourth and earned a bye in the conference tournament for the second time in seven years in the league. Richmond's fourth-place finish equaled the best regular-season finish for the Spiders since joining the A-10.
The Spiders had won 12 of the last 18 games before losing back-to-back games to NCAA Tournament teams Xavier and Saint Joseph's. The losses were the first consecutive defeats for Richmond in over three months, since losses to South Florida (Dec. 5) and VCU (Dec. 8). Richmond is 10-3 after losses this season.
Richmond freshman Kevin Anderson was named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year and sophomore Dan Geriot earned third-team All-Atlantic 10 honors. Anderson, who is third on the team in scoring (10.7 ppg) and fifth in the A-10 in minutes (34.93 mpg), won six of the last eight A-10 Rookie of the Week awards. Geriot was the only sophomore on the all-conference teams. He is leading the Spiders in scoring at 14.0 points per game, which is 16th in the conference.
The Spiders have won six games over RPI Top-100 teams since Jan. 3 (although Duquesne has since dropped from the Top-100).
The Spiders have just three scholarship players in their junior and senior years and receive 80.3 percent of their scoring from freshmen and sophomores. The Spiders' top four scorers and five of the top six are underclassmen.
The Spiders are second in the Atlantic 10 and 45th in the nation in steals, averaging 8.33 per game. Richmond has at least seven steals in 25 of 30 games and six steals in all but one game.
Richmond is averaging just 11.0 turnovers per game in the last 10 contests with less than 10 turnovers in four of those 10 games.
SCOUTING RICHMOND: Richmond had won 12 of 18 before losing the last two games to NCAA Tournament teams Xavier and Saint Joseph's. Richmond is 6-7 on the road this season. Richmond's last three losses are all against teams playing in either the NCAA or NIT (UMass). The Spiders have been keeping the turnovers down in the last 10 games, averaging just 11.0 turnovers per game in that stretch.
SCOUTING VIRGINIA: The Cavaliers have won four of the last seven games thanks to the return of center Laurynas Mikalauskas, who is averaging 9.9 points and 4.6 rebounds since returning from an injury on Feb. 12 against North Carolina. Senior Sean Singletary, who had his number retired at the last home game, was a first-team All-ACC selection for the third-straight year.
Quick Hitters
A victory Tuesday would give the Spiders two wins over ACC teams in the same season for the first time since defeating Wake Forest and Virginia in the 1985-86 season...it would be the first time defeating Virginia Tech and Virginia in the same year since the 1991-92 season...this is Richmond's 15th postseason appearance - all coming in the last 27 years - including the fifth time in the last eight years...Richmond is one of 74 teams in the nation to earn at-large berths to postseason play this year...the Spiders are 12-3 this season when they shoot less than 20 three-pointers...freshman Kevin Anderson is averaging 13.0 points per second half of the last five regular-season games...Richmond's 78-74 loss to Massachusetts on March 1 was the first time since joining the Atlantic 10 in the 2001-02 season that Richmond had scored 70 or more points against a conference team and lost. That stretch spanned 120 games against A-10 teams, including conference tournament games...the Spiders have tied for their second-most wins (16) since the 2001-02 season. The 2003-04 NCAA Tournament team won 20 games...Dan Geriot is just the third Spider sophomore to reach 750 career points, he now has 776...only three times in the last 20 games has the opposition made more field goals than the Spiders...Richmond's top two scorers, Dan Geriot and David Gonzalvez, have scored in double-figures in just 10 of the 30 games...eight different Spiders have scored in double-figures this season...Richmond is 13-2 when it has a higher shooting percentage than its opponent...Richmond has been no worse than in a one-possession game at the half in 22 of 30 games this season...the Spiders are third in the Atlantic 10 in turnover margin at +2.13...the Spiders have led by at least six points in 25 of 30 games this season...in the last 19 games, Richmond is 9-0 when the opponent does not out-rebound the Spiders by more than three...Richmond is 5-1 in overtime games Mooney.
Spiders Piling Up A-10 Honors
Richmond freshman Kevin Anderson was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year and earned a spot on the conference's All-Rookie Team, while sophomore Dan Geriot was named to Third-Team All-Atlantic 10. Geriot became just the second sophomore to earn Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors this season on March 2. Anderson was named A-10 Rookie of the Week six of the last eight weeks. Only four players in Atlantic 10 history have earned conference Rookie of the Week honors more than Anderson's six awards. Anderson becomes the first conference Rookie of the year for the Spiders since Charles Stephens won the CAA Rookie of the Year in 1999. Anderson gives the Spiders All-Rookie selections in each of the past two seasons, joining 2007 All-Rookie selection Geriot. The Spiders have four players on the roster who have earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week in the past two seasons. Freshman Kevin Smith earned the award after scoring 13 points in the win over Virginia Tech. Sophomores David Gonzalvez and Geriot earned the honor last season.
Stealing The Show
The Spiders are second in the Atlantic 10 and 45th in the nation in steals at 8.3 per contest. Richmond has double-digits steals in 10 games this season, at least seven steals in all but five games and at least six steals in all but one game. Richmond has three players in the top-15 in the conference in steals. Freshman Kevin Anderson is third in the A-10 at 1.77, sophomore Ryan Butler (1.43) is 10th and sophomore David Gonzalvez is 14th (1.37). Senior Oumar Sylla is the fourth Spider averaging over a steal per game (1.00).
A-10 On The Rebound
After a few down years the Atlantic 10 looks to be back among the nation's elite conferences. The conference, which has had at least four teams in the NCAA Tournament on five occasions since 1996, put eight of its teams in postseason play this year. Three teams made the NCAA Tournament, four teams made the NIT and Richmond is playing in the CBI. This is the most postseason teams for the A-10 since 2004, when Richmond was one of four A-10 teams in the Big Dance and No. 1 ranked Saint Joseph's and Xavier advanced to the Elite 8. This season the A-10 has been as high as fifth in the RPI and is currently seventh. The conference has had as many as three teams ranked in the same week this season. The non-conference winning percentage of .649 (122-66) is the fourth-highest winning percentage since the formation of the league in 1976-77 and the highest since the 1993-94 campaign (.663).
Youth Movement
Richmond has just three scholarship players in their junior and senior seasons and the Spiders are receiving 80.3 percent of their scoring from freshmen and sophomores. Richmond's top four scorers are freshmen or sophomores. Sophomore Dan Geriot (14.0) leads the team in scoring, followed by sophomore David Gonzalvez (11.7), freshman Kevin Anderson (10.7) and sophomore Ryan Butler (5.6). Freshman Kevin Smith is sixth on the team in scoring (4.5 ppg).
Causing Turnover
The Spiders are third in the A-10 in turnovers forced, causing 16.6 turnovers per game. They have forced the opposition into 20 or more turnovers seven times.
Two-Dimensional
The Spiders finished the 2006-07 season ranked 35th in the nation in two-point field goal percentage shooting 52.6 percent from inside the arc. Richmond is shooting 49.2 percent on two-pointers this season.
Gunning Down The Running
The Spiders did a good job of stopping up tempo teams in 2006-07, allowing the opposition to score more than 10 fast break points in just three of 30 games last year. The Spiders allowed 5.4 fast break points per game last year and have allowed 4.6 fastbreak points per game this year. Richmond has held the opposition to eight or less fastbreak points in 25 of 30 games this year.
The Big Man On Campus
Sophomore 6-foot-9 center Dan Geriot, a third-team All-Atlantic 10 selection this season, scored the third most points by a Spider freshman last season with 356. He has 420 points through 30 games this season (14.0 ppg), giving him 776 points through 60 college games (12.9 ppg) which is the fourth-highest career scoring total for a sophomore at Richmond. Geriot was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week on March 2 after scoring a career-high 35 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the win over St. Bonaventure. Geriot put on quite a scoring exhibition in a five-game stretch from Nov. 10 through Nov. 24. He scored over 20 points four times and reached double-figures in all five games. Over that five-game stretch, the Springfield, Pa. native averaged 19.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He shot 54.5 percent (33-of-66) in the span, including 44.4 percent from three-point land (8-of-18). Geriot leads the team in scoring at 14.0 points per game, which ranks 16th in the Atlantic 10. He also leads the Spiders in rebounding (5.5 rpg). He has scored in double-figures 19 times this season and 38 times in his career. Sophomore David Gonzalvez has 628 points, which is the eighth highest career-scoring total among sophomores at Richmond.
Cutting Down Threes
Through the first nine games of the 2007-08 season the Spiders were letting three-pointers fly at a clip of 20.5 per game, making an average of 6.8 per game and shooting just 33.5 percent. In the last 20 games Richmond is averaging 18.9 three-pointers and has made 6.9 per game. Richmond shot 20 or more three-pointers in seven of the first nine games, but has shot 20 or more threes just eight times in the last 20 games. The Spiders are 12-3 when they shoot under 20 three-pointers, 4-11 when the shoot 20 or more.
Tale Of Two Halves
The Spiders had clearly been a first-half team for the first 10 games of this season, averaging just 26.7 points in the second half and shooting just 38.5 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three after the break. While the Spiders have improved their second-half play, including scoring 40 second-half points in the win over Temple, Richmond still has had it struggles after the break. The Spiders were tied with Rhode Island at the half, but were out-scored by 14 in the second session. Richmond let leads of 17 (with 13 minutes to play), 11 (with four minutes to play) and seven (with three minutes to play) slip away in the second half of three losses.
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. The Spiders finished the year allowing 57.8 points per game, which ranked seventh in the country. Last season, with five freshmen seeing the bulk of the minutes, the Spiders did not have as much success defensively, giving up over 60 points in 27 of 30 games. This season the more mature Spiders' are getting back to their defensive stinginess from two years ago. Richmond is fourth in the Atlantic 10 in fewest points allowed at 66.0 per game. Richmond has held 16 teams to 65 points or less this season and has not allowed over 66 points in regulation in seven of the last 11 games. The Spiders have held opponents to 50 points or less 15 times in 90 games under Mooney and have held teams to 60 points or less 28 times under Mooney, including nine times this season. Richmond has allowed over 70 points just 21 times in Mooney's three seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just seven times.
Rising Stock
The Spiders are beginning to catch the eye of media across the country. ESPN's Andy Katz had Richmond first on his list for "Job Well Done" for the 2007-08 season. Katz had the Spiders heading a list that also included Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Miami (Fla.), Cincinnati, Pitt, Kentucky, Davidson, Cornell and Memphis. After its win over Charlotte on Feb. 2, Richmond was tabbed the Rising Stock team of the week by the Dallas Morning News in its Sunday College Basketball section. Richmond is being called the Cinderella team of the Atlantic 10 by USAToday.com and the Providence Journal picked Chris Mooney as its choice for Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.
Duinker Dunks In ROBC
Sydney, Australia native Josh Duinker arrived in the United States for the first time, landing in Richmond two weeks ago after a 30-hour trip. The 6-foot-10, 215 pound forward/center began taking classes and practicing with the team two days later. He has showed athleticism, living up to his name with several dunks and displayed a smooth shooting stroke and the ability to dribble. The plan is to have Duinker redshirt this season and begin play as a freshman with the Spiders in 2008-09. Darrius Garrett, of Powder Springs, Ga., and Quebec native Francis-Cedric Martel have signed letters of intent to begin play in 2008-09.
