SCOUTING RICHMOND: Richmond has won 12 of the last 18 games and has a chance to post its best regular-season finish in seven seasons in the Atlantic 10. Richmond is 6-6 on the road this season, including 4-3 in the conference. Richmond's most road victories in A-10 play was five in 2003-04. The Spiders have been keeping the turnovers down in the last eight games, averaging just 11.0 turnovers per game.
SCOUTING XAVIER: The Musketeers had their 11-game winning streak snapped on Thursday night at Saint Joseph's. Xavier is still 25-5 and 13-2 in the league, having lost just twice in the last 19 games. The Musketeers are averaging 75.8 points per game and giving up just 62.3. Xavier has five players averaging in double-figures and one averaging 9.9 points per game.

Quick Hitters
Last Saturday's 78-74 loss to Massachusetts was the first time since joining the Atlantic 10 for the 2001-02 season that Richmond had scored 70 or more points against a conference team and lost, spanning 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 became just the third Spider sophomore to reach 750 career points, he now has 760...David Gonzalvez has made six or more field goals in seven of his last 12 games after doing so just twice in the first 16 games ...only twice in the last 18 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 28 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 28 games this season...the Spiders are third in the Atlantic 10 in turnover margin at +2.05...Richmond is fifth in the Atlantic 10 in field goal percentage for conference games, shooting 45.8 percent...the Spiders have led by at least six points in 23 of 28 games this season and have led by at least four points in all but three games...in the last 17 games, Richmond is 9-0 when the opponent does not out-rebound the Spiders by more than three...the Spiders had gone 50-straight games dating back to last season without four players scoring in double-figures in the same contest, but have done so twice in the last six games...Richmond is 5-1 in overtime games under Chris Mooney...the Spiders are 8-0 all-time in triple OT games after a 75-74 3OT win at La Salle.

Spiders Piling Up A-10 Honors
Richmond sophomore Dan Geriot became just the second sophomore to earn Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors this season and freshmen Kevin Anderson was named A-10 Rookie of the Week for the fifth time in the last seven weeks on Sunday. Geriot averaged 23.5 points and 7.5 rebounds, including a career-high 35 points to go with 13 rebounds in a win at St. Bonaventure on Feb. 27. Anderson averaged 17.5 points last week, including a career-high 21 points in the win at St. Bonaventure. Only nine players in the history of the conference have earned more than Anderson's five A-10 Rookie of the Weeks. Kevin Smith also earned Rookie of the Week honors after scoring 13 points in the win over Virginia Tech. The Spiders have four players on the roster (Anderson, Geriot, David Gonzalvez and Smith) who have earned A-10 Rookie of the Week honors in the last two seasons.

Stealing The Show
The Spiders are second in the Atlantic 10 and 38th in the nation in steals at 8.6 per contest. Richmond has double-digits steals in 10 games this season, at least seven steals in all but four 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 1.75, sophomore Ryan Butler (1.50) is 10th and sophomore David Gonzalvez is 14th (1.41). Senior Oumar Sylla is the fifth Spider averaging over a steal per game (1.04).

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, will look to put three or more teams in the NCAAs for the first time since 2004. That season 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 80.7 percent of their scoring from freshmen and sophomores. Richmond's top four scorers are freshmen or sophomores. Sophomore Dan Geriot (14.4) leads the team in scoring, followed by sophomore David Gonzalvez (12.3), freshman Kevin Anderson (10.2) and sophomore Ryan Butler (5.6). Freshman Kevin Smith is tied for sixth on the team in scoring (4.5 ppg).

Causing Turnover
The Spiders are third in the A-10 in turnovers forced, causing 16.75 turnovers per game. They have forced the opposition into 20 or more turnovers seven times this year.

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 49.7 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 4.7 fastbreak points per game this year. Richmond has held the opposition to eight or less fastbreak points in 23 of 27 games this year.

The Big Man On Campus
Sophomore 6-foot-9 center Dan Geriot scored the third most points by a Spider freshman last season with 356 and has 404 through 28 games this season (14.4 ppg) giving him 760 points through 58 college games (13.1 ppg). He has 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 is averaging 15.9 points per game in Atlantic 10 play, which ranks 12th in the A-10, and leads the team with an overall scoring average of 14.4. He also leads the Spiders in rebounding (5.6 rpg). He has scored in double-figures 19 times this season and 38 times in his career. Sophomore David Gonzalvez has 622 points, which is the eighth highest career-scoring total among sophomores at Richmond.

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 of its non-conference 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 65.5 per game. Richmond has held 15 teams to 65 points or less this season and has not allowed over 66 points in regulation in seven of the last nine games. The Spiders have held opponents to 50 points or less 15 times in 88 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 20 times in Mooney's three seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just six times.

Cutting Down The 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 19 games Richmond is averaging 18.6 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 seven times in the last 19 games. The Spiders are 12-2 when they shoot under 20 three-pointers, 4-10 when the shoot 20 or more.

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 and will attend the University of Richmond beginning with the Fall, 2008 semester.

Rising Stock
The Spiders are beginning to catch the eye of the national media. After their 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 scariest part is with one of the youngest rosters in the Atlantic 10 even better days are likely ahead."