Brothers, Greg Robbins and walkon Jonathan Benjamin will make their first appearance in a Richmond uniform against Lehigh.
Quick Hitters
The Spiders improved to 60-38 in season openers and 51-11 when the season opener is at home...fourth-year head coach Chris Mooney is now a perfect 5-0 in season openers....Kevin Anderson has scored in double-figures in 46 of his last 48 games and has scored 20 points or more in six of his last eight games....the Spiders tied the school record for steals last season with 262 and are already grabbed 14 in the season opener against Lehigh....the Spiders forced 26 turnovers in the season opener, turning them into 30 points off turnovers.
Preseason Hype
Richmond has been picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10 by almost every preseason poll, including the conference's coaches and media poll. USA Today and FoxSports.com have the Spiders in the 2010 NCAA Tournament field, while FoxSports' Jeff Goodman had the Spiders on his list of Twenty More To Watch outside the Top-25. ESPN's Jay Bilas, Fran Frachilla and Andy Katz mentioned the Spiders multiple times in their blogs and the Denver Post ranked Richmond as the No. 4 on its list of program's on the rise. Lindy's ranked Kevin Anderson as the No. 17 best point guard in the nation and Dan Geriot as the No. 23 center, while FoxSports.com's Goodman tabbed Gonzalvez the No. 39 best shooter in the country.
Preseason Honors
The Spiders have piled up the preseason honors as the only Atlantic 10 team with three players earning preseason all-conference honors. Junior Kevin Anderson was named to the Atlantic 10 Preseason All-Conference First-Team, while senior David Gonzalvez was tabbed to the Second-Team and junior Dan Geriot was named to the Third-Team. With Anderson, Gonzalvez and Geriot, the Spiders boast three of the nine A-10 players who have earned all-conference honors in their career. Anderson was a Second-Team All-Atlantic 10 pick last season, while Gonzalvez was honorable mention all-conference. Geriot was named Third-Team All-Atlantic 10 as a sophomore in 2007-08, before missing last season due to injury.
Gonzo Rising In Record Book
Senior David Gonzalvez enters Monday's game fifth on Richmond's career list for three-pointers with 161, needing just one three-pointer to tie Ken Atkinson for fourth. Gonzalvez is currently 20th on Richmond's all-time scoring list with 1,227 points, just six points behind Warren Mills (1,233) for 19th and 10 points behind Aron Stewart (1,237) for 18th. Kenny Foster is 17th on the all-time scoring list with 1,279 points.
Anderson Nearing 1,000 Points
Junior Kevin Anderson enters Monday's game with 946 career points, 54 points away from becoming the 38th Spider to score 1,000 points. Anderson owns the fourth-highest career scoring total of a Spider entering his junior year and his 598 points last season rank ninth on the school's single-season scoring list.
Guarded Optimism
Last season Richmond was the only Atlantic 10 team with two players in the top 10 in scoring with Kevin Anderson seventh in the league in scoring at 16.6 points per game and David Gonzalvez averaging 16.0 points per game.
A-10 tion
Only four of the 14 Atlantic 10 teams have finished in the top-5 in the conference standings in each of the past two seasons, Xavier, Temple, Saint Joseph's and Richmond.
4 Man
With three players earning Preseason All-Conference Honors the Spiders are looking very capable of scoring on the offensive end, but do not forget about forward Justin Harper. A sportswriter passed on that when doing a preview for one of the summer preseason publications, Atlantic 10 coaches mentioned Harper as the league's best NBA prospect. The 6-foot-10 averaged 9.2 points per game last season as a sophomore, but he showed signs of stardom, including a 28-point, nine-rebound performance in a win over Rhode Island with a Los Angeles Lakers scout in the Robins Center that earned him Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors. Harper also had 20 points and
eight rebounds in Richmond's win over No. 17 ranked Xavier. Harper filled the stat sheet in the season opener with 14 points, seven rebounds and a career-high four steals.
Like Father Like Son
Richmond junior Ryan Butler and his father Jeff Butler are the second father-son duo to play for the Spiders, joining Pat DiServio (1981-83) and Tony DiServio (1945-47). Jeff Butler was a star for the Spiders from 1975-77, leading the team in scoring both seasons. He averaged 14.3 points per game in 1975-76 and 16.3 points per game in 1976-77. Jeff Butler was later an assistant coach for the Spiders under Hall of Fame coach Dick Tarrant, who regularly attends games in the Robins Center. Ryan Butler grew up in the shadow of campus, a and starred at Douglas Freeman High three miles from campus.
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. with a complex match-up zone that frustrated opponents. The Spiders finished the year allowing 57.8 points per game, which ranked seventh in the country. In 2006-07, with five freshmen seeing the bulk of the minutes, the Spiders did not have as much success defensively, but the past two seasons Richmond has been better on the defensive end, allowing 67.5 ppg in 2008-09 and 66.0 ppg in 2007-09. After a slow start on the defensive end last season, Richmond held back-to-back opponents (Rice and George Washington) to under 50 points for the first time since the 1950-51 season. The Spiders have held opponents to 50 points or less 18 times in 128 games under Mooney and have held teams to 60 points or less 38 times. Richmond has allowed over 70 points just 34 times in Mooney's five seasons and has allowed 80 or more points just 12 times.
Spiders Web Reaching NBA
While the Spiders do not have a former player on any NBA rosters, three Richmond former standouts are working the sidelines in the NBA. Kevin Eastman is an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics, earning a ring with the 2008 World Champions. Standout guard Ken Atkinson, a member of the 1988 Sweet 16 team, is in his second year as an assistant coach for Mike D'Antoni and the New York Knicks. Former guard Curtis Blair, who scored 18 points in the 1991 NCAA Tournament win over Syracuse, is in his second year as a referee in the NBA.
Young And The Restless
Richmond coach Chris Mooney got his first Division I head coaching job at the age of 32, which made him the fourth-youngest coach in the nation three years ago. Even with his youth, don't look for any grizzled veterans on the 37-year-old Mooney's staff. Associate head coach Kevin McGeehan is 36, assistant coach Jamal Brunt is 29 and assistant coach Rob Jones is 31. Directors of basketball operations Marcus Jenkins and Peter Thomas are 27 and 25, respectively.
More TV For Atlantic 10
The league's television schedule for the upcoming season consists of 133 televised contests representing 206 appearances, including the title game of the 2010 Men's Basketball Championship on Mar. 14 at 1:00pm on CBS Sports for the first time in league history. Among the highlights for this season's television schedule: 73 A-10 matchups will air on television this season, an increase of 25 percent from a year ago; an 18 percent increase in the total number of television appearances from last season; greater distribution in A-10 media markets; ESPN will televise 32 men's games on its three networks as part of its college basketball package representing 41 appearances; 10 games will be carried nationally on CBS College Sports Network, including the semifinals of the 2010 A-10 Championship; and 32 league contests will be part of CBS College Sports Network's syndication package.
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