Fair or not, postseason success has a profound influence on how a college basketball program is viewed externally.
So when Richmond won five games in a row in March, picking up an Atlantic 10 title and an upset of Iowa as a No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament, the public perception of the Spiders was boosted significantly.
Truth be told, it helped internally as well --- long after the nets were cut in Washington last Selection Sunday and the season ended in Buffalo, N.Y., almost a week later.
“I think being able to compete and have that success, it changes a lot of things, not only for the graduating guys who did so much in their careers, but going into recruiting and having that positive momentum and just being able to talk about things we want to replicate and improve upon,” coach Chris Mooney said. “It gives us a much better feeling.”
Richmond was deeply invested in its core group in recent years, and with the benefit of COVID bonus seasons, the Spiders had a committed roster littered with fifth-year players last season.
While three starters are gone, Richmond is anything but young. They have four graduate students and three seniors on the roster. All but one of them was a rotation regular somewhere in Division I last season.
But there’s no doubt things will be different, particularly with 7-footer Neal Quinn (Lafayette) joining 6-9 graduate student Matt Grace and the 6-7 Burton in one plenty plausible lineup.
“We’ve had big teams in the past and small teams fairly often,” Mooney said. “This year we have a really big team. You start to try to figure out what are the types of things that can help. What can you do defensively that you haven’t been able to do in the past? From a style standpoint, I think that will evolve. I do feel like we have good pieces and some interchangeable pieces because of our size and athleticism.”
A look at the Spiders:
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Coach: Chris Mooney, 18th season at Richmond, 312-244 with the Spiders and 330-256 overall in 18 seasons
Last year: Richmond went 10-8 in the Atlantic 10 to earn the No. 6 seed in the league tournament, then won four games in four days to secure the program’s first NCAA tournament berth in 11 years. The Spiders then cooled off Big Ten champ Iowa 67-63 in the first round before falling to Providence in the round of 32.
They’ll miss: If it feels weird seeing Richmond play this season without the likes of Jacob Gilyard (13.3 ppg, 5.4 apg) and Grant Golden (13.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg), imagine what those in the Spiders’ program feel like. Gilyard departed with the NCAA career record for steals (466) and the A-10 record for assists (782). Golden closed out his career as the second-leading scorer in Richmond history and fourth in assists.
The losses didn’t stop there. Both forward Nathan Cayo (9.1 ppg) and reserve guard Nick Sherod (6.0 ppg) were mainstays in the River City.
Overall, Richmond saw 63 percent of its scoring, 56 percent of its rebounding and 77 percent of its assists exit after last season.
Impact returners: Tyler Burton was already a pivotal figure for the Spiders last season, leading the team in scoring (16.1) and rebounding (7.7) while also shooting 36.5 percent from 3-point range and earning second team all-conference honors.
He was an easy choice for the A-10’s Preseason All-Conference First Team, and he figures to be the central figures on the Spiders as a senior.
“That’s gigantic,” Mooney said. “He’s obviously a great player. He’s a great kid. To have someone as talented as him be back for his fourth year, that’s going to be more and more rare in college basketball.
Newbies of note: Richmond has not been a transfer magnet under Mooney, bringing in only seven of them over his first 17 seasons. As the last few years illustrated, his preference is to build a cohesive core that can stay together for multiple seasons.
The Spiders have three transfers, including guard Jason Roche (13.2 ppg at The Citadel while winning the Southern Conference’s Rookie of the Year nod) and forward Isaiah Bigelow (8.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg at Wofford).
But there might not be a better incoming fit in the league than center Neal Quinn, a cerebral 7-footer who averaged 14.7 points and 7.4 rebounds at Lafayette and has two years of eligibility remaining.
“We kind of anticipated he was going to leave because coach [Fran] O’Hanlon was retiring, so it wasn’t as much of a mystery to [why he was available],” Mooney said. “He’s such a good player. He’s a very good low post scorer. More importantly, he has a tremendous sense for the game. Great passer. And he loves basketball. Sometimes with big guys, there’s a stereotype that you’re trying to get them in the gym. Not with him.”
Reasons to be optimistic: Mooney’s track record --- just three sub-.500 finishes in the A-10 in the last 15 years --- suggests the bottom isn’t going to fall out.
But beyond that, Richmond has one of the league’s best players in Burton, as well as three other returnees who were regular rotation contributors on a conference title team. The Spiders might not have a defensive menace the likes of Gilyard anymore, but they still possess a talented enough roster to have a say in how the A-10 race unfolds.
X factor: Forward Matt Grace has played in 120 games for the Spiders. Guard Andre Gustavson has made 108 appearances and started for the back half of last season.
Given the graduation losses, the door is open for both to have a greater on-court impact this season, and they’ll be asked to become a larger part of the offense.
“Those guys have played a lot of minutes for us, been there for a lot of summers, lifted a lot of weights, all those things,” Mooney said. “Andre has played a ton of games for us and is just an incredibly solid player and impacts the game so much defensively. He’ll have more opportunity now and have a chance to have a great year.”
Circle the date: It’s hard to go wrong with either of the Capital City Classic games and they’re both Friday night games this season. Richmond welcomes VCU to the Robins Center on Jan. 20, and then pays a return visit across town on Feb. 24. The Spiders lost both regular-season games in 2021-22, but picked off VCU in the A-10 quarterfinals on the way to the tournament title.
Bottom line: Maybe Richmond takes a bit of a step back --- but it won’t be much of one. It will probably take a little longer to sort out roles this season than the last two, so a little inconsistency in nonconference play is to be expected. Yet with Burton pacing a team that has a built-in identity, the Spiders could make a run at their eighth 20-win season under Mooney.
Patrick Stevens is a veteran freelance college basketball writer. A contributor the Washington Post, he has been a writer for Atlantic10.com for the past nine years. Follow him on Twitter at @D1scourse.