By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
BUFFALO – Richmond was optimistic about its NCAA Tournament chances entering the 2020 Atlantic 10 Tournament.
The Spiders were included in 80 of the 97 Bracket Matrix projections, a consensus No. 11 seed, after a 24-7 regular season and second place finish in the Atlantic 10 standings. They heard the news that COVID-19 was prematurely ending their season in their Brooklyn, N.Y. hotel, where they had been preparing for the A-10 quarterfinal round.
“That event wasn’t something that could be made better or made whole,” Spiders coach Chris Mooney remarked. “It’s not like you didn’t play well in the first half and can try to play better in the second half. It was just something out of everyone’s control.
“And it’s so hard to be in a position to be an at-large team. It’s just incredibly challenging.”
Richmond has not found itself in at-large position since, compiling a 16-13 regular season league record over the last two seasons. Its four-day A-10 Tournament title run last weekend, however, rendered that point moot. Mooney’s charges are in the “Big Dance” now, readying themselves for a contest against fifth-seeded Iowa on Thursday afternoon at KeyBank Center.
The veteran group, led by super seniors Jacob Gilyard and Grant Golden, welcomed an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA to experience what the pandemic took from them.
The 2020 tournament not taking place, Golden acknowledged, made cutting down the nets in Washington, D.C. “a lot sweeter.”
“That was the best record in school history that we had in 2020,” Golden noted. “Everything that we had set out to accomplish was right there in front of us. We were gonna have an opportunity to go play up there in Brooklyn. So to have that all taken away, it certainly hurt a lot.
“And the fact that all of our guys decided to use that ‘Covid year’ that we got and come back this year and try to accomplish that goal, and the fact that we got there, really means a lot to all of us.”
The Richmond program includes Iowa ties, with athletic director John Hardt and video coordinator Darius Stokes counting themselves as Hawkeye alumni. Stokes played for the Hawkeyes from 2011-14 and continues to hold a vested interest in head coach Fran McCaffery’s program. Mooney recalled watching Iowa games with Stokes on the road, entering this week’s scout with an idea of his opponent’s talent level. Film study not only confirmed how skilled Keegan Murray is, it elevated Mooney’s opinion.
The 6-foot-8 Murray is averaging 25.4 points per game on 55.9 percent shooting since the start of February, with a 49.3 percent mark from 3-point range. He totaled 36 points over the two games against Penn State, the conference’s top defense, and produced 103 over four games in the Big Ten Tournament.
Richmond has not allowed an individual player to tally a 30-point game since Nov. 12. Murray has amassed five 30-point games since that date.
“(Murray)’s tremendous. He’s better than I thought he was before we started watching them,” Mooney said of the Associated Press First Team All-American. “I’m not sure what he’s projected in the NBA Draft, but I imagine very high. He’s a great player that I don’t know, if you average 23 points per game, I’m not sure that anybody has guarded you very well, in that conference.
“He’s an amazing player and someone that it’ll take the whole team to defend, and to make sure that we make him make as hard of shots as possible, which he’s very capable of, but still want to make them as hard as possible.”
Iowa ranks 52nd in the country in KenPom.com’s adjusted tempo metric and recorded at least 85 points on 15 occasions. Sixth-year senior Jordan Bohannon shoots 38.5 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, including a game-winner just past the center court logo to top Indiana in the Big Ten semifinal. Patrick McCaffery, the coach’s son, made seven of his 11 shots for 16 points that afternoon. Sixth man Kris Murray, Keegan’s brother, was the team’s second-leading scorer in league play
The Spiders placed eighth in the A-10 in scoring defense but held each of their A-10 Tournament opponents under 65 points. The key against Iowa, Mooney assessed, is taking care of the ball. The Hawkeyes turn opponents over 13.7 times a game, a top 100 mark in Division I.
“They’re great in transition,” Mooney said. “And what makes them unique is, it’s not a particular fast break or a system fast break where everybody’s in the same spot every time. Kind of similar to their half-court offense, they’re playing together and reading each other.
“Bohannon’s such an incredible shooter, with such range, that generally the idea is you want to get back and be tight in transition defense. Against them, you can’t really do that because of the shooting, especially Bohannon and Murray. So I think the biggest thing is not turning the ball over.”
Mooney and McCaffery are each Philadelphia natives and Ivy League products, Mooney from Princeton and McCaffery a Penn alumnus. The 49-year-old Mooney looked at the 62-year-old McCaffery as a “legend” growing up, and the two have grown close after spending time together on Nike basketball coaching trips during the summer.
The coaches have combined to win 803 games at the D-I level and will surely share a warm embrace at center court after the intriguing No. 5 v.s. No. 12 matchup concludes.
“He’s been a really, really good friend to me,” Mooney said, “and somebody that obviously, I look up to. His success has been impressive.”
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