Preview: Richmond Spiders

La Salle, reeling from a loss to the Bonnies on Sunday, returns to Tom Gola arena to face another young program with many of the same problems the Explorers have faced this season. 2nd year head coach Chris Mooney has a team struggling with the exact opposite problem as La Salle. While Explorers struggle to stop teams, the Spiders struggle to score on teams.

Probable Richmond Starters: (5-13, 1-4)

44 Ryan Butler 6”6 FR. G
21 David Gonzalvez 6”4 FR. G
40 Dan Geriot 6”9 FR. C
13 Peter Thomas 6”5 SR. F
11 Oumar Sylla 6”7 JR. F

The Explorers and Spiders are similar in many ways. Both have coaches trying to rebuild tradition-rich programs. Each program may be the youngest in the Atlantic 10 conference. La Salle starts 3 freshmen as does Richmond. Many of each team’s players were recruited by the other program. Both programs are coming off tough losses against conference foes. Richmond scored only 8 points in their loss to Dayton on Saturday while La Salle gave up 87 in their loss to St. Bonaventure.

When you watch Richmond play basketball you think Princeton-style offense. Extra passes and cuts to the basket and shooting the three point shot. The Spider’s problem is they don’t have the outside shooting to loosen up teams to allow the passing game to get easy baskets off of cuts and back-door plays. They are 12th in the conference in field goal percentage offense and are last in overall scoring. They only shoot 33% from the arc and their young players are still learning the ins and outs of the offense. Freshman Dan Geriot leads the team in scoring and is the team’s only double –digit scorer averaging 12.5pts/game. Fellow freshman David Gonzalvez and former walk-on Peter Thomas are next getting over 8 points per game. Starter Oumar Sylla is a defensive-minded forward and very little threat to score. Freshman Ryan Butler completes the starting lineup. Butler led the Spiders with 11 points in their loss to Dayton. Another freshman, Brian Morris comes of the bench with sophomore forward Jarhon Giddings to give the Spiders their depth. Morris was starter earlier in the season. The Spiders are the worst rebounding team in conference play giving up almost 9 boards more to their opponents.

The Explorers are coming off a disappointing 87-73 loss to St. Bonaventure. After grabbing a 41-36 halftime lead they were outscored 51-32 in the second half. Excluding N.J.I.T which is in their first year of Division I basketball, the Explorers have allowed their opponents to score an average of 85.5 points a night over the last 4 games. Also, allowing them to shoot well over 50% from the floor. Sophmore Paul Johnson is coming off two productive games and has now moved his way up the La Salle bench as a major contributor off the bench. If the Explorers are ever going to get healthy on defense the Spiders could be the recipe for success. Coach John Giannini certainly has athletes but Richmond’s patient offensive attack will test their ability to stay patient and play defense for an entire 35 second possession.

Keys to Victory:

Run at every opportunity
Rebound the basketball
Play disciplined defense

Cove Nuggets:
Richmond senior forward Gaston Moliva is out of the year with multiple stress fractures. He was counted on to provide rebounding and needed experience. Richmond freshman Brian Morris and Dan Geriot were both heavily recruited by La Salle. Richmond coach Chris Mooney was also recruited by former La Salle head coach Speedy Morris..