Hopefully the message above was reinforced after the disastrous Delaware game.

I totally agree with Rising; this is a test game with Richmond that will tell us if this team is much better than last year.

Any updates or insights on injuries before the Richmond game?  Early in the season it felt like we had strong depth....

Just enjoyed watching Spiders lose to Charleston So at Robins in front of good sized crowd. Wasn’t as close as final score. CSU had 20 second chance points to 0 by Richmond. The only thing that kept them in game was Lopez 12 for 12 from foul line and team 25/29.  Spiders bigs missing in action and CSU handled press easily. 
Let’s go Revs on Wed!!!!

No LSF, but will be watching on tv and cheering from out of town. Happy New Year

H&R..71 wrote:

Just enjoyed watching Spiders lose to Charleston So at Robins in front of good sized crowd. Wasn’t as close as final score. CSU had 20 second chance points to 0 by Richmond. The only thing that kept them in game was Lopez 12 for 12 from foul line and team 25/29. Spiders bigs missing in action and CSU handled press easily.
Let’s go Revs on Wed!!!!

Just enjoyed seeing Richmond lay an egg against their last OOC opponent AT HOME. Reminiscent of GW coming out flat against Delaware? Maybe. Unless GW leaves a hot 3 point shooter wide open without trying to close him out maybe things won't be so bad at Richmond. Lets get this one, guys! 




 

Richmond Spiders
Date: Wednesday December 31st, 2025
Time: 4:00 PM ET
TV: Monumental Sports Network/ESPN+
Ranks: 110th (KenPom), 105th (Bart Torvik), 122nd (Haslametrics), 114th (EvanMiya), 149th (Sports Illustrated)
2024-25 Record: 10-22, 5-13 (T-13th in A10)
2025-26 Projected Record: 19-12, 9-9 (T-8th in A10)
NET Ranking: 108th (Q2 game)

Head-to-Head: 65-46, although the Spiders have certainly had the upper hand in the series over the past ten years. Since 2015, Richmond is 15-5 against GW. The Buff & Blue have had even less success at the Robins Center, where UR has won seven in a row against the Revs. Last year's game was also the A10 opener for both teams (those that make the schedule sure are creative aren't they?). It was certainly a memorable game, but not one in a positive way for GW. They went into halftime down 8, as the visitors could not make a shot to save their life. The Revs made just six field goals the first 20 minutes. Richmond did not exactly set the world on fire either, but they were certainly better than GW.

Things would open up for GW after halftime, and they would go up 13 with nine minutes to go. What happened after that is hard to explain. The phrase "playing not to lose" is one that I don't always buy, but it might be the best way to describe what played out. This was one of the games where I was very critical of the shot selection. GW was not a good three point shooting team last year, yet took over 60% of their shot attempts from there against Richmond. The Spiders also woke up a bit, but GW didn't help matters by shooting themselves in the foot. The bench also provided next to nothing - 0-8 from the field and just five total points courtesy of FTs from CJ. Gerald Drumgoole led all scorers with 27 points on seven made threes. Nearly 18% of Drumgoole's made threes for the season came in two games against the Spiders. Trey Moss added 11 on an efficient shooting day. Jun also had 11, but it came on 15 shots. Going back to shot selection, Buchanan took two jump shots in the final minute of the game which sums up just how poor the ball movement was late in the game. He took five threes in the game, which again should have never happened.

Offensive Efficiency: 135th (KenPom), 126th (Bart Torvik), 141st (Haslametrics), 127th (EvanMiya)
Defensive Efficiency: 96th (KenPom), 102nd (Bart Torvik), 83rd (Haslametrics), 110th (EvanMiya)
Pace: 122nd (KenPom), 135th (Bart Torvik), 124th (Haslametrics), 159th (EvanMiya)
Offensive Shot Quality Rank: 112th
Defensive Shot Quality Rank: 158th
Rim & 3 Rate: 79% (257th)

Strengths (2025-26 Season):
Bench Points Per Game: 41.54 PPG (5th; 1st in A10)
Defensive Rebounds Per Game: 28.23 DRPG (38th; 3rd in A10)
Free Throws Made Per Game: 18.5 FTM (47th; 5th in A10)
Three Point Percentage Defense: 29.7% (48th; 2nd in A10)
Winning Percentage: 76.9% (49th; 4th in A10)
Fastbreak Points: 15.15 PPG (55th; 3rd in A10)
Free Throw Attempts Per Game: 24.6 FTA (57th; 5th in A10)
Scoring Margin: +12.4 PPG (74th; 6th in A10)
Turnover Margin: +2.5 TO (74th; 2nd in A10)
Free Throw Percentage: 75% (79th; 4th in A10)
Field Goal Percentage Defense: 41.5% (92nd; 5th in A10)
Scoring Offense: 82.9 PPG (93rd; 5th in A10)
Steals Per Game: 8.1 SPG (99th; 6th in A10)
Three Pointers Per Game: 9.1 3PM/G (100th; 5th in A10)

Weaknesses (2025-26 Season):
Offensive Rebounds Per Game: 10.23 ORPG (266th; 12th in A10)
Blocks Per Game: 2.6 BPG (288th; 13th in A10)

Projected Starting Lineup:
#4 G Will Johnston (Graduate Student; Sydney, Australia) - 11.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 3.2 apg; 41% FG, 37% 3-PT, 88% FT per 28.8 mpg/32 GP at Loyola Marymount last season
#1 G Mikkel Tyne (Junior; Toronto, Canada) - 9.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.4 apg, 1 spg; 38% FG, 27% 3-PT, 78% FT per 31.6 mpg/32 GP at Richmond last season
#6 G AJ Lopez (Graduate Student; Queens, NY) - 14.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.1 apg; 48% FG, 40% 3-PT, 88% FT per 30.8 mpg/34 GP at Maine last season
#5 G Collin Tanner (Junior; Creedmoor, NC) - 3.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg; 40% FG, 30% 3-PT, 78% FT per 17.3 mpg/32 GP at Richmond last season
#21 C Mike Walz (Senior; Berwyn, PA) - 7.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 2.6 apg; 50% FG, 47% 3-PT, 82% FT per 22 mpg/31 GP at Richmond last season

Key Bench Players:
#2 F Jaden Daughtry (Junior; Richmond, VA) - 12.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1 spg; 59% FG, 40% 3-PT, 64% FT per 19.3 mpg/32 GP at Indiana State last season
#3 G Aiden Argabright (Freshman; Richmond, VA)
#9 F Jonathan Beagle (Senior; Hudson Falls, NY) - 6.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.7 apg; 55% FG, 43% 3-PT, 70% FT per 15.6 mpg/32 GP at Richmond last season
#12 G David Thomas (Junior; McDonough, GA) - 4 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.4 apg; 44% FG, 27% 3-PT, 71% FT per 15.1 mpg/27 GP at DePaul last season
#33 F Apostolos Roumoglou (Senior; Xanthi, Greece) - 5.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 1.3 apg; 33% FG, 26% 3-PT, 42% FT per 26.5 mpg/25 GP at Richmond last season
#24 F Jaylen Robinson (RS Freshman; Jacksonville, FL)

Key Losses:
DeLonnie Hunt (Graduated; Upper Marlboro, MD) - 15.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.7 apg, 2.1 spg; 42% FG, 29% 3-PT, 84% FT per 34.2 mpg/17 GP
Dusan Neskovic (Graduated; Banja Luka, Bosnia & Herzegovina) - 13.5 ppg, 3.6 rpg; 42% FG, 29% 3-PT, 89% FT per 25.1 mpg/32 GP
B. Artis White (Graduated; Canton, MI) - 6.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1 spg; 36% FG, 30% 3-PT, 69% FT per 26.9 mpg/25 GP
Jason Roche (Graduated; Berkeley, CA) - 6.2 ppg, 1.8 rpg; 41% FG, 40% 3-PT, 75% FT per 22.7 mpg/31 GP

Preview:
The 2025-26 season marks 50 years that the Atlantic 10 has existed as a league. It's also the 50th year that GW has played in the Charles E. Smith Center. That's not to mention it's the 50th year that Richmond has had Chris Mooney as coach! Okay the last one isn't true, but it certainly feels like Mooney has been around forever. He enters his blackjack year (21st) with the program, looking to quickly move on from a very forgettable year that saw UR win just 10 games total, the fewest since his second year (2006-07). On KenPom, the Spiders slipped to 247th, also the worst finish since the 06-07 year (278th).

You can point to a lot of things that went wrong last season - from the analytics to the makeup of the roster, but Richmond's year to me speaks to the unpredictable nature of the transfer portal in general. One year, you can finish at the top of the league, like the Spiders did during the 2023-24 season, and the next you can find yourself in the bottom if the pieces do not fit together. It's not that Mooney suddenly forgot how to coach. Simply having more NIL to spend than other teams in the league doesn't ensure that you avoid the pillow fight either, even if you do have an advantage on paper.

Roster continuity may be as important as it's ever been. Mooney has been smart enough to realize that teaching a Princeton-based offense to a new group every year is not ideal, and as a result he's added different wrinkles. In 2023-24, there were certainly more isolation sets run for Jordan King than I think I had seen from any Spider teams previously. Ultimately, there was just too much to replace, which didn't help either. While Richmond sees both double figure scorers in DeLonnie Hunt and Dusan Neskovic depart going into this season (along with three point specialist Jason Roche), the program is in a lot better shape compared to a year ago.

Both Hunt and Neskovic (23rd nationally in FT percentage) were very good at getting to the line and putting up points, but Richmond's offense otherwise was nothing to write home about. The Spiders shot under 50% from inside the arc and were bottom 50 in three point shooting. Despite the lack of spacing, they were top 50 in 3P attempt percentage, which feels like a crime. Mooney largely recruits jump shooters outside of a penetrating PG, but if there was ever a year to get to the line more it was last season. Richmond was just 282nd in FT rate, but 2nd nationally in percentage. Once Hunt went down, the shot selection looked even worse. Given UR has always ignored the offensive glass under Mooney (they have been bottom 10 nationally the last two years) the Spiders were one-and-done on offense too often.

The problems also extended to the defense, where Mooney's bunch was not overly disruptive. I think back to the Gilyard days, and at the very least Richmond was always decent at generating pressure along the perimeter even if they aren't VCU. Last year's squad put up little resistance defensively and hacked opponents too much. Since Mooney opts to recruit skill over athleticism, there was predictably little rim protection which has pretty much been the case since 2015. Over the last few years, the Spiders have also allowed plenty of looks from 3. Last season's team ranked bottom five in three point looks allowed, but opponents also hit over 35% of their attempts. Maybe UR will see some positive regression on that front, as opponents have not shot that well against them since 2018.

Mikkel Tyne and Mike Walz return as starters from last season. I believe Mikkel is the Scandinavian equivalent of Michael, so they technically have the same first name.

Tyne is the latest sub-6 foot guard that Mooney has developed over the years at Richmond. The Canadian was inefficient on high volume last year, and didn't do quite enough in other areas to make up for it. This year, he has taken a step forward from deep (36%) compared to previous years, but it has come with a regression from the FT line (55%). He's only taken 11 FTs on the year though, so he doesn't get there very much. Tyne loves the pull-up jumper, and will certainly get the shots up when in the game. He's struggled in the last three games, going just 2/14 from the field and has also nearly fouled out in three of the last four. In two games against GW last year, he more or less hit his season averages. He had a better game in Foggy Bottom (3/6 from 3) compared to Robins (1/5 from 3).

Walz took over Neal Quinn's job as the facilitating big in the Princeton offense last year after previously serving as a backup. He led the Spiders in rebounding last year and was second in assists. Walz is particularly good at rebounding on the defensive end, perhaps the best attribute of the Spider defense last year. His numbers this year are more or less in line with last year. He only takes a couple threes a game, but makes them count (42% from 3 for his career). Like Tyne, he does not get to the line often. He's incredibly taken just one FT in the last six games combined. For a guy that is his size (6'11") I'm not sure how that's possible. Walz scored just two points in each game against GW last season and will be looking to make a bigger impact this season.

Role players Collin Tanner, Jonathan Beagle, and Apostolos Roumoglou are also back from 2024-25. Tanner brings size to the wing and has entered the starting lineup this year. He's not a good three point shooter, but does a respectable job cutting off the ball, adding some boards, and in general plays the glue guy role relatively well. Tanner was efficient against GW last season, putting in 12 total points on 5/9 shooting from the field.

Beagle joined the squad last year after spending two seasons at Albany. He primarily serves as Walz's backup, but operates almost exclusively inside the arc (he's taken just one triple all year). Beagle is probably the better rebounder of the two in general, especially on the offensive end. Unfortunately, that aspect of his game isn't utilized too much given Mooney's stylistic preferences. He scored seven points against the Revs last season.

Roumoglou, a Greece native, spent two seasons at UConn riding the bench prior to Richmond. He hit a dagger three from the corner a year ago to help UR knock off GW, but was held scoreless in the return game in Foggy Bottom. Roumoglou has made at least one three in four straight games and rebounds well, but he has never really passed the eye test for me in terns of being an A10 rotation guy. Mooney loves him for whatever reason though.

A quartet of newcomers arrive from the transfer portal. Will Johnston has started 96 games at the D1 level, with stops at UT Rio Grande Valley and Loyola Marymount prior to Richmond. The Aussie is a fantastic shooter (39% on over five attempts a game), but can also be a playmaker. When he was with LMU last season, he ranked 31st nationally in assist to turnover ratio. For his career, he has a career assist to turnover ratio of nearly 2. Johnston has taken just one shot in the last two games combined, and I'm sure Mooney will look to get him more touches as A10 play commences.

AJ Lopez leads the team in scoring this year (12.2 ppg). Like Johnston, he is also now onto his third school. He's been in the America East the last three years, beginning his career at New Hampshire and spending the last two at Maine. From his time in Orono, Lopez has shown the ability to make tough shots in late shot clock situations. He is a good three point shooter (38%) although does take more midrange shots than he probably should. Lopez is also a fantastic FT shooter, and is coming off a game against Charleston Southern where he went 14/14 from the line. For the season, he ranks top 100 nationally in both FTs made and FT percentage. He put up 22 points for the game, which was the first time all season a Spider player has hit the 20 point mark. Lopez doesn't do much else (and per EvanMiya, is UR's worst defender), but he's vital as a go-to guy for the Spiders.

Jaden Daughtry returns home after spending the last two seasons in Terre Haute with Indiana State. He was recruited by Josh Schertz, so you know he has a lot of talent. At the time, Schertz described him as a "hybrid forward with great versatility". To date, Daughtry has certainly showed off that three-level scoring ability in college. His per-minute production is insane. In just over 19 minutes a game, he averaged nearly 13 ppg last season with the Sycamores. That's more or less similar to his efficiency at Richmond this year. Daughtry gets to the line more than most on the team, but is mediocre at finishing his attempts (68%). He rebounds well and has good hands on defense. In many ways, he may be the toughest matchup for GW on Wednesday. It's a fair question to ask why he doesn't play more. My guess is that it's a conditioning thing. While he shot an uncharacteristic 2/11 against Charleston Southern, I'd expect him to bounce back moving forward.

David Thomas provides additional scoring off the bench, a familiar role for him from his time at both Mercer and DePaul. Thomas is a crafty offensive player who has re-found his three point stroke from his freshman year following a slump last year (that may just be a DePaul problem). He is 14/28 from deep this season. Richmond's best win of the year came at Belmont, and in that game Thomas drilled six triples - he's certainly a threat to go off.

Mooney also welcomes in a six-man freshman class. The headliner is local product Aiden Argabright, who I'd simply characterize as a gamer. Argabright averages 10.7 ppg and is very feisty as an on-ball defender. At 5'11", he's such a Mooney recruit and will likely be a guy that annoys us to no end should he stick around for future years. Argabright is not as efficient as a three point shooter (10/35 - 29%) compared to getting to the rim so staying in front of him will need to be a focus. He averages nearly six FTs a game, so he will try to drive early and often. Argabright is currently top 100 in both free throws made and attempted. He has the highest BPR (+3.93) of Richmond's players, which is incredibly impressive as a freshman. Jaylen Robinson has also appeared in every game this season. The Jacksonville native also loves to attack the rim. He's shooting nearly 60% from the field, but has only taken three shots total from behind the arc. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up out of the rotation during A10 play, but he certainly has the frame to be impactful down the road.

One thing that you'll notice in the "strengths" section is that Richmond currently ranks fifth nationally in bench points per game. Mooney has gone 11 deep during OOC play, and I can't imagine that will continue. There are complaints about GW's substitution patterns, but I'd imagine it's even more of a problem for Richmond. After what happened against Charleston Southern, I'm sure Mooney has some difficult decisions to make. A guy like Johnston needs more shot attempts moving forward instead of a guy like Tyne, for example. Minutes have been evenly split among the top ten guys, but someone is going to end up not being happy the second half of the season. Richmond has notably played more uptempo this year (122nd) than they usually do. In terms of playing that fast, the only two seasons under Mooney that are comparable are 2019-20 and 2016-17. The Spiders went 14-4 and 13-5 in A10 play those years, so maybe Mooney can find a way playing at this pace.

I'll conclude by looking back at OOC play. I think 9-4 is a disappointment relative to expectations coming into the year. The weird Delaware performance will likely stick out the rest of the year, but GW should have really won one more game in the MTE, whether that was against McNeese or Murray. It's no secret that the bigger problem is on defense, as the only real complaints I have about the offense are stretches when the shot selection is too jumper heavy or when players are missing point blank layups that they should make.

The biggest thing that pops out is that GW is currently bottom 100 in defensive 2P field goal percentage. Slim has been solid defensively, but he hasn't really commanded the paint in a way that I felt he did last season. In general, I feel like Castro has taken a slight step back from last year's excellent campaign. There will be many teams the Revs face in conference play where teams are going to drive to the hoop. It goes without saying that the guards are going to have to take more pride staying in front of their man, but Castro and Hunger will also need to provide backup support in case they don't.

I'm less worried about Slim and more about Luke. Hunger is just not particularly great defensively, and quite frankly against better competition he just hasn't been good on offense either. There's the momentum killing threes, but fouling out in 21 minutes against a D3 team is a bit concerning too. I'm not going to read super into that as I expect the minute breakdown to be more 30/10 for Slim and Luke respectively but if Castro gets into foul trouble GW's defense is going to see quite a bit of a drop off. It also raises concerns about whether Luke can be trusted to head the frontcourt next year, but that's a future discussion. I was originally expecting a .500 conference record because GW's A10 strength of schedule is significantly harder than last year, but since Loyola has been atrocious I think hitting 11 wins in conference is realistic.

Byron Kerr had mentioned in the last game that CC expects Trey Moss to be available for conference play, but I'd be stunned if Moss doesn't redshirt for the year. I'm not sure he can crack the rotation without any OOC action. Ty was injured earlier in the year, but I don't think he's done enough to provide more than spot minutes if GW is in a lot of foul trouble. The question then becomes what the lineup combinations should be. Having both Garrett and Tre on the floor is awesome for offense, but per EvanMiya both are below average defenders so it probably makes little sense to play both together unless GW is trying to erase a deficit. It's easier to slot in CJ (if he can keep the turnovers down) and Bubu as they are steadier options on both sides of the ball. I've liked what Jean has provided lately and think he should continue to start. Tricky is still a bit iffy on defense, but I think he does a lot right now (especially offensively) to continue starting. Believe it or not, Woo has been even more impactful defensively (+2.76 DBPR) compared to even Slim on the year. I think I would probably go with Aranguren-Autry-Benjamin-Marshall-Castro as the starting unit and then for late game situations sub Tricky out for CJ on defense. Perhaps Tyrone gets subbed out for Garrett on offense when GW needs more three point shooting. In those cases, Tre would probably get the nod too. Dinkins will get hot in some conference game this season, but at this point I'm not sure he should be featured over Jean. Tre has had some spectacular individual defensive plays, but he is the worst defender on the team still.

Projected Score: GW 81, Richmond 80. 52% chance to win (KenPom). Bart Torvik forecasts a 46% chance at a W. ESPN predicts a 58.2% chance for GW to move to 10-4.

Did Michigan win by +40 over McNeese State?  I think the Richmond game will be a struggle....  

Blue Foggy wrote:

Did Michigan win by +40 over McNeese State?  I think the Richmond game will be a struggle....  

Michigan is, in my opinion, the most talented team in the country today. No other team, with the possible exception of AZ, is even close.