5 things to know about the Richmond Spiders

1. Been there before

One of the most experienced teams in the country, the Richmond Spiders return six of their top seven players from last season. Last year’s starting lineup was comprised entirely of juniors, so they’ve all been in games against high-quality teams before. That starting lineup will do the majority of their heavy lifting today against Kentucky, as the starters combined for 72 of their 82 points on Friday night. While there may be a bit of a talent drop off outside the starting lineup, the starters are an extremely balanced and talented bunch.

The two best players that stick out for Richmond would be Blake Francis and Grant Golden. Francis is a 6’0″ shooting guard who averaged 17.7 points per game last season to lead the Spiders while hitting 36.3% of his threes, and averaging 1.1 steals per contest. He is one of two small and fast guards in the starting lineup for Richmond that will be tough assignments for the Kentucky backcourt. In the frontcourt, Grant Golden stands at 6’10” and 255 pounds and will be a solid matchup for Kentucky’s bigs. Golden was rumored to have considered grad-transferring before this season and would’ve gotten looks from several high-major schools. He averaged 13.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.4 assists last year, and had 16 points against Morehead on Friday night.

2. Out for the year

Richmond would be returning all seven of their top players from last season if not for an injury to redshirt senior guard Nick Sherod. The 6’4″, Virginia native was the third-leading scorer last season but suffered a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus on October 15th. It has been a tough go of it for Sherod the last few seasons, as he tore the ACL in his other knee back in 2018. However, last year, at full health, Sherod started every game for the Spiders and would certainly bolster their roster this season as well.

Sherod’s presence in the backcourt will surely be missed this season, but Richmond does have the experience to deal with a missing player. Last season, Sherod averaged 12.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, while shooting 43.8% from three-point land. Wish a speedy recovery for Sherod, but from a game perspective, his injury does make Kentucky’s job a little easier this afternoon.

3. Bigger and better

Kentucky’s first game of the season against Morehead State was a major mismatch at most spots on the floor, most notably how the two teams stacked up size-wise. Kentucky was noticeably bigger at all times, even going with a lineup that saw Cam’Ron Fletcher and Jacob Toppin at the 4 and 5. Richmond won’t be as easy to bully around, as they have the size to match up against most Power 5 schools. A starting lineup of 5’9″, 6’0″, 6’7″, 6’7″, and 6’10” gives the Spiders far better matchups than Kentucky’s previous opponent.

Coming off the bench is more size for Richmond, as they have two additional 6’9″ players that will see clock this afternoon. While we know that Kentucky will probably have a size advantage against most teams they face this season, Richmond certainly presents a tougher test in the paint, both in the starting lineup and off the bench. With Keion Brooks still out of the lineup, Kentucky’s forwards will need to play to their size to win the battle of the boards and ensure Richmond doesn’t own the paint. Not only will Richmond be bigger than Morehead State, but the size is far more talented as well.

4. Common enemy

With Detroit Mercy being forced to cancel its weekend of games, the lone common opponent between Richmond and Kentucky is Morehead State. While you may not be able to get much from Kentucky’s game against Morehead State, just because it was a blowout almost from the beginning, there are more takeaways from how Richmond played them. For starters, Richmond was clearly better than Morehead State, but the first half remained close, as the Spiders took just a seven-point lead into halftime. The second half was where the Eagles ran out of gas, as Richmond’s size overwhelmed Morehead State on the way to an 18-point victory.

While you could tell that Kentucky’s length and size on the defensive end absolutely suffocated Morehead State, the same couldn’t be said for most of the game for Richmond. Despite having more size overall, the defensive pressure wasn’t comparable to what Kentucky brought to the table. The backcourt defensive pressure from Richmond was very solid throughout, as Morehead guards turned it over a combined 13 times. A point of emphasis for the Kentucky guards will be taking care of the ball and letting the talent gap take over once the Cats get into their offense.

5. First-ever meeting

This afternoon will be the first-ever meeting between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Richmond Spiders. Facing off against an experienced tournament team this early in the year is tough, and it will be the ultimate “talent vs experience” match up that John Calipari talks about. That’s not to say that Richmond isn’t talented, because they definitely are, but Coach Cal always says he’ll take talent over anything else, and the exact opposite build of his team would be the Richmond Spiders.

The Cats sit as an 8-point favorite over the Spiders in what should be a tough game in Rupp Arena today. Win or lose, it will be nice for the Cats to get some experience playing against tournament competition with the Kansas game quickly approaching. Solid offensively and defensively, Richmond is the exact type of game that a mostly inexperienced team like Kentucky needs to gauge progress.

Go Cats. Beat Spiders.

@BrettBibbinsKSR