Richmond delivers first upset of March Madness in win over Iowa
The NCAA Tournament almost always gives us a No. 12 over No. 5 upset in March. We did not have to wait long for one as Iowa basketball again came up short in March. Richmond is again playing spoiler in March.
Fran McCaffery has had a very good tenure in his 12 seasons at Iowa, and the Hawkeyes are in one of their best runs in program history. The Big Ten school has three consecutive top-25 KenPom finishes and just won its first Big Ten Tournament title since 2006 last weekend in Indianapolis with four wins in four days.
All the luck ran out against Richmond who is quickly turning into this March’s Cinderella.
The Spiders won four games in four days in the Atlantic-10 Tournament to claim an automatic bid to the Big Dance, and Chris Mooney’s program is still dancing after a 67-63 upset win over Iowa in Buffalo.
With the huge victory, Richmond has advanced to the Round of 32 and will face No. 4 Providence on Saturday at KeyBank Center after the Friars knocked off No. 13 seed South Dakota State on Saturday afternoon.
Once again, lead guard Jacob Gilyard led the way. The 5-foot-9 super senior finished the game with 24 points on 15 field goal attempts with six rebounds and six assists. However, the defense was the difference for the Spiders.
Richmond held an elite Iowa offense — No. 2 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency — in check as the Hawkeyes put up just 0.91 points per possession and shot just 6 of 29 (20.7%) from behind the arc. All-American Keegan Murray was very efficient getting 21 points on 15 shots with nine rebounds, but the rest of his teammates struggled as the Hawks could never get rolling in the second half.
McCaffrey is now 4-6 in March Madness and has never made it to the second weekend. Over the last three years, the Hawks had All-Americans Murray and Luka Garza on the roster and still could not get it done.
The last time Richmond was in the tournament under Mooney was in 2011 when the Spiders upset Vanderbilt and then knocked off Morehead State in a No. 12 vs. No. 13 seed matchup after Kenneth Faried and the Eagles upset Louisville. That run ended in the Sweet 16 with a loss to No. 1 seed Kansas.
Richmond is now just a win away from potentially meeting Kansas again in the Sweet 16.
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