Picked to finish near the bottom of the Atlantic 10 barrel, Richmond (16-15 record in 2007-08) was one of the A-10's pleasant surprises this past season -- finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place with a 9-7 mark with Saint Joseph's and Charlotte and earning a postseason berth to the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

The Spiders' postseason stay didn't last long as Richmond lost in the first round of the 16-team tourney to the University of Virginia, 66-64. However, the second-tier postseason tourney offered a chance for the Spiders to experience the postseason -- something that should serve them well next year when the goal is an NCAA tourney invite.

Getting into the Big Dance is a lofty, but reachable goal. The reason? Head coach Chris Mooney had one of the Atlantic 10's youngest rosters, with 10 sophomores and freshmen among its 13 scholarship players. These players all will get bigger and stronger in Richmond's weight room during the offseason. Richmond's top four scorers are sophomores Dan Geriot (14,3 ppg) and David Gonzalvez (11.7 ppg), freshman Kevin Anderson (10.7 ppg) and sophomore Ryan Butler (5.5 ppg). In all, five of the team's top six scorers were either in their freshman or sophomore year in 2007-08.

Yet another reason to be optimistic about Richmond's future is that the Spiders, a team that still needs to improve their shot-blocking and rebounding, adds two big men next season in 6-10 Aussie Josh Duinker and 6-8 Darrius Garrett from McEachern (Ga.) High School. The 6-foot-10, 215-pound Duinker, in particular, is supposed to be an impact newcomer. He began taking classes and practicing with the team on Jan. 12 and the early returns were good.

In addition to scoring, Duinker will give Geriot some much-needed help on the backboards and will block some shots. In short, if the Aussie is as good as advertised, then he'll take Richmond, a program already on the rise, up the A-10 charts even quicker.

Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.