Richmond's struggles continue

Richmond may have just blown their chance at earning an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Their odds were long heading into last night's game at Temple, but beating top 25 teams on the road have a way of turning around a team's at-large chances. It looked like Richmond was primed to do just that, as the Spiders scored on their first five possessions of the game, taking a 10-6 lead with just 3:38 gone.

But over the next 11 minutes, Temple seized control of the game. The Owl's zone defense completely derailed any rhythm that Richmond had and Temple capitalized, going on a 22-6 run during that stretch. The Spiders eventually work their way back to within five, but once again the Owls put a big run on the Spiders. Temple scored on seven straight possession while holding Richmond scoreless, turning a 38-33 games into a 54-33 blowout. Richmond never made it interesting the rest of the way.


As usual, the Owls were impressive on the defensive end of the floor, allowing just 0.91 PPP -- a number that drops to 0.81 PPP when you factor out the first five possessions of the game. Ramone Moore had 24 points on 10-15 shooting while Juan Fernandez snapped out of his shooting slump with 20 points on 9-10 from the field.

For the Spiders, this is just another disappointing loss in a season full of them. Three weeks ago, the Spiders were run off of the court by Xavier, losing by 23 at home. They've lost to Iona, Bucknell, Old Dominion, Georgia Tech, and URI as well.

In fact, when you really look at their conference record, there is nothing impressive on it. They were blown out by the top two teams in the league, and they only play each of them once. They only play the fifth place team, Rhode Island, once and lost that game. Their only matchup with Duquesne doesn't come until the final day of the regular season.

The did win at Seton Hall and Arizona State, but unfortunately this has been a down year for both of those programs.

Last night's loss cost Richmond a chance to win the Atlantic 10's regular season title, and it put to bed any shot they had of earning an at-large bid.

Good luck in Atlantic City, fellas.