Chris Mooney feels like he’s in position to have one of his best seasons as a head coach.
Richmond — who’s currently ranked 32nd in the ROTHSTEIN 45 — has already received word from its top three players — Blake Francis, Jacob Gilyard, and Grant Golden — that they’re all withdrawing from the 2020 NBA Draft and will return to school next season.
With that trio now in tow, Mooney will return everyone of significance from last season’s team that won 24 games prior to the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
But the Spiders’ talent base and overall experience isn’t what keeps Mooney up at night.
What does?
Making sure Richmond has enough quality non-conference games to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if it’s not fortunate enough to earn an automatic qualifier by winning the 2021 Atlantic 10 Tournament.
“I feel like a big part of the issue is scheduling,” Mooney said Monday on the College Hoops Today Podcast when he was asked about being a 24-win team last March prior to the Atlantic 10 Tournament and not being cemented in the NCAA Tournament. “I think because the major conferences have gone to 20 games — take the ACC for example. They’ve gone to 20 games and they’ve got 15 teams. That’s 30 games that they would have played maybe not an Atlantic 10 school, but maybe of that 30 — there would be more opportunities when an ACC team would play a regional Atlantic 10 team. When that goes away and it keeps happening around the country with other conferences as well, there’s just fewer opportunities.”
This dilemma is nothing new for the Atlantic 10.
The league had a major breakthrough in 2013 and 2014 when it earned a combined 11 bids to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons.
In 2014, the Atlantic 10 earned six NCAA Tournament bids; the same amount as the ACC and two more than the Big East.
However, prior to the start of the 2015-16 season, the conference decided to go from 16 to 18 league games and has yet to earn comparable representation in the NCAA Tournament.
The Atlantic 10 only had three teams in each of the NCAA Tournaments from 2015-18 and only two — VCU and Saint Louis — in 2019.
While last season saw Dayton projected to be one of the top four seeds in the field of 68, the conference had five teams set to begin the Atlantic 10 Tournament with 21 or more wins and only two — Richmond and Rhode Island — were in contention for an at-large bid.
“You have to fight so hard now and be creative just to get a quality opponent (in November and December),” Mooney added. “And in reality, it’s a must win for the Atlantic 10 schools. That really makes it difficult, but it’s the hand we’re dealt.”
Richmond is currently slated to play true road games at Kentucky, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Vanderbilt, and Charleston as part of its non-conference schedule next season. The Spiders will also host MVC favorite Northern Iowa in the start of a home-and-home series.
Richmond has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2011, when it reached the Sweet 16 in Mooney’s sixth season as head coach of the Spiders.
