Men’s basketball secures NIT bid

Fortunately for the Spiders, they still have some basketball left in them. 

After a heartbreaking 66-61 loss to Saint Joseph’s University in the quarterfinal round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on March 14 – a loss which squelched any chances of an NCAA Tournament bid – the University of Richmond men’s basketball was selected to play in the National Invitational Tournament.

“College basketball is cruel, and when you take the floor, as much as you don’t want to think about [losing], that can happen,” UR Head Coach Chris Mooney said in a press conference March 18, speaking about the loss to the Hawks. “And when it’s late in the season like that, in a conference tournament, that’s what can happen. So, it was devastating.” 

The Spiders will take on Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia at 9 p.m. March 19.

“We got one more chance to play,” graduate center Neal Quinn said in the press conference. “Obviously, we wanted to go on a run [in the A-10 Tournament]. They hit shots, we didn’t. But we still get a chance to play with this group of guys, this special group, so I’m looking forward to it.”

This is UR’s first trip to the NIT since the 2020-2021 season. Mooney has led the Spiders to two other NIT appearances in his tenure with the program, with those additional bids coming in 2015 and 2017, respectively. 

“We’ve had success in the NIT, and a big part of it, as I think is fairly common knowledge, is who’s ready to play and who can establish that early,” Mooney said. “You don’t want to have cobwebs that you need to dust off.”

In 2015, the Spiders defeated St. Francis University in the first round and Arizona State University in the second round of the NIT.  They came up short against the University of Miami in a tightly contested 63-61 loss. 

In 2017, the Spiders again advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating the University of Alabama in the first round and Oakland University in the second round. It was Texas Christian University who ultimately ended the Spiders’ run in the quarterfinals. 

Most recently, in 2021, coming off a 14-9 season after a 24-7 2019-2020 season saw what appeared to be an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament stripped away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spiders made the NIT again. In the first round, UR defeated the University of Toledo, but fell short in the second round, losing to Mississippi State University.

Now, the Spiders will have a chance to extend their season and play a power-5 program in the Hokies. For a smaller program like UR that competes in a conference on the cusp of being deemed a “power conference,” opportunities to play schools like Virginia Tech are few and far between. 

“We’ve already had a tremendous accomplishment in winning the regular season championship,” Mooney said. “This is another opportunity to play in the postseason, to play at an [Atlantic Coast Conference] school, who we greatly respect, so it’s a great opportunity.” 

The Spiders finished the regular season with a 23-8 record and a 15-2 conference record, a significant improvement on their 14-17 regular season record last season. 

Contact sports editor Jimmy James at jimmy.james@richmond.edu.