Atlantic 10 Basketball: Top 5 rising juniors in 2018-19

4. Nick Sherod, Richmond

Richmond Spiders rising junior had himself a breakout sophomore season in 2017-18. After starting 16 games as a freshman, he started in all 32 games he appeared in last year. He excelled in the starting lineup, averaging 14.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.0 steals per contest.

The Spiders finished the regular season 12-20 and 9-9 in conference play. They had a down season but Sherod got some much-needed experience under his belt. He shot 39.1 percent from 3-point range and finished the season second on the team in points per games and third in rebounds per game. He’ll need to assert himself more as a sharpshooter from behind the arc this upcoming season.

Richmond will have some senior leadership in 2018-19 but Sherod will most certainly carry most of the scoring load and then some on offense. He’ll also have rising sophomore Grant Golden at his disposal, an Atlantic 10 All-Freshmen selection a season ago.