12: Richmond (3-5)
The Spiders have been difficult to gage through the season’s first eight games. On one hand, they’ve lost to teams like Longwood and Hampton, but on the other, they played competitively at Georgetown and are coming off a 10-point victory over Wake Forrest. There are certainly promising elements on this team – Grant Golden has played like the first team all-conference player he was projected to be and Jacob Gilyard is proving himself to be among the league’s best point guards – but they haven’t been able to play with any semblance of consistency overall.
Nick Sherod (12.7 points, 5.2 rebounds per game) being sidelined for the rest of the season with a torn ACL certainly doesn’t help the Spiders, but they still have a chance to make things right – especially in a conference where there’s no shortage of struggling teams at the bottom.
It’s undeniable that Chris Mooney is on the hot seat at head coach at this point, but with games against High Point, Oral Roberts, and South Alabama coming up, he should be able to get his squad some momentum heading into conference play.