Chris Mooney, an Ivy League graduate from Philadelphia, is the University of Richmond’s coach. Fran McCaffery, an Ivy League graduate from Philadelphia, almost was the UR coach.
Mooney’s Spiders (23-12) face McCaffery’s Iowa Hawkeyes (26-9) Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament, in Buffalo. Jim Miller, the former Richmond director of athletics, was in need of a coach in 2002, when John Beilein left the Spiders for West Virginia.
Miller interviewed two candidates: UNC Wilmington’s Jerry Wainwright and UNC Greensboro’s McCaffery, who came in second. He moved to Siena in 2005 before landing at Iowa in 2010.
“I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a pretty legendary figure. His nickname is ‘White Magic’ in Philadelphia basketball circles,” said Mooney, 49 and a Princeton grad. McCaffery, 62 and a Penn alum who was Lehigh’s coach at age 26, “has certainly been somebody I’ve looked up to, and has had tremendous success. We’ve been pretty close,” said Mooney.
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McCaffery and the Big Ten champions will throw a first team All-American at Mooney in the 3:10 meeting (on truTV) at KeyBank Center. Keegan Murray, a 6-foot-8 sophomore, averages 23.6 points and 8.6 rebounds, and is also a quality passer and defender.
“He’s going to be a lottery pick,” said Mooney. “He can just score in so many ways. He’s athletic, but he can really shoot. He’s smooth … [He] is going to make a couple of shots that we have not seen be made against us. You don’t want that to be demoralizing.
“Trying to guard this level of player is going to be extremely difficult or the full 40 minutes. We just need to have some little victories in those possessions even when he does score and make it just a little bit harder for him if we possibly can.”
The Spiders took Monday off. Mooney made Tuesday a preparation session to get his players familiarized with Iowa, and the UR travel party left for Buffalo Tuesday night.
“That’s a big part of this, how exciting the four days in D.C. were, and then trying to get refocused as quickly as we can,” said Mooney.
One thing seems certain to Richmond guard Jacob Gilyard, named the most outstanding player in the A-10 tournament: “Going into [the NCAAs], there should be no pressure on us. It’s March, man. It’s time to have fun … Our confidence is probably through the roof right now. I know mine is.
“Our offensive style is unique … For a Big Ten team, I’d imagine our style is going to be totally different than anything they’ve ever played against. I got a feeling we’ll sneak up on them.”
In addition to Murray, Gilyard recognized that the Hawkeyes have several other players who are capable shooters from 3-point distance, and that reminds him of Davidson, the opponent the Spiders defeated in the A-10 championship game 64-62.
Iowa has qualified for six of the last eight NCAA tournaments.
Richmond is making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2011.
Like UR in the A-10, Iowa won four games in four days to capture the Big Ten title.
The Spiders are a No. 12 seed and Iowa is a No. 5. A couple of UR’s most memorable NCAA tournament upsets came as a No. 12 seed: in 1984, No. 12 Richmond beat No. 5 Auburn 72-71, and in 2011, No. 12 Richmond beat No. 5 Vanderbilt 69-66 on the way to Sweet 16.