A-10 releases 2021-2022 conference basketball opponents

The Atlantic 10 conference announced pairings for the 2021-2022 men’s basketball season on Thursday. Richmond’s 18 conference games will consist of home games against Davidson, Dayton, Massachusetts, and Saint Joseph’s, road trips to Duquesne, Fordham, George Washington, and Rhode Island, and home-and-home series with George Mason, La Salle, St. Bonaventure, Saint Louis, and VCU.

It is the second straight year the Spiders are scheduled to play home-and-home series against those five opponents, although Richmond ultimately faced each team just once last season due to COVID-19.

2020-2021 was the first time in the last 10 seasons that the Spiders did not play a home-and-home series against intracity rival VCU. The Rams beat Richmond 68-56 at the Siegel Center on Feb. 17 in the team’s only meeting last season.

The Spiders will play a pair of games against reigning A-10 champion St. Bonaventure, UR’s first home-and-home series against the Bonnies since 2014-2015. St. Bonaventure beat Richmond 69-66 on a late three-pointer at the Robins Center on January 2 last season.

Richmond will face Saint Louis in a home-and-home series for the first time since 2017-2018 this season after the Billikens won the only meeting between the teams at home in 2020-2021. The Spiders trip to Saint Louis will be UR’s fifth game at Chaifetz Arena over the last seven seasons.

2021-2022 will be the seventh time Richmond has played a home-and-home series vs George Mason in the last eight seasons. The Spiders have won three straight vs the Patriots, including a 77-57 win in Fairfax on Jan. 9 in the team’s only meeting last season.

The Spiders are scheduled to face La Salle in a home-and-home series for the third time in four years. The Explorers beat Richmond at the Robins Center last season on Jan. 23, snapping the Spiders three-game win streak vs La Salle.

The 2021-2022 Spiders will return 15 of their 16 players from the 2021-22 season, which will be head coach Chris Mooney’s 17th at Richmond. The roster includes four 1,000-point scorers who elected to use their additional year of COVID-19 eligibility to remain at Richmond: Nathan Cayo, Jacob Gilyard, Grant Golden, and Nick Sherod.

Richmond Athletics is currently accepting deposits for new season tickets for the upcoming season. Deposits may be submitted at RichmondSpiders.com.