Tonight, Atlantic 10 play will begin for the Charlotte 49ers (7-5) and Richmond Spiders (9-6) when they take to the court in Halton Arena. The Spiders was won four-straight games on Charlotte’s home court, the only visiting team to ever do so. That streak was masterminded by Chris Mooney’s amazing duo of Kevin Anderson and Justin Harper.  Mooney, surprisingly, didn’t leave Richmond to take the Georgia Tech coaching job this off-season, allowing another mediocre A-10 coach to take those reins.

Speaking of Mooney, he is the most familiar face.  This is a different Richmond team, as Harper and Anderson exhausted their eligibility taking the Spiders to the Sweet 16 in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Richmond is taking their second trip to Mecklenburg County this season, after visiting Davidson the first week of the season. That Richmond team resembled very little the teams of the past two seasons. The offense was chaotic and without order, players often having to create their own shot. The leadership on the floor in Kevin Anderson isn’t coming back, leaving inconsistent play in Richmond. Davidson took that game 74-61, the first of six losses for Richmond with nearly all of them questionable.

The losing streak has taught the Niners a lot, but fortunately we won’t face any teams during conference play with the size of Miami, the ferocity of Arkansas nor the length and athleticism of Memphis. If Chris Braswell was to get back on track versus anyone, Richmond is the team to do so against. Against Davidson points from the post were a rare occurrence while they were inversely plentiful for the Wildcats. The Spiders are one of the worst rebounding teams in the country, ranking 330th. Charlotte should be able to find lots of second chance opportunities which would help the team immensely considering the recent shooting slump.

Richmond gets its scoring from a pair of guards, Darien Brothers and Kendall Anthony, a freshman. Brothers is the more potent of the two scoring 14.3 PPG while shooting 48.6% from the field and 51.0% from 3-pt range. He is incredibly effective and takes ten shots a game. Anthony, on the other hand, is shooting at 39.3% from the field and 37.7% from 3-pt range en route to 13.3 PPG. He has a very similar game to Deuce Briscoe (much to the dismay of the SIZE KING) and it will be very interesting to watch these two players defend each other.

Both Charlotte and Richmond are young teams and struggle with consistency. Expect a close game in which (hopefully) home-court advantage will finally be on the Niners side against the Spiders. Either team could bring their “A-game” while the other brings their “B” and it might not even be close. Both teams need to rebound from their shaky non-conference records.  However, the Niners need it more and need to play that way.