What he did
In yet another fantastic season, Grant Golden proved Richmond has the talent to turn the corner in the Atlantic 10. While fans have often questioned Mooney’s ability to coach, no one has questioned Golden’s ability to play basketball. Golden averaged 17.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this past season and isn’t even the highest ranked Spider on our list (spoiler alert: Jacob Gilyard to come). A facet of Golden’s game that really improved his sophomore season was passing; Golden had the 3rd best assist rate in the conference and dished out 3.5 per game. Golden’s contributions were crucial throughout the entire season, and he only had 3 games where he didn’t score in double figures. He’ll have to work on his free throw shooting in the offseason, but Golden is going to continue to be tough to guard as a guy who can truly do it all.
What he’ll do
Grant Golden has a chance to lead Richmond back to the top of the A-10, as this Richmond team has a lot of talent returning in 2019-20. It’s easy to forget how young this UR team was last season, and it kind of makes sense to keep Mooney around given all the talent on the roster. This is a make-or-break season for Richmond to say the least. The Spiders have arguably one of the most talented rosters in the entire league, but they need a top 6 finish to show for it. Grant Golden will continue to be one of the league’s best all-around players and is arguably morphing into a guy that reminds me a lot of T.J. Cline. I’m very excited to see what junior Golden and the rest of this team can do come November.
