The Billikids continue their two-game road swing this afternoon

Richmond, VA. - The Billikids continue their two-game road swing this afternoon with a visit to the Richmond Spiders in an A-10 game thisafternoon in snowy Richmond.SLU is currently 3-2 in A-10 play and 12-7 overall while the Spiders are4-2 in league play and 15-6 overall.It is the second meeting of the season between the two schools. SLU tooka 63-58 victory over Richmond on Jan. 9 in St. Louis, so the Spiders areno doubt looking for a little revenge.

The Spiders are still one of the top teams in the league with excellentnonconference victories over Missouri, Florida and Mississippi State ontheir resume.Richmond head coach Chris Mooney has done an excellent job of mixing ina group of talented athletes with size into his Princeton offense. Theirmatch-up zone is their bread and butter on defense, but the Spiders willalso pick you up with a full court press.The guard tandem of Kevin Anderson and David Gonzalvez is one of thebest in the league. Anderson is averaging 18 points a game whileGonzalvez averages about 14. The 5'10" Anderson is ultra-quick and cancreate his own shot off the dribble whenever he wants to.The Spiders are big up front with 6'9" Dan Geroit, 6'10" Justin Harperand 6'7" Ryan Butler starting. I think the key to their team is Harper.He is long and very skilled. In the first meeting, he played only 11minutes because of foul trouble. He is very talented, but he is stilltrying to find consistency. When he plays well, they can go to anotherlevel because he's a matchup problem.They have some good players off the bench as well. One young player whohas really stood out has been 6'9" sophomore Darrius Garrett, who is oneof the top shot-blockers in the league. He blocked 14 shots in a gamethis year. He hurt us in St. Louis with six offensive rebounds.It should be an interesting game today as our kids try to rebound fromthe heartbreaking loss at GW. That one got away, but a new game is athand.SLU is also somewhat of a different team than the one Richmond saw twoweeks ago. Willie Reed is back in the lineup after missing the firstmeeting. Jon Smith has emerged into a dependable starter while CodyEllis is one of the team's bonafide offensive threats.I'd love to see Kwamain get off the mark early and into a rhythm. He hasstruggled on the road with his shooting in conference play. If we canmake a few more perimeter shots against the zone, it should help loosenthings up for Kwamain. He had a big game against Richmond at home, butwe have to get him going away from Chaifetz. I think seeing another toppoint guard in Anderson will get his juices flowing.As always, we have to limit the turnovers and do a better job from thefree-throw line.I hope everyone enjoys the contest. Rammer and I will bring you the callon ESPN-1101 at 1 p.m. with the pregame at 12:45.Go Bills!