we knew we had a star player after watching Grant Golden during the 2018 and 2019 seasons... he earned All A-10 honors his first two seasons...and looked like he had the potential to become one of the Spiders all time best big men...
what we may not have been sure about was whether, or not, he could take his game to an even higher level in the 2020 season... the answer to that question was a resounding yes!...and he carried the team with him!
Golden continued his consistent and dependable scoring and rebounding production... he's always been a near perfect big man for the Spiders offense, but his passing skills stood out even more this season...
Grant was a key distributor in the Spiders offensive scheme which often begins with the ball in his hands... if you have watched the highlights posted so far in this series you'll see numerous examples of Golden's passing skills... few big men in college basketball can match his passing skills...
Gilyard, Francis, Sherod and Cayo all benefited from his ability to find the cutter, or reverse the ball!
the Spiders changed their defensive scheme this season to the more conventional man to man...Golden's defense improved significantly... it was tougher for many UR opponents to drive it straight to the hoop...tough mismatches were much less frequent...
finally Golden improved his free throw percentage to 71.3%. He made some clutch FTs late in games for UR.
this impressive stat line says much about Grant's strong season 389 points (13.7 PPG), 52.4% FGP (161-307), 199 RBs (6.9 RBPG) and 100 assists (3.4 APG), ...but not everything!
he too was among the Spiders who saved their best games for the most important part of the season... in the critical final 10 games (nine UR wins) Grant's line read like this: 14.2 PPG, 6.5 RBPG, and 4.3 APG... when he rolls UR usually does also!
Grant is clearly a team leader... he plays with emotion and passion which he learned to tamp down just enough as the season progressed...there's a little healthy swagger in there too...I think it's well earned confidence in himself and the team...
Golden is on a roll and I expect Spiders fans will enjoy a few big moves around the bucket, pinpoint passes and big rebounds from Richmond's big man this weekend in Brooklyn.
Congrats on the All A-10 honors and good luck to Grant!
Go Spiders!
