Richmond's 6 graduate seniors get 2nd NCAA Tournament chance

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Sixth-year players and second chances.

Richmond forward Grant Golden never envisioned such possibilities in March 2020 when the Spiders’ realistic hopes of making the NCAA Tournament abruptly ended because of the pandemic.

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Golden was among the Spiders players riding the down escalator at a Brooklyn hotel on their way to practice upon learning the Atlantic 10 tournament had been canceled. And he was on the team bus to the airport soon after when news of the NCAA Tournament being canceled broke, rendering Richmond’s 24-7 season essentially moot.

Two years later, Golden and five other Richmond "Graduate Seniors" — two of them non-scholarship walk-ons — have finally made their way back.

"There are certainly a lot of times where we could have felt sorry for ourselves and sort of quit and said, `You know, maybe this just isn’t it,‘" Golden said. "But the fact that nobody did, and everybody stuck with it and decided to come back just made it all that much better."

Richmond guard Jacob Gilyard (0) reacts after an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament against Davidson, Sunday, March 13, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Seeded 12th in the Midwest Region, the Spiders (23-12) are coming off a four-wins-in-four-days-run to claim their second A-10 tournament title, and prepare to face Big Ten champion Iowa (26-9) in the first round on Thursday.

"For everybody, it’s incredible. But those guys who were in that hotel and experienced that pain of the tournament being canceled, it’s very special," Richmond coach Chris Mooney said.

While numerous