What Makes the Richmond Spiders' Offense One of the Best in Basketball?

I’ve been catching up on a wealth of basketball from the holidays, absolutely putting my hard drive to the test. I’ll have my update to the 2025 WNBA Draft Board by end of week, but wanted to take a brief moment to dive into my favorite offense in basketball right now.

I have long loved the Princeton offense: It teaches reads, decision-making, and pro style action. When it’s really executed well and understood by personnel, it’s so effective, a continuous flow of actions and options. The Richmond Spiders run it at an extremely high level, a significant piece of the Spiders all-time best 29 wins last season and A-10 Championship.

While the Spiders are 11-5 at the moment, it’s worth noting their significant jump up in strength of schedule (27th in non-con SOS per WarrenNolan). They played a great Texas team close, beat an Oklahoma State team that looks like a real threat in the Big 12, and ran a likely Tourney team in Fairfield off the court. Richmond also had two starters transfer up to High Major and have been working to replace their production and ability.

By the Numbers

Richmond is in the (per Synergy Data)

• 99th percentile in spot-up efficiency

• 99th percentile in cutting efficiency

• 98th percentile in pick and roll efficiency (Including passes made)

• 78th percentile in post-up efficiency (Including passes made)

• 99th percentile in two-point efficiency (58.1%)

• 96th percentile in assist percentage (67.4%)

Data is just that, data! Points to reference and understand in attribution to context.

You can conversely point out that the Spiders don’t get to the line at a high rate, aren’t a high volume transition team, and can struggle a bit with turnovers (22nd percentile in turnover percentage per CBB Analytics).

First off, I highly recommend this pod that Richmond HC Aaron Roussell was on. Basketball Immersion is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about and understand more of the game from those that teach it at the highest level.

If you’ve watched the Spiders/the A-10 or Mid-Major ball, you know there are some inherent limitations compared to high major. How do you compete with those teams that get the 5 star players who are skilled AND pro level athletes? Listening to Roussell’s process on how he settled on Princeton was fascinating.

I rope this all in to say that this team knows who they are and what they do well. I think that’s one of the most difficult things for a team to figure out at any level, while also being the most important. They don’t run dribble drive or expect to beat teams often in isolation… because that’s not where their power lies! I appreciate that! Do what you do best, do it well, and win games at a high level.

I’ll also add that some of Richmond’s losses can of course be amounted to some of those things. Replacing Grace Townsend is really difficult, a player who could really create off the dribble and add a foil to the offense if things broke down in the halfcourt. They’ve struggled at times with pressure and aggressive blitzes (Tennessee). The Spiders are still repping that out, but they’ll get there.

Getting back, let’s wrap this all together.

This shot doesn’t result in points, but the process just brings me in. I love zooming in, slowing things down, and taking time to assess the actions and details within them.

If I’m Texas in this game, who loves to play a high pressure man to man system, I know that

• Richmond is an adept cutting team

• Richmond is a great shooting team

• Richmond moves the ball

That’s a recipe for getting cut up, and particularly when recognizing that you need to defend them for a full clock, that adds extra wrinkles to stifling them. The Spiders are typically at their weakest when they have less than 4 seconds on the shot clock, 95th in Division 1 in short clock efficiency (.701 points per possession).

First off, that’s still a top third mark in the country, although a definite step down from their typical half court offense.

Secondly, let’s just look at what all the Longhorns have to shut down to force a late clock look.

1. Off the inbounds, Richmond immediately goes into a 5-out look, with a ¾ screening option in the strong slot.

2. 3 dives while 4 screens for 1.

3. 1 goes opposite for a handoff option with 2. On the weak side, 4 starts to set a pindown for 3.

4. 2 has the baseline cut as an option as 5 rises, and winds up coming into that handoff with 1, where it acts practically as a screening action for 2.

5. 2 kicks to 3 and then immediately UCLA cuts down the middle third.

6. 3 drifts to the middle as 2 occupies the now weak side corner, and 5 veers back to screen for 1.

This is really solid defense from Texas. You have to work, handle multiple different actions across the floor, be aware of personnel, and stay aware.

But that’s the fun part of Princeton and how Richmond runs it.

Rori Harmon top locks Faith Alston (1) to deny her the ball, but Alston then sets the pin in on Kyla Oldacre for Addie Budnik (5), a career 38.5% three point shooter on over 500 attempts.

When you rewind and recognize that each action has intention and lethality, you get it. While no offense is perfect, it’s hard not to appreciate how well this system meshes with the players recruited to it.

Every action has the chance to swing and become something else, which in turn can counter the defense. That’s all reads and teaching the game. That screen gets set because it’s taking how you’re being played, reaction to it, and forcing the defense to adjust in real time.

Richmond succeeds with a great offense because it’s built for their players to thrive, and through years of growth, they’ve become one of the top teams in conference, and in the Mid-Major ranks.