Grant Golden had 15 points, four rebounds and four assists for Richmond Friday in a win over Morehead State. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Just a few minutes after Richmond opened its season by beating Morehead State 82-64 Friday night in Rupp Arena, Nathan Cayo was asked how he felt about playing Kentucky Sunday afternoon.
“I mean we’re playing Kentucky, I’m just excited,” said Cayo.
Cayo had 23 points and hit all 10 shots he took from the field. He also blocked two shots, grabbed one rebound and handed out one assist.
“It’s finally here and we’re excited to play them. We’re glad we got to jump in today and we’re excited to play Kentucky on Sunday,” Cayo said.
Morehead State was never really in the game against Kentucky Wednesday but Morehead coach Preston Spradlin said Richmond has a unique playing style that is not easy to face.
“You have to make them score from the perimeter and then you can’t give up straight line drives and offensive rebounds. We did that,” Spradlin said. “I thought our game plan was very good and when we executed it. It was very effective, but again it goes against a lot of our principles that we work on every day with our aggressive defense.
“That aggressive defense goes into the hands of a team like Richmond, who uses backdoors and moves the ball so well. Just the way they play is so very different than anyone else.”
Richmond scored 52 of its 82 points against Morehead State in the paint.
“Just being spaced out we had a lot of backdoors and wide open layups, so every time they had to guard every player on the court we had a lot of backdoors wide open,” Cayo said. “We have great players on our team so most of the time they’re focusing so much on the other players that I’m going to get some wide-open shots.”
Richmond coach Chris Mooney, who returned his top six players from last year, got to watch UK beat Morehead Wednesday. He was impressed with the Cats.
“What stands out is their incredible length and athleticism. Different than like, Wisconsin, who we played early on last season. Great players, mostly older who are really so just bought into a system and very successful,” Mooney said.
“With Kentucky, you have unbelievable length, athleticism, ability, but guys who are young and so our experience has to show up. Not on the first play or the second play, or the first half. It has to show up on every play. Hopefully we are tough enough to do that and can compete here on Sunday.”
Mooney wasn’t going to complain about having less than 48 hours to get ready for Kentucky, a potential Final Four team.
“We are thrilled. We have a good little setup when we go back to the hotel. Guys do the regeneration, they call it. We’ll have a good practice tomorrow. We’re looking forward to it. We’re hopeful that we are up for the challenge on Sunday,” Mooney said.
