Nick Sherod and Richmond arent supposed to be here: Weve been through everything
The feeling hits Nick Sherod hardest when he’s on the University of Richmond campus.
He’s not supposed to be there.
“I’m just, like, ‘Wow, this is not where a 24-year-old should be right now,'” Sherod says. “It feels a little weird at times.”
No, what has been happening is not a little weird. As unusual as Sherod’s journey has been, that he and the Richmond Spiders have surged their way into the NCAA Tournament is downright bonkers.
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The Spiders weren’t supposed to get here, weren’t supposed to escape the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals let alone overcome a pair of 15-point deficits while winning four games in four days to steal the conference’s automatic bid and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years.
“You wouldn’t even write a movie script like this,” Sherod says.
Richmond is unusual, tournament team or not. The program returned 15 of its 16 players from last season, with Sherod and five teammates taking advantage of the NCAA’s extra year of eligibility because of COVID-19. On opening night, Richmond’s starting lineup averaged 21.6 years old and featured four 1,000-point scorers.
While improbable, riding such deep experience into Buffalo is righteous.
The No. 12 Spiders will play the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes on Thursday afternoon, two years after COVID-19 canceled an NCAA Tournament the Spiders were almost certain to make.
In 2019-20, following back-to-back 20-loss seasons, the Spiders went 24-7, second in the conference and 46th in the KenPom rankings.
“We’ve been watching the tournament for five years and itching to play in it,” Sherod says. “Now that we have that chance, we want to put our best foot forward.
“It’s not like anything’s going to surprise us or overwhelm us. We’ve seen everything. We’ve been through everything.”
Sherod’s personal story is emblematic of Richmond’s perseverance.
The 6-foot-4 guard ranks 21st in program history in career scoring and third in 3-pointers. He arrived at Richmond as Virginia’s high school scoring king and became the program’s first true freshman in 11 years to start the opener. Sherod started every game as a sophomore, averaging 14.3 points all season and a team-high 17.6 points in conference action. He snagged five rebounds a game.
Now he comes off the bench. Sometimes, not for very long.
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“I’m not stupid,” Sherod says matter-of-factly. “I understand the situation.”
Six games into Sherod’s junior campaign, he tore his left ACL.
But he ricocheted back in 2019-20. He started every game. He averaged 12.7 points. He led the conference and was 10th in the country from behind the arc at 43.8 percent.
That’s when the global pandemic waylaid the NCAA Tournament and a dream so close the Spiders almost could touch it, a goal Sherod’s grandfather Edmund had reached twice while starring for Virginia Commonwealth (he also played for the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks) and his father, E.J., reached with Old Dominion.
Then Nick Sherod’s senior season ended before it began. In October 2020, he tore multiple ligaments in his right knee. He believed his career was finished.
Sherod’s playing weight was between 215 and 220 pounds. He ballooned to 255. As an English major with minors in rhetoric and communications, he started looking for jobs as a high school teacher. He also considered insurance and finance gigs.
“He had psychologically retired,” Richmond strength coach Jay DeMayo says. “He was done playing after the second knee injury because it was worse, and he thought he had run out of eligibility.”
Guess again. The NCAA green-lighted a bonus year to all winter athletes who had COVID-19 deny them proper closure.
He’s not supposed to be here, not at 24 years old, but eventually, he decided to play the rare sixth season.
“In sports, you hear this cliche garbage all the time about a great team and great people, blah, blah, blah,” DeMayo says. “This group’s special, and Nick is one of the most special kids I’ve gotten to work with.
“He’s just something else, man. What he’s gone through and the ebbs and flows of the past 18 months has been fascinating. He personifies a lot of what we are as a unit.”
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Richmond’s other super seniors are forwards Grant Golden and Nathan Cayo, guard Jacob Gilyard and walk-ons Jordan Gaitley and Sullivan Kulju.
Golden, the 6-10 power forward, collapsed during a game in December 2016. His heart rate quickened to the point he passed out. He had to undergo a relatively routine, non-invasive surgery to correct an atrial flutter.
“The fear of just elevating your heart rate after that has to be unquantifiable,” DeMayo says. “But he scores 2,000 points and however many rebounds and is throwing unbelievable passes.”
Sherod’s road back wasn’t as scary, but it was no less admirable in DeMayo’s eyes.
Losing all that weight was difficult because of the knee injury. DeMayo needed to get him under 230 pounds before Sherod could begin to play safely, to jump, to cut, to start and to stop.
The injuries held back Sherod enough that younger players overtook him in the lineup. Two games into this season, after starting 87 straight, he lost his spot after making only three of his 17 shots.
“I never thought my impact would be less because I’m coming off the bench,” Sherod says. “I wasn’t frustrated by that. As long as we’re winning games, it didn’t really affect me.”
The next game, Sherod’s first as a reserve since his freshman year, he scored 16 points in 15:48 minutes, including nine straight in a 2:20 span, to help pummel Georgia State.
“I was so pissed off that I wasn’t playing well,” Sherod says. “I was angry and put my energy into that. But, for the most part, my mindset is to be ready when my name is called.”
Richmond’s season, however, didn’t seem destined for any storybook.
Sherod wasn’t always convinced he had made the right choice to keep playing. At home on Dec. 30 against St. Joseph’s, a team that would win only 11 games, Richmond lost by 27 points.
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“We were just looking at each other,” Sherod says, “like, What the hell just happened? I cannot believe that just happened. We were thinking about our careers and how embarrassed we were.
“I had jobs I turned down. I could have been doing anything else other than getting embarrassed in front of everyone. I remembered the first game my sophomore year; we played Delaware and were down 41-12 at home. That St. Joe’s loss was more embarrassing than that.”
Richmond finished sixth in the 14-team conference, good enough for a first-round bye but still a long shot for the NCAA Tournament.
Rhode Island poleaxed Richmond early in their game, building a 15-point lead just before halftime but couldn’t finish the upset. Richmond won by five points, then surprised third-seeded VCU in the quarterfinals.
Second-seeded Dayton led by 15 points in the second half of their semifinal, but Richmond rallied again to advance to its first conference tournament final since 2011.
Davidson appeared too strong for Richmond in the title game. When A-10 Player of the Year Luka Brajkovic dunked with 95 seconds to play, Richmond trailed by six points.
“We were all pretty much thinking, ‘That’s probably the dagger right there,’ ” Sherod says. “Those are the things that come into your head.
“I don’t know if I was at peace, but I definitely was thinking about what’s next in life.”
Richmond dug deep, converting three and-one layups — two by junior forward Tyler Burton and another by senior forward Matt Grace — to take the lead with 19 seconds left.
Davidson couldn’t make another shot. Richmond closed out its unlikely championship and extended its magical postseason, in which a team full of experienced players always remains dangerous.
“There was a lot of ugly crying, me included,” DeMayo says. “This group has been through so much on the court, off the court. They’re fighters, man. There’s a lot to them.”
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Sherod had two points, three rebounds and an assist against Davidson, modest compared with the contributions he made to the Spiders earlier in his career, but sweeter than any other outcome.
“When I was thinking about coming back,” Sherod says, “it was for this.”
Regardless of what happens next, Sherod’s final game will be in the NCAA Tournament before he finishes his master’s degree in education this summer. He plans to get his doctorate in education policy so he can be an administrator after teaching English for a while.
But that can wait a little while longer. Besides, Sherod feels like a teacher now for teammates who were in middle school when his college career unfolded.
“I can relate to these guys because I’ve been in pretty much every position that you can be in as a college player,” Sherod says. “I started a bunch of games as a freshman but went through a stretch where I didn’t play much. I had zero points and thought, ‘Man, maybe I don’t need to be playing college basketball,’ which a lot of these guys probably have felt.
“I was leading scorer at one point. Now, I’m coming off the bench. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen adversity and bounced back from it. I’ve had amazing highs and amazing lows.”
Since he joined the program six years ago, 35 Spiders have played at least one game. Most departed without the chance to experience this moment.
He’s not supposed to be here.
“I never gave up,” Sherod says. “I never quit, no matter what the situation was, no matter how bad things looked. This is the payoff.”
(Photo: G Fiume / Getty Images)
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