Editor's Note: At the time this issue of UR Now was published the Spider women's basketball team had an overall record of 18-5 and were 9-1 in conference.

Spider women’s basketball has a ritual after road wins: post-game ice cream. So it was on the night before the first classes of the spring semester at an ice cream shop near Davidson College in North Carolina. The team had just handily beaten the Wildcats, so the players lined up for cones and cups.

The Spiders have been eating a lot of ice cream lately. Last year, they won the program’s first A-10 championship, finished the season with a record-breaking 29 wins, and went undefeated at home. It was the most successful season in program history.

This season, they are the team everyone else in the conference is chasing, and the chase is not going well for the others. As of mid-January, the Spiders had a 15-5 record overall and 6-1 in conference. Her Hoops Stats rates them as the No. 1 mid-major team in the country. They are burying conference opponents early, averaging a 19-point lead at halftime through seven games. Four of the seven opponents were held to 20 or fewer first-half points. One had only 10 points at the break.

The Spiders are doing it with one of the best offenses in the country. As of Jan. 24, they ranked first in Division I nationally in three-point percentage and second in field goal percentage. The Spiders’ free-flowing system emphasizes ball movement (15th nationally in assists per game), setting up its lights-out shooting. Their scoring defense ranked in the top 15%, and they defend cleanly, ranking sixth for fewest fouls per game.

It’s entertaining basketball, and deliberately so. When head coach Aaron Roussell took the helm six seasons ago, he promised that his teams would be fun to watch. Winning, of course, is always fun. He wants Richmond women’s basketball to be appointment viewing—a program that captivates fans with its high pace and exciting style of play.

“I’d be lying if I said entertainment isn’t part of what we’re striving for,” Roussell said. “I say that we have to be fun to watch. And so that is something that we do talk about, how we want to play and how we want to recruit.”

Fans are responding. A program that in past years counted game attendance in the hundreds is now drawing thousands. Approximately 3,500 fans came out for the VCU game Jan. 19.

“I know so many people across the city who talk about how much fun they have at games, how much they enjoy watching us play,” Roussell said. “That’s the vibe I’m getting across the city and on campus.”

The Spiders know that, as defending champions, they’ll get every other team’s best shot this season. After all, every A-10 team wants to win the championship. But only one will. As they stood eating ice cream in North Carolina, the Spiders were the best-positioned of all. Nothing about it will be easy, but no part of the task ahead is out of their control.

Read the rest of this story at the University of Richmond Magazine.