SAN FRANCISCO – Will Richard, stuck inside his family’s Georgia home as COVID spread across the country, saw a familiar face flash upon the screen during Belmont coach Casey Alexander’s online recruiting pitch in 2020.
A photo of former Bruin great and dependable Warriors guard Ian Clark appeared before him.
Selfless. Effective. Team-oriented. And perhaps most importantly, a bonafide NBA player who was an established contributor for Richard’s favorite NBA team.
The message was simple.
“A kid can’t tell Belmont ‘I’m not gonna go there because I want to play in the NBA’ because we can say, ‘Well, we’ve had three guys in the NBA in the last 10 years, not including Will Richard.’” Alexander told the Bay Area News Group last week. “That credibility piece is important to us, and something we want to take advantage of.”
Alexander was referencing Clark, Pacers guard Ben Sheppard and former Cavalier Dylan Windler. It was a message well-received.
“Those are guys with similar play styles, they play the right way, shoot 3s, cut, so I definitely used them to help my decision,” Richard said in a recent interview.
Fast forward a half-decade later, and Richard has become the second guard since 2014 to emerge from the small private college in Nashville as a member of coach Steve Kerr’s rotation.
The rookie’s team-first play, dogged defense and timely cuts have made him a fan favorite after being the No. 56 overall pick in the draft.
“This guy, from the beginning of camp, has shown that he’s an NBA player,” Kerr said. “The experience, the poise. He doesn’t turn it over, and he makes the right play.”
While Clark was a four-year star in the Music City in the early 2010s, Richard remained at Belmont for only one season before transferring to Florida and eventually emerging as a key figure in the Gators’ 2025 NCAA championship run.
Richard’s path has become commonplace in today’s world of college basketball, where high schoolers are initially shunned by powerhouse programs, then coveted by them after spending time developing in the mid-major circuit.
Richard wanted to follow in his family’s tradition to Clemson but was not pursued by the ACC school. As a senior in high school, Belmont was his best offer.
So he packed up his bags and moved to Nashville, where he quickly became acquainted with the school’s bustling music scene, and used it as a way to get to know teammates.
“I would go in there sometimes, just trolling, go in there and try to join,” Richard recalled. “But nothing serious. Me and some teammates would go in the cage and try to sing along with everybody, and just have fun.”
Among those teammates was fellow Georgian Sheppard, who was the team’s unquestioned star as a junior and an All-Ohio Valley Conference pick.
“He did have, like, 40-something against Tennessee Tech, and I thought, ‘Yeah, he’s going to the league,’” Richard remembered.
High school showdowns with Sheppard in Georgia initially tested his resolve, and Belmont’s complicated motion offense honed his mind.
The Bruins’ pass-and-cut scheme bears uncanny resemblance to what Kerr runs and has given teams across America fits for nearly 30 years under Alexander and Rick Byrd before him.
“I was able to see what works against defenses, knowing when to slip, knowing when to do certain things on the court, and when to follow the help,” Richard said. “Stuff that we use here, I feel like I learned that at Belmont.”
It took Richard a minute to get it, but once it clicked, there was no keeping him out of the rotation of yet another strong Bruins squad. He averaged 27.6 minutes per game and helped Belmont go 25-8 and reach the NIT.
He fit the kind of pass-first, long-range shooting style that Belmont has played for three decades.
While the rest of the country was playing with two bigs on the block, Belmont was leading the country in 3-point attempts (27.7) back in 1999-2000. Richard became the latest in a long line of successful gunners to come out of the Nashville school.
Richard did not just excel against high-level mid-majors such as Murray State, Saint Louis, Chattanooga and fellow Nashville school Lipscomb. He also put up points against the SEC’s elite, including 16 against LSU in November, and 22 against a Vanderbilt team coached by current Warriors assistant Jerry Stackhouse. He was voted to the 2021-22 OVC All-Newcomer Team and averaged 12.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists.
That caught the attention of new Florida coach Todd Golden, who had recently moved on from the University of San Francisco. After mulling his decision over with his parents, Richard decided it was time to transfer and test his skills at a higher level.
“During the season, I was pretty much locked in on Belmont … but after we lost to Vandy in the NIT, we had a week off, and I went back home to Atlanta and discussed with my parents about what they thought was best for my future,” Richard said. “We made the decision that I should transfer to take that next step.”
Richard became a fixture in the starting lineup the next three seasons in Gainesville, culminating with last spring’s national title. His mid-major to Power Five leap has become the norm as the transfer portal has reshaped roster building.
For a storied mid-major program such as Belmont, it has forced the Nashville school to confront a new reality: Four-year stars like Clark and Windler are rarities.
Eight trips to the NCAA Tournament since 2006 and 19 seasons with 20 or more victories in one of the South’s biggest cities during that time create an advantage during recruiting, but Alexander admitted that endorsement money and NIL payments at the school with an enrollment of 8,932 will never equal the SEC powerhouses.
But while some schools embrace being a feeder program, Belmont has not.
The Bruins are no stepping stone.
“Nothing about our recruiting pitch has anything to do with, well, come to Belmont and we’ll set you up for success somewhere else,” Alexander said. “That’s not at all in our DNA. You come to Belmont, we give you a great experience, and whatever happens from there, we’ll figure it out as we go.”
The new ecosystem isn’t all doom and gloom for mid-majors.
Alexander noted that with the powerhouse teams focused on adding players through the portal, talented high school prospects who 10 years ago may have gone to sit on the bench in the ACC are now realistic targets for Belmont.
“It’s harder to get those high-major offers just because of the portal,” Richard said. “A lot of coaches are going to go with the transfer portal guys instead of the high schoolers. I feel like now, it is definitely a lot more common to go to a mid-major, then work your way up.”
Chris Dortch, who runs the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, said that some programs have adapted by scouring the junior college and Division II circuit, while others look overseas or to Canada for undervalued talent.
But in the case of Belmont, he believes the Bruins are doing the right thing by just sticking with what works.
“They’re still going to try to find the best high school players that they can,” said Dortch, whose publication features extensive profiles on mid-major programs. “They’ve got certain criteria. You have to have a high basketball IQ, and you have to be able to shoot the jump shot — as elementary as it sounds — because they have built their program on the 3-pointer.”
And the transfer portal is also a two-way street. While Richard went to Florida after one year, one glance through the Bruins roster reveals a slew of players who did not start their career in Nashville.
Alexander and Richard say there is no bad blood between them. More than ever, college basketball has become a business, and Richard’s transfer to Florida was just another transaction.
And it has worked out for both sides. The current Belmont squad is 7-0 and will be a factor in the Missouri Valley Conference, which it joined in 2022.
Richard, now a 22-year-old surprise starter on Golden State, is soaking up the wisdom gleaned from sharing a locker room with his former idols Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
And along the way, he is displaying the kind of savvy that took him from Belmont to the Bay Area.
