The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team will have to switch preparation gears quickly.

After playing up-tempo Duquesne in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the Minutemen will face Richmond and its modified version of the Princeton offense, Saturday at 5 p.m. in Virginia.

"Obviously we're going to try to pick the tempo up and run a little bit," UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. "Hopefully we can use our athleticism and our length to our advantage."

Both teams are coming off losses. The Spiders took a particularly difficult loss to an under-.500 George Washington team, 83-65 on the road Wednesday. UMass fell 80-69 to Duquesne.

"It's going to be two teams fighting and clawing to try to get a victory," Kellogg said. "We always have tough games with Richmond. They're a team, especially at home, that's a good ball club."

Richmond (11-8, 2-2 Atlantic 10) has been up and down all season after replacing four regular starters from last year's NCAA tournament Sweet 16 team. The Spiders have been tough at the Robins Center, winning seven of eight home games, while the Minutemen (14-5, 3-2) are 2-3 in true road games.

"We need every game," UMass junior forward Terrell Vinson said. "We definitely need to learn how to win on the road."

Junior guard Darien Brothers leads Richmond with 14.9 points per game and shoots 47.2 percent from 3-point range. Freshman guard Kendall Anthony is next with 13.7 points per game.

Senior center Darrius Garrett, who blocked 14 shots against UMass in 2010, is second in the A-10 in blocks with 3.7 per game.

Foul trouble, which was a big part of UMass' undoing against Duquesne, could be especially damaging if it's repeated at Richmond. The Spiders are the league's best free throw shooting team at 75.1 percent and they get fouled often. Richmond has attempted 422 free throws, which ranks second in the conference. Its three starting guards (Brothers, Anthony and Cedric Lindsay) all shoot over 80 percent.

UMass will try to take advantage of its league-best rebounding margin (3.4 per game) against a Richmond team that has been outrebounded by an average of 5.5 boards per game, which is 13th in the conference.

The offensive glass has been particularly barren as Richmond averages just 8.7 per game.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.