And some college basketball mascots make you want to cower under your seat in terror. For example, Richmond’s new, as-yet unnamed spider mascot, which happens to be a live greenbottle blue Venezuelan Tarantula.

The young female tarantula was the brainchild of associate head coach Jamal Brunt, who has been with the program for a decade. Director of Basketball Operations Kevin Smith — a former Richmond star — was put in charge of the project, talking first with the school’s biology department and later working with a breeder in Utah, who helped them settle on the proper breed, or whatever you call a type of tarantula.

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“Obviously our mascot isn’t a specific spider, but a tarantula is what people think of when they think of scary spiders,” observed associate director of public relations Will Bryan.

So a Venezuelan greenbottle blue female — bred in captivity — was chosen for the program, arriving before the second home game this winter. The team won its first five games with the tarantula present at The Robins Center, and if there were any doubt about the mascot leaving, that pretty much settled it.

The 3.5-inch tarantula lives in a plexiglass crate and is cared for by biology department employees, who feed it crickets and roaches once or twice a week. But her connection with the basketball team runs deep. She sometimes spends the night in the coaches office. Smith has a routine where he parades the creature in front of everyone’s locker and then onto the court about 90 minutes before tip; “it’s kind of like the spider is blessing everybody,” Bryan said.

The crate sits on a table at mid-court — in front of press row and near the basketball rack — during pre-game warmups; some opponents are anxious to take a look, while others don’t want to get anywhere near the cage. The tarantula is then placed under assistant coach Rob Jones’s chair at the end of the bench; during halftime, a manager carries her into the locker room, and then back onto the floor for the second half, although it would be hard to notice if you weren’t in the front few rows.

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“Wherever we go, the spider goes too,” Bryan said.

(The tarantula mostly hides inside her log when she’s on the court, which Bryan said “has really frustrated the TV people and the cameras. You can kind of see its silhouette, but you can’t get really good picture of it.” She is more adventuresome when in the coaches office, though, where she likes to explore her entire habitat.)

To capitalize on the excitement, the school held a naming contest for the tarantula; her new name — either Ocho, Tarrant, Webra, Alley-Oop or Annette — will be announced before Saturday’s home game against Davidson. (Tarrant refers to longtime Richmond coach Dick Tarrant, the winningest coach in program history.)

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The tarantula has generated some media coverage — see here and here — but more importantly, fans and players are into the stunt. The school is working on a video about the creature — complete with GoPro footage of her eating a cricket — and employees think the new mascot helps accentuate Richmond’s singularity.