Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Richmond vs VCU Breakdown + Women’s Statement Win Over Duquesne

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Richmond vs VCU Breakdown + Women’s Statement Win Over Duquesne · Spiders Sound Off

• 0:06
  Hey everybody, welcome back to Spiders.
• 0:08
  Sound off. This is Tom.
• 0:10
  This is Porter. And we had an eventful week.
• 0:13
  We took our first pod Rd. Trip yes, together we.
• 0:17
  Didn't move the pod but we moved.
• 0:18
  Ourselves road trip to William and Mary earlier by myself.
• 0:21
  This is our first one together. Yes, yes.
• 0:23
  So we went to VCU. We got a lot of comments on both
• 0:26
  our experience and the game. I had never been to the Siegel
• 0:30
  Center before. First first time for me
• 0:31
  actually. We're going to talk also about
• 0:33
  the women's big blow out of Duquesne and we'll give some
• 0:37
  previews of games coming up. Really the big one is the men
• 0:41
  playing Davidson this upcoming weekend.
• 0:44
  That's always a seems to be a great game for us.
• 0:46
  But anyway, the VCU was the beginning of our of our trip or
• 0:51
  of our our week in games. Yeah, we.
• 0:53
  And we had an experience. Yeah, so we we talked in the
• 0:57
  lead up to the episode about it's hard to get right in the
• 1:00
  Seagull Center. You know, it's hard to have to
• 1:02
  like, right the ship in the Seagull Center.
• 1:04
  And we didn't really know why other than the results have not
• 1:07
  been there over the years, but got a chance to go to the game
• 1:12
  and that was really exciting. Yeah, thanks to Robbie Robinson
• 1:15
  who got us some general admission tickets so we could
• 1:20
  experience that game. It was be all the snow and ice.
• 1:22
  It was not a capacity, not at capacity.
• 1:24
  Their attendance might act like it was, but it was probably 80%.
• 1:27
  Yeah, it was still a good crowd. Good crowd.
• 1:30
  It was a bit of an adventure for us getting there.
• 1:32
  You came to my house and we drove from my house down to VCU
• 1:38
  and we quickly found out that the lots where you might
• 1:42
  actually find parking without snow and ice were were either
• 1:45
  completely booked or you had to have a reserve pass for.
• 1:47
  Yeah, no surprise. Like going into the city kind of
• 1:51
  our two complaints were parking is difficult, which is not a
• 1:55
  just a VCU issue. I think everyone knows that's
• 1:57
  kind of the city does not have lots of parking readily
• 2:01
  available and the smell of weed. Oh.
• 2:04
  Yeah, there was a there was a literally like Mary Jane was was
• 2:08
  all over downtown Richmond that night.
• 2:11
  Love the city? I'm, I was kind of impressed
• 2:14
  that you could be in your car and still, you know, smelling,
• 2:16
  smelling marijuana so. We did eventually find parking,
• 2:19
  whether it was any towing risk or not will kind of lead that.
• 2:24
  Leave that to the our wonderful friends at Kroger.
• 2:28
  Well, I mean, here's the thing, Kroger says you have to be a
• 2:30
  customer to park there. So if you go in the store and
• 2:32
  buy a bottle of water, you're technically a customer.
• 2:34
  They cannot tell you. Yeah, I'm glad we didn't get
• 2:36
  towed, but there's a little party which is like waiting for
• 2:38
  Porter to tell the tow folks. Like look, I got this receipt.
• 2:41
  I have a receipt. I'm a customer.
• 2:43
  I cannot be towed. Yeah, the receipt was 3 hours
• 2:46
  old, but anyway, we had a good time.
• 2:48
  So I've been to the Siegel Center.
• 2:49
  I can't remember when a long time ago saw get totally
• 2:51
  annihilated there and the crowd was over the top.
• 2:56
  Exciting from the last time I went.
• 2:59
  This was your first time? There, I thought you were there
• 3:00
  for the Jonas Brothers concert. So that's.
• 3:02
  I was there for my daughter's both of my one of my daughter's
• 3:05
  graduations. So I've been there in a
• 3:07
  different sort of event as well, but they certainly made some
• 3:11
  upgrades since the last time I was there.
• 3:13
  I mean, it's still VC us they didn't upgrade that, but they
• 3:16
  but they. Have really hideous black and
• 3:19
  gold. They need to upgrade.
• 3:20
  That I, I, you know, they had the screens there I thought were
• 3:23
  really nice. Yeah, actually.
• 3:25
  The first impressions was I actually like the Seagull
• 3:27
  Center. I mean, it's well laid out.
• 3:28
  It's kind of like a like a, like a rectangle.
• 3:31
  So it's, you know, the seats are are.
• 3:33
  All kind of like how a basketball courts are rectangle
• 3:35
  well, but like have you been to square basketball courts the.
• 3:37
  Robin Center, though, has got that kind of like Oval.
• 3:40
  Feature. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:40
  You know. It's like this is more like a
• 3:41
  square. Like you can find seats in the
• 3:43
  corner that like we're definitely you don't find in the
• 3:45
  Robin Center. I thought the seats, even though
• 3:48
  we were behind the basket were good.
• 3:50
  We could see all the action on both sides of the floor.
• 3:53
  The fans were very nice. There were no, you know, we were
• 3:56
  wearing our Richmond gear and there was no, no VCU like
• 3:59
  negativity. It was all very everybody was
• 4:01
  very polite. It's kind of disappointing.
• 4:03
  It would have made the pod more exciting if we got like food
• 4:05
  thrown at us or anything like that.
• 4:07
  But no, I actually, I mentioned the Porter at one point.
• 4:10
  I was actually getting some beer and walking back to our seat and
• 4:13
  one of the employees, I don't know if it was the RMC person or
• 4:16
  an employee, it was hard to tell, but she was like, hey, let
• 4:18
  me know if anyone's giving you trouble.
• 4:20
  So she was going to rough them up for.
• 4:21
  So she was like, you know, they were looking out for us the the
• 4:23
  few. Now there were some spiders
• 4:25
  behind the team bench. So you kind of as you'd expect,
• 4:28
  there's probably some. Scattered red around the arena
• 4:31
  too. You know, people were proudly
• 4:32
  wearing their proudly wearing their spider colors.
• 4:34
  Yeah, it was still, if you weren't behind the bench, you
• 4:36
  were in enemy territory and, and that's what we were.
• 4:38
  But yeah, it was great. I thought it was a great
• 4:40
  experience too. A couple things of this is kind
• 4:43
  of they'll be some, you know, snarky complaints about the
• 4:46
  Robinson or when I say this is that, you know, VCU has lots of
• 4:49
  banners now. Some of them are back to their
• 4:52
  CAA day, Some of them are a 10 days.
• 4:55
  But like they have big banners that I could read everywhere
• 4:59
  versus I think when you of R did all of the upgrades to put the
• 5:03
  sweets in the corner. Like the banners went from like
• 5:05
  hanging from the rafters to like up against the side and they got
• 5:09
  smaller. And maybe I'm just getting too
• 5:13
  old, but I, I, I miss the days of the giant banners kind of
• 5:16
  hanging from the rafters. They do have more banners than
• 5:20
  us. That's a different issue.
• 5:21
  Remember you used to walk 3 miles to school every day
• 5:23
  through snow if I recall. A couple other things I'll say,
• 5:26
  which was kind of great. So they had, if you looked at
• 5:29
  the the most of the way you get to your seat is from the top
• 5:33
  down. So there's not like different
• 5:36
  levels, but it's more like you're coming from the top and
• 5:38
  walking right down the steps and all of the aisles had someone
• 5:42
  standing there with a sign like a stop sign.
• 5:45
  And when the game was going, they would hold that sign, which
• 5:47
  basically said don't go down there and interrupt people's
• 5:51
  view because the game is playing.
• 5:54
  And there's tons of stops in basketball.
• 5:56
  So when there's like a any foul out of bounds, whatever, they'll
• 5:58
  change the sign and you go kind of rush to your seat.
• 6:01
  But I love that. I'll say there are times where
• 6:04
  over my span of going to Robin's games as a season ticket holder,
• 6:09
  there's been someone who kind of stopped and said, hey, wait till
• 6:13
  a break in action. But that, whatever, whenever
• 6:15
  that was a policy, that is gone. And I'll, you know, plenty of
• 6:18
  times I'm sitting in my seat and people are coming up and down,
• 6:20
  up and down during the ACT. Which is hard to do because
• 6:23
  we're so high up in the Robin Center.
• 6:25
  We're like, we literally can get a Nosebleed.
• 6:27
  So I appreciate that etiquette. To all you listening while we
• 6:33
  don't have the signs of the Robin Center, I suggest you kind
• 6:35
  of stay in the tunnel until there's a a foul or out of
• 6:39
  bounds. So you're not always getting
• 6:41
  everyone to have to stand up and to get to your seat and the
• 6:43
  people behind you cannot see anything.
• 6:45
  That's a little gripe there's. The student section, by the way,
• 6:48
  was high energy. Yeah.
• 6:50
  And the band is great at the sand.
• 6:51
  Is amazing by the way, they were playing some Chapel roan like
• 6:54
  they they were they were lighting up the.
• 6:55
  Which Porter called Roan Chapel. I did call it Roan Chapel, but
• 6:58
  I'm not, you know, Hey, my my daughter knows that music very
• 7:02
  well. I don't, but you know they were.
• 7:04
  They were rocking out the Pink Pony Club if I recall.
• 7:06
  Yes, and we did sample the food. So this is a little bit of again
• 7:10
  pro Siegel Center you. You sampled the food they.
• 7:12
  Had a brisket sandwich I got my wife got the brisket.
• 7:16
  She said it was fantastic. She gave me a piece and it was
• 7:19
  really good. So brisket I think would would
• 7:23
  beat the BBQ sandwich 10 out of 10 times, yeah.
• 7:28
  We can improve for sure. So let's let's find out where
• 7:31
  they get their brisket and just make that happy.
• 7:34
  Folks, yeah, that would be that'd be an easy change.
• 7:37
  I will say that I loved the throw throwback blue jerseys the
• 7:41
  Spiders were were sporting. That was my favorite jersey of
• 7:44
  the year. Yeah, if you've seen the ad, if
• 7:46
  you've gone to the home games and you've seen kind of the
• 7:48
  Beckwith throwback whites, same, but kind of Navy blue.
• 7:54
  And so the stripes were now red and white and yeah, they looked
• 7:59
  great. I'd love to see see us use them
• 8:01
  again. I love those jerseys.
• 8:02
  Yeah. One last one thing to give.
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  I still prefer the Robin Center, by the way.
• 8:06
  That's my my, my preferred venue.
• 8:08
  I like the Siegel Center, but I love the Robin Center.
• 8:10
  I will say the the Falcon Smash has no equal at Yeah, at their
• 8:14
  arena. They have a good IPA, but it's
• 8:16
  not the Falcon Smash. Yeah, they've, I think V CS got
• 8:18
  one of their sponsors is Bingo Beer, which is a brewery in
• 8:22
  town, so they had a lot of the free.
• 8:24
  Space. Space was there up here.
• 8:25
  Bingo lager still has so I love Bingo's got good beers.
• 8:28
  But yes, the Falcon Smash is the.
• 8:29
  Winner, yes. So if if if Bingo wants to
• 8:32
  sponsor the pod and get into the Robin Center, perhaps I could be
• 8:35
  swayed, but it's probably not going to be the IPA.
• 8:37
  OK, that was all the all the good stuff.
• 8:40
  And then the game itself, Yeah, really ugly First half, kind of
• 8:46
  big comeback. Second-half a little too late,
• 8:50
  but what was your general impression of how we played?
• 8:53
  I mean, we played better than we had played the last couple
• 8:55
  games. I thought so well with then we
• 8:57
  played at GW, we played better than we played at GW.
• 9:01
  And there was no quit in the team.
• 9:03
  I'll say that. And I think, you know, we we had
• 9:06
  to overcome the fact that I thought we had lost a little
• 9:08
  confidence. And I think we ended that game
• 9:10
  with a lot of confidence and we realized, you know, we can beat,
• 9:14
  I think we can beat VCU at the Robin Center this year.
• 9:18
  Sometimes you just go in, you know, you like last year, I
• 9:20
  think we lost 90 to 49. You know, you're not going to
• 9:22
  beat VCU at the Robin Center if you're losing 90 to 49.
• 9:25
  But I think we could beat VCU at the Robin Center this year.
• 9:27
  I really do so. I'll tell you before I even get
• 9:30
  into some of my game notes again, the the IT was probably
• 9:34
  8590% full and the crowd was loud.
• 9:38
  But they're, and this is just kind of my opinion because you,
• 9:41
  you would never know for sure, but I felt like it wasn't, it
• 9:45
  didn't feel like it used to feel.
• 9:47
  And that's not a criticism of VCU or their fans, but I think
• 9:50
  more of we don't matter. I think if you're VCU, you don't
• 9:55
  look at U of R as our big downtown rival that we can't
• 9:59
  wait to play twice a year. I think they look at who's top
• 10:02
  of the A10 and those are the teams that we need to try to
• 10:05
  beat. And I don't know if I wouldn't
• 10:06
  say they have a rivalry with GW or Saint Louis or Dayton, but I
• 10:10
  think if you're a VCU fan. You're saying those they just
• 10:13
  expected to win that game? Yeah.
• 10:15
  And I yeah. And it got really quiet late
• 10:17
  when we cut it to two possessions.
• 10:19
  I think they were all shocked for like, you know, a minute or
• 10:23
  so. But I don't think they go into
• 10:25
  that game with the. I can't wait to beat Richmond
• 10:28
  because they know they're going to beat Richmond.
• 10:29
  And I'm not saying we've, you know, obviously we've beaten
• 10:31
  them before, but it's, you know, we win whatever, 2 out of 10 or
• 10:35
  something like that. So it, it was, it made me a
• 10:37
  little sad. And maybe it's because we lost
• 10:39
  the game and it got tight and I thought, you know, maybe we'd
• 10:41
  pull out a miracle, but I kind of left.
• 10:44
  There was like, that was a great experience.
• 10:46
  But I, there was a point in time where like the lady would say,
• 10:51
  Hey, let me know if anyone's bothering you.
• 10:53
  And she'd really be nervous about it.
• 10:55
  I don't think she was really worried that he was going to
• 10:57
  bother us because. But anyway, getting into the
• 10:59
  game, I like here's like I, I agree with everything you said.
• 11:02
  I think, and this is a little bit of the problem with kind of
• 11:07
  our team right now, and I'm not sure this changes is that when
• 11:10
  we made our comeback, it was through a bunch of like fade
• 11:15
  away 2 point shots that like AJ was on fire.
• 11:19
  So was walls, walls was on fire. But like our like, it's almost
• 11:24
  like what we're best at is the turn around fadeaway jumper from
• 11:28
  15 feet. And like the, you know,
• 11:31
  basketball statistic gurus will say like, that's a shot you
• 11:34
  should not take at all. And you better be like, like
• 11:37
  right out of the basket or you better be shooting threes.
• 11:40
  And we can't get threes off when someone's guarding us.
• 11:42
  We didn't actually, we didn't take a lot of threes yesterday.
• 11:44
  We tried and we didn't shoot poorly, but they they took tons
• 11:48
  of threes versus US and like the baskets we did make and we we
• 11:53
  made some threes, we made some under the basket, but we had a
• 11:55
  lot of those. And again, it was great.
• 11:57
  Like AJ was making great shots and Walls was as well.
• 12:00
  But it's like that's the way we're going to make a run in the
• 12:03
  a 10 tournament. That makes me worried because
• 12:05
  that's a tough way to, you know, win three or four games.
• 12:09
  Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, we, we are
• 12:11
  building the confidence to, to put a four-game streak together
• 12:14
  in the A10 tournament. I mean, the best thing I could
• 12:17
  say about yesterday or two days ago when we went to the game was
• 12:20
  I think we could beat VCU this year.
• 12:22
  I didn't, I don't, I don't feel that way about Saint Louis.
• 12:24
  I don't think we can beat Saint Louis.
• 12:26
  I, I don't think we've shown that we can beat George
• 12:28
  Washington, but I think we can beat VCU this.
• 12:30
  Year So here's a stat that I thought was like a killer.
• 12:32
  When you look at that game, we had 7 assists.
• 12:36
  So that kind of tells you like our offense with the like their
• 12:39
  their their long. They guard you aggressively half
• 12:43
  court, not necessarily full court, but aggressively half
• 12:46
  court. And our offense does not work or
• 12:50
  did not work. Now again, AJ and Walls did a
• 12:53
  bunch of one-on-one and Daughtry had some great one-on-one
• 12:56
  basket. So we had some guys step up to
• 12:58
  like get that comeback going and our defense improved a lot in
• 13:02
  the second-half. And there are sometimes where
• 13:05
  VCU took some dumb shots, like when they are up by like we are
• 13:08
  making this comeback and they're taking like fadeaway threes.
• 13:11
  I'm sure Martelli was not happy. With some of their I don't think
• 13:13
  VCU would say they played a very good game either.
• 13:15
  Just look watching. What they But when we have 7
• 13:17
  assists, that tells you the ball is not working around and like
• 13:21
  in in working around in a way where someone's now got a easy
• 13:24
  shot to take. I mean, that's I, I bet you
• 13:28
  Mooney's looking at those stats and saying how did we only have
• 13:31
  7 assists? Like that's you want your best
• 13:33
  player to have 7 assists. I mean, I think not your team.
• 13:36
  I think the thing for the Spiders right now is we've got
• 13:40
  to win this weekend against Davidson.
• 13:42
  You got to stop this losing streak we're on.
• 13:44
  You got to beat a team that you can beat at home, pretty evenly
• 13:47
  matched team if you look at all the advanced stats.
• 13:49
  But like we should beat Davidson and, and we need to beat them I
• 13:53
  think pretty handily and get this, get this kind of like Mojo
• 13:56
  reversed that we've got going on.
• 13:57
  Right now, OK, one thing we haven't talked about before we
• 13:59
  move on to the the the women's game is the foul disparity at
• 14:05
  VCU. So that it, you know, it's not,
• 14:07
  I'm not sitting here and saying like we would have won with
• 14:09
  better officials, but boy, like they were they were times where
• 14:13
  we'd see them driving on us with their arm like in our face,
• 14:17
  pushing off and making to. Their key play underneath was
• 14:20
  when they got matched up against one of our smaller guards, their
• 14:23
  their player would deliver a forearm shiver to the chest of
• 14:27
  our guard, knocking them back three feet and somehow that was
• 14:29
  not called a foul. Over and over again, they just
• 14:31
  literally cleared out with their forearm and that was not.
• 14:33
  Called and if you look at the overall stats of the game, like
• 14:36
  if again, and this is not it doesn't work this simply.
• 14:38
  But if you look at the stats, you'd say like they won because
• 14:41
  they made lots of foul shots, like they didn't make that many.
• 14:44
  You know, if you look at twos and threes and field goal
• 14:46
  percentage, like they weren't that different.
• 14:49
  You'd be surprised that we are down that much at some point
• 14:52
  when you look at the those sort of stats.
• 14:53
  But they were on the line all day.
• 14:55
  They made their foul shots to their credit, but they they were
• 14:59
  on the line all day and we didn't get to the line much at
• 15:01
  all. And I, and I think some of that
• 15:03
  you're going to always get favorable calls when you're at
• 15:05
  home. Like I mean, it's just because
• 15:06
  the crowd gets to gets into the refs mind a little bit and I I
• 15:10
  don't think the rest were egregious, but I think it was
• 15:12
  unbalanced for sure. And I thought it was in favor of
• 15:15
  ECU. Yeah, And, and one of the
• 15:17
  indications I like is that when you got to that second-half, at
• 15:20
  some point I'm like, hey, Moody took his jacket off.
• 15:23
  Yep. That that's that tends to be a
• 15:25
  hey, Mr. Official. I'm not very happy.
• 15:27
  I'm taking my coat off and I'm rolling up my sleeves because I
• 15:31
  got to give you the business some more.
• 15:33
  Ready to talk about the ladies. Talk about the ladies.
• 15:36
  OK, so we were at home against Duquesne.
• 15:38
  Duquesne, if you listen to us before the kind of that programs
• 15:41
  hurting right now they're oh and 9 or maybe are they Oh and 10
• 15:44
  now and 90 and 10 in the league. I remember like I you know, when
• 15:48
  you see the coach and you see some of the players, like why do
• 15:51
  I remember playing this team? And I've I looked it up and we
• 15:54
  had a really tight game in the turn a 10 tournament last year
• 15:57
  against Duquesne. Like that was a game we thought
• 15:59
  we'd win pretty easily. Megan McConnell and it became
• 16:02
  really tight. Yeah, so they had a star last
• 16:04
  year, Megan McConnell, who got AI think a a little look at the
• 16:07
  WNBAI think she's now in like the whatever their G League is
• 16:12
  playing. And that's a kind of a family of
• 16:14
  kind of both mom and dad coaching brother in the NBA.
• 16:20
  And it was funny. So we were killing them in the
• 16:22
  first quarter. I was at the game.
• 16:24
  Porter was, was kind of ended up watching at home later.
• 16:28
  But I, but I, the first quarter we blew them out.
• 16:31
  And I text like, well, Megan McConnell's not walking through
• 16:33
  that door. And that's an old, I think it
• 16:35
  was Rick Pitino when he was coaching the Celtics when he
• 16:37
  kind of referenced like Larry Bird's not walking through that
• 16:39
  door. But then I realized they brought
• 16:41
  in someone off the bench and I'm looking up.
• 16:42
  I'm like, Hey, that's another McConnell.
• 16:45
  And she's got a sister now. Her sister is like 5-4.
• 16:48
  She's her sister's really small recent guard.
• 16:52
  But that was a game that like one thing, I don't know, I mean,
• 16:56
  you watched it so you kind of saw this, but I kept looking at
• 16:59
  like who there was somewhat good on this team and it was this
• 17:01
  Bortis or Bardis player, Alexis Bortis or something.
• 17:05
  She was their best player. Didn't have any.
• 17:08
  While Newell was guarding her like she scored 8 towards the
• 17:12
  late. When the game was over, Newell
• 17:14
  was on the bench. She finally kind of hit a three
• 17:16
  or two Alicia. Newell now number one in the
• 17:19
  Atlantic, 10 in steel percentage.
• 17:22
  Yeah, you want. To know what that stat means
• 17:24
  because it's an advanced stat. It means she's the best at
• 17:27
  stealing the ball. Well, so it's it's a estimate of
• 17:30
  opponent possessions that end with a steal by that player
• 17:34
  while she is on the floor. So number one in the A10IN steel
• 17:38
  percentage #11 in the nation in steel percentage.
• 17:40
  Alicia Newell. Yeah, so we won 86 to 55.
• 17:44
  The the the stat if you want to look at things like this is
• 17:47
  surprising. Again, this is if you looked at
• 17:48
  like field goal percentage of 3 point percentage, they're not
• 17:51
  that different. But for the game we took 62
• 17:54
  shots, they took 48. I love that that that's that's
• 17:57
  hard to win when there's that much of a shot difference.
• 18:00
  And a lot of I mean, we steals like they were turning it over.
• 18:02
  We are stealing the ball a lot. What was great to see, this is a
• 18:08
  game that was pretty much over after the first quarter, but
• 18:11
  like our team was not and maybe until halfway through the 4th
• 18:15
  when it was really kind of the whole bench, like our team was
• 18:18
  fighting like Sam Dewey was on the floor bunch diving for
• 18:21
  balls. Dewey's playing great.
• 18:23
  She had a great game. Can I give you some fun things
• 18:26
  to think about with So you know, we talk about resell building
• 18:29
  towards games 3233 and 34, right?
• 18:32
  Getting getting us ready to play our best basketball for the
• 18:34
  tournament. Well, if you start looking at
• 18:36
  the advanced stats that's bearing itself out, we're nine
• 18:38
  and one over the last 10 games are offensive efficiency numbers
• 18:41
  are improving from where they were in the first, you know, 10
• 18:44
  games that we played or the 2nd 10 games.
• 18:47
  Here's some fun stats for you. So 3 point percentage in the
• 18:51
  Atlantic 10. Maggie Dugan is 4th, Ali Sweeney
• 18:56
  is fifth and Rachel Ostrom is 6. So 434242 percentage.
• 19:01
  That's three. Three over the over 40.
• 19:03
  Percent and Rachel was 5 for 11 for three.
• 19:05
  And Sam Dewey is now 8th. So we have four of the top 10,
• 19:08
  three-point shooters in the Atlantic 10 on this team, which
• 19:12
  is really cool. Here's another cool thing for
• 19:14
  you to realize. You know, we talked about, you
• 19:16
  know, you know, shooting threes or getting right to the basket.
• 19:19
  Well, guess who's leading the A10 and two point percentage?
• 19:23
  Maggie Dugan. Rachel Ahlstrom Rachel Ahlstrom
• 19:26
  is 64 percent or is that 54%? That's that is 60.
• 19:30
  If you're on video, you can watch him splint looking at his
• 19:33
  lap. That is 64% for Rachel.
• 19:36
  Guess who's 2nd? And.
• 19:37
  Just tell me. Sam Dewey 60%, number 3.
• 19:40
  Maggie Dugan 59%. You don't get the top three
• 19:43
  players in the Atlantic 10 and two point percentage unless
• 19:46
  you're getting shots right up against the rim that are.
• 19:48
  So kind of a couple other notes and watching that game.
• 19:52
  So credit to coach he started, Jada Green.
• 19:55
  He's such a classic. Because Jada's sister is on
• 19:57
  Duquesne, she's a junior at Duquesne.
• 20:00
  So that was really nice and and Jada got in at the end as well.
• 20:03
  I saw Jada fouled her sister earlier.
• 20:05
  Yes, she did. OK, if you're going to send a
• 20:06
  message. Well, yeah, but I think she
• 20:08
  fouled her on a three pointer. Yeah, that wasn't a message that
• 20:11
  I think Jada wanted to send. Clarify it was a three pointer.
• 20:14
  But well, I'd love that none of our starters played over 30
• 20:17
  minutes. So I don't I they haven't had
• 20:20
  the chance to look at prior box scores.
• 20:22
  But it wouldn't surprise me. It's the first time in a while
• 20:25
  at least that we didn't have someone in the starting line.
• 20:28
  I played 30 minutes. So even though we hadn't played
• 20:30
  in 10 days because that George Mason game got snowed out, it
• 20:36
  was, you know, our star players still need, you know, we don't
• 20:39
  need Ali playing 40 minutes a game like Duquesne, like she
• 20:44
  needs to rest. I'll tell you the other thing
• 20:46
  that I noticed in that game was, and it's just interesting
• 20:51
  because that's the only Duquesne game I've seen all year.
• 20:54
  Their center or backup center. Raven Washington, yes.
• 20:58
  Holy cow, I loved watching her. 6 foot 5.
• 21:01
  She's 65, from Harrisonburg, VA. Yes, who else is from
• 21:04
  Harrisonburg, VA? I don't know who else.
• 21:07
  Your podcast partner is a Valley boy, right?
• 21:10
  OK, so Raven Washington, 65, skinny as can be.
• 21:14
  So she's gonna have to put on some weight to compete with kind
• 21:17
  of center's as she as she gets older.
• 21:20
  But she's a freshman. What's So she was 6 for six, had
• 21:23
  12 points. And she had us like when she
• 21:25
  got, you know, 6 feet from the basket, she had soft touch.
• 21:29
  Like when you saw her turn and do little hooks or, you know, it
• 21:33
  was like it was it was beautiful.
• 21:35
  And then I look at her stats and like she at some games she
• 21:38
  barely plays. So as a freshman, I'm sure
• 21:41
  there's a lot of ups and downs. We saw one of the UPS.
• 21:43
  But man, I I was talking to my wife and I'm like, we need to
• 21:46
  get her next year. Like let's hope she jumps in the
• 21:49
  portal so we can bring her. In she went to high school to
• 21:51
  Turner Ashby. I have all kinds of connections
• 21:52
  to Turner Ashby. Actually, a lot of my extended
• 21:55
  family goes to Turner Ashby or plays football for Turner Ashby.
• 21:58
  She's related to Ralph Sampson. That's another neat little fact
• 22:01
  about her. I actually call the Turner Ashby
• 22:03
  Knights the Molehill Muskrats, just that's for a little
• 22:07
  personal dig at my my family members who go there because I
• 22:09
  went to a rival high school in the area.
• 22:11
  But the Molehill Muskrats produced a good one.
• 22:13
  I think she's a good player and I think, yeah, Duquesne's lucky
• 22:16
  to find her. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:17
  No, she again, they had, if you look at their roster, actually I
• 22:21
  had it here. I mean, it didn't come out come
• 22:23
  across as anything that obviously dominated us.
• 22:26
  But they've got 264 girls, A65-A6, two and six, three.
• 22:34
  Yeah. Like that Coach Dan Burt, like
• 22:39
  he's recruited some tall players now.
• 22:41
  They were no match for Sam Dewey and Tiara Simon yesterday, so
• 22:47
  you know credit. You don't.
• 22:48
  You don't have to be 6 four to be good in the paint in the
• 22:52
  Atlantic 1010. One other fun fact about two
• 22:54
  point shooting percentage, Ali Sweeney, our guard who's 5 foot
• 22:57
  7 is 11th in the Atlantic 10 and two point field goal percentage.
• 23:01
  She's getting to the basket, getting her shots there.
• 23:04
  It's the system, it's the read react system that that Rochelle
• 23:07
  runs. As the team improves, you're
• 23:08
  seeing more and more efficiency. Something interesting is
• 23:11
  happening happening. I need to point out to our
• 23:13
  listeners there's there's a bifurcation means a big word
• 23:17
  you. Say T word.
• 23:19
  In results right now in the Atlantic 10, the interesting
• 23:23
  thing is you got both George Mason and Rhode Island that are
• 23:26
  9 and O, right? So they're first and second are
• 23:29
  first and 1st in the Atlantic 10 right now.
• 23:32
  But their net is slipping and ours is staying the same.
• 23:35
  And I believe their net is slipping because they're not
• 23:37
  winning as efficiently as we are, meaning they're playing
• 23:40
  close games. I think Rhode Island played VC
• 23:42
  to A5 point win. That affects your net.
• 23:45
  That's why you have to stay extremely efficient all all
• 23:48
  season long. Even though they're nine and O
• 23:49
  and I think 18 and two overall, Rhode Island has slipped.
• 23:53
  George Mason is 62 in the net. Rhode Island is actually they're
• 23:57
  50 in the net SO5O and 62. So you know, they're the this
• 24:02
  the George Mason 62, the Rhode Island 50 not as high as as
• 24:06
  Richmond, which is 45. So if we end up, like I said,
• 24:08
  going four and one against these quad or quad two games the rest
• 24:11
  of the way, we're going to have a higher net and the net's going
• 24:14
  to matter when it comes to the at large consideration for the
• 24:17
  Atlantic 10. So yeah, sometimes.
• 24:19
  Too, at least what I've seen from my experience is that, you
• 24:22
  know, when you have multiple teams that are, have really high
• 24:26
  Nets, like 1 can almost, you're starting to justify that your
• 24:30
  league is really good. And so when they're debating
• 24:33
  around the table of who gets in or not, like you can bring
• 24:36
  someone else into your league who might have been on the
• 24:38
  bubble because they're impressed with your league.
• 24:40
  I I think we're in the league's not there right now.
• 24:43
  It was the IT was the Bartorvic that Rhode Island fell to 61.
• 24:45
  So yeah, Rhode Island 61. And George Mason is 64 in the
• 24:49
  Bartorvic rankings, Richmond's 46.
• 24:52
  So we're actually seeing us hold serve and some of our opponents
• 24:57
  are kind of slipping a little bit in the rankings.
• 24:59
  Still very, very important to beat these guys.
• 25:02
  But it's just an interesting sub note and I think it speaks to
• 25:04
  the efficiency throughout the throughout the the play, no
• 25:08
  matter who you're playing, you got to stay, you got to win
• 25:09
  efficiently, you got to be efficient.
• 25:11
  And Roussell's a master at that. Yeah, and we've got some games
• 25:15
  coming up that we need to win. Then we'll have George Mason at
• 25:18
  home. And then when you get into
• 25:19
  February, we talked last time, we've got this rough stretch,
• 25:24
  although it's a stretch that will prepare us to advance in
• 25:27
  the NCAA tournament, 3 away games if we can get there.
• 25:29
  But it's Davidson, George Mason, George Washington all on the
• 25:32
  road. And obviously Davidson and
• 25:35
  George Mason are kind of two of the top teams in the league.
• 25:37
  We don't play Rhode Island until February 25th.
• 25:39
  That's our next to last game. So that's a big game.
• 25:42
  Got. To be here right now, we
• 25:43
  haven't, we haven't lost since we lost to Rhode Island.
• 25:46
  So we've got a streak going, which is obviously Fordham and
• 25:50
  Rhode Island are in a different stratosphere when it comes to
• 25:54
  their success in the league. But it was just, it's just
• 25:57
  interesting that last year we lost at Fordham, went on this
• 26:00
  giant run, didn't lose until the A10 tournament, and now we lost
• 26:03
  that first game to Rhode Island. We haven't lost.
• 26:06
  We're going to have some tough games coming up, but we're.
• 26:08
  Playing some of our best basketball of the season right
• 26:10
  now. You've got, you've got, you
• 26:13
  know, all five of your starters playing really, really well,
• 26:17
  including Dewey is that fifth starter, Newell and the and the
• 26:19
  big three. And then you've got the bench
• 26:21
  starting to play really well. Tiara Simon is becoming a really
• 26:23
  efficient passer. She's also hit her threes.
• 26:26
  I mean, there's just a lot of cool things that are going on
• 26:29
  with this team right now. Yeah, I think the big difference
• 26:31
  is we have to look at the stats. But I think if you did the like
• 26:35
  Tiara Simon, Sam Dewey kind of combo, like what that has
• 26:39
  provided for us, like I feel like it's a giant lift from six
• 26:43
  weeks ago of like they're getting better of game in game
• 26:47
  out versus like the hot and cold.
• 26:49
  Like they're consistently successful in the A10.
• 26:52
  I mean, we'll we will see when we play George Mason, Davidson
• 26:56
  and Yep, in Rhode Island. Can they continue that?
• 26:59
  Freshmen are starting to play better.
• 27:00
  Like, you know, you've got like the 1-2 punch with Bruschetti
• 27:03
  and Rain, right? That are that are playing really
• 27:05
  well. Shaniqua Campbell's getting more
• 27:06
  floor time. We're starting to see the
• 27:08
  emergence of, of the of the team, you know, really coming
• 27:13
  into its own. But also you're starting to see
• 27:15
  like there was a couple minutes at the end of this game where
• 27:17
  you were playing the future, right?
• 27:19
  And the future looked pretty good.
• 27:20
  Like Anisha Scott running the point looked pretty good.
• 27:22
  Yeah, Anisha had a nice floater. I so, yeah.
• 27:24
  So there was some there was some exciting stuff taking place and
• 27:26
  I thought it was a it was a really fun game.
• 27:28
  I mean, we were up 37 to 6. How fun is that, right?
• 27:31
  Like you get up 37 to 6, you can just kind of relax and I've I've
• 27:35
  it was, it was a nice, it was a nice result last night to get to
• 27:38
  watch that. OK, we're the women are Next up
• 27:40
  at VCU this weekend and we just played VCU at home.
• 27:44
  So it's kind of almost it's not back-to-back we had.
• 27:47
  It'll be it'll be closer. Kane in the middle.
• 27:48
  CCU's trying to sell out the Seagull Center, so Spider fans
• 27:52
  put your red on, go down there and help them sell it out, but
• 27:54
  make sure you're wearing your red sitting behind the girls.
• 27:57
  I mean, we beat them 7747 at home.
• 28:00
  It'll be closer at VCU for sure, and even Roussel said that in
• 28:02
  his post game remarks last night, he said.
• 28:04
  Well, he's not going to tell his team like, oh, this is an easy
• 28:07
  one. It's not going to be an easy
• 28:08
  one. It'll be a closer game.
• 28:09
  We're going to blow him out. They're four and six in the
• 28:12
  league. They did just win a game, but
• 28:15
  but they're going to lose the next one.
• 28:17
  I mean, you don't think it was a chance that this is a tight game
• 28:19
  at the end, do you? Right now what looks like Mark
• 28:22
  Torvic saying we should win by 1492% chance of a win. 8% chance
• 28:26
  VCU beats us on their home floor.
• 28:27
  I'm not. Like it's look, Saint Louis
• 28:30
  behind them is not a is not a game you're looking like you're
• 28:33
  worried about. So it's not a trap game by any
• 28:35
  means, but I don't think we're going to lose it.
• 28:38
  But I think it's going to be a lot closer than the last one.
• 28:40
  We win by 20 plus and that game is at noon.
• 28:44
  I think that's on TV as well, maybe ESPN plus.
• 28:48
  So we're. Going to try to go downtown.
• 28:49
  We haven't talked about that. I don't have to have to look at
• 28:51
  my busy social calendar, your schedule.
• 28:54
  But let's get to the men. The men got a great game coming
• 28:56
  up Saturday at home. As Porter said before, like we
• 28:59
  got to protect our homecourt. And you'll hear Coach Mooney
• 29:01
  talking about that in the VCU post game.
• 29:03
  Like we've got to be better at home.
• 29:05
  Davidson's actually higher ranked than us in Elise
• 29:08
  Bartorovic. They're 123.
• 29:10
  We're 141. We're higher in the net and Ken
• 29:14
  Palm, by the way. Can't be by much though.
• 29:16
  Not by much. We're close.
• 29:17
  We're evenly matched overall. It's the way of.
• 29:18
  Thinking they are four and four in the league.
• 29:21
  So this is an important win. We, I mean, right now we're in
• 29:23
  the bottom 4. We've got to get out of that if
• 29:26
  we want to have any hope of a run at the A10 tournament and I
• 29:29
  think we will. But anyway, Davidson, by the
• 29:32
  way, Porter's phone just went off.
• 29:34
  I just want to put that in the record.
• 29:36
  I've instructed him to make sure it's on silent and his phone
• 29:39
  went off. How do you know?
• 29:40
  How do you know it's not one of our listeners calling?
• 29:42
  Yeah, right. OK.
• 29:45
  Davidson, as you know if you watch this play, Davidson before
• 29:49
  while they're, you know the coach is the son of the coach
• 29:52
  that we played most of the year is like they are a three-point
• 29:55
  shooting team. They play a lot like us there.
• 29:58
  It's always been a good match up because their shots rain and.
• 30:02
  Before you get into their style, let me just give you the
• 30:03
  numbers. So we're 116, they're 132 and
• 30:06
  Ken Palm. So we're 64% likely to win the
• 30:09
  game by the margin that was predicted as 3.
• 30:12
  So we should be favored coming in.
• 30:14
  Now do your Yeah. So they shoot 36% from 3.
• 30:19
  So they're not like, I mean, it's good.
• 30:21
  I think they're ranked 63 in the nation in efficiency looking at
• 30:25
  some of their stats because they've lost a few in a row now.
• 30:27
  So they're slumping. They did beat George
• 30:30
  Washington's. You were saying before, like you
• 30:32
  don't see us beating George Washington now they went 14 for
• 30:34
  25 from three. That'll do it.
• 30:36
  So that that tells you like they can get hot.
• 30:39
  They got a lot of guys that shoot threes similar to us.
• 30:43
  You they're going to see kind of whoever has the ball, if they're
• 30:45
  open from three, they're going to shoot it.
• 30:49
  So, so that's what we have to watch out for.
• 30:51
  Like are we going to guard 3 pointers from the beginning of
• 30:55
  the game, which I think we've seen some issues of guys getting
• 30:59
  open and sometimes there may be strategy like that's the guy
• 31:02
  we're going to let shoot and then he goes hits three in a
• 31:05
  row. But when you play Davidson, you
• 31:07
  know, they can all shoot the three.
• 31:09
  We've got to get out on them. They're they're usually and you
• 31:11
  know, because we like the small guards, they have a lot of like
• 31:14
  6364 guys. I do think we can have an
• 31:17
  advantage inside. So it's like the Daughtry
• 31:21
  Robinson walls. If we can get Beagle back, like
• 31:25
  that's an advantage we can take on them.
• 31:28
  They got two players that I kind of looked at kind of Robert
• 31:31
  Blums and Josh Scovens. But they're both like, you know,
• 31:36
  they have a lot of guys, I think 6 that averaged 20 plus minutes
• 31:39
  per game for that 10 plus. Are these like their top players
• 31:42
  are scoring 11 points per game, 10 points per game.
• 31:44
  They've got a deep team. They don't have the one star.
• 31:47
  Their five most efficient players are Josh Scovens, Parker
• 31:50
  Frederickson, Sam Brown, Nick Koval and Manny Josephs.
• 31:54
  Manny Josephs. Yeah, Robert blums.
• 31:56
  He shoots 40% from 3, so he's a 64 guard.
• 31:59
  He's going to be launching them. And Josh?
• 32:02
  19th in the nation and bench bench minutes.
• 32:04
  So they did play very deep. Yeah, they're, yeah, they're
• 32:07
  going to look very familiar. The the difference is I'll have
• 32:10
  to check out their roster. But the traditional Davidson
• 32:13
  roster is that they're going to have four or five people who are
• 32:16
  from Australia or from Europe. Like they've always had a really
• 32:19
  good recruiting pipeline internationally.
• 32:22
  Now we do have Roma glue. Oh, so we've, we've got our
• 32:25
  Greek star, we got a a Canadian player, so we've got. 37% of
• 32:30
  their points come from three pointers, 46% from 2 pointers,
• 32:34
  the rest from foul shots. So they they favor the three to
• 32:38
  your point heavily. Their defensive style components
• 32:42
  is they actually are pretty good at guarding the three.
• 32:44
  Only give up 32% of shots from 332.5.
• 32:47
  Not very good at guarding the two, by the way.
• 32:50
  And their free throw defense, by the way, is extraordinary.
• 32:53
  They're 11th in the nation. In free throw.
• 32:55
  Dumbest stat there is. It is.
• 32:57
  Why do they even publicize here? Anyone's I've?
• 32:59
  Offended like why is the free throw percentage have a ranking
• 33:02
  right like it just I guess it just.
• 33:04
  Shows I get on offense like are you good at?
• 33:05
  Cheating. I think what it means is like,
• 33:07
  hey, they've they've been lucky against teams at the free throw
• 33:10
  line. Like, so like positive
• 33:12
  regression means that they could get crushed if a team gets hot
• 33:14
  from the free throw line because the the so far nobody has been
• 33:18
  scoring a lot, you know, on the free throw side.
• 33:20
  That's what I how I interpreted. I could be wrong with that,
• 33:23
  Yeah. So we play Davidson on Saturday.
• 33:25
  I think that's on USA, if I remember correctly. 430 YEAH
• 33:30
  4:30 on Saturday at USA. We'll be in the Robinson for
• 33:33
  that. Yeah, I'm, I'm hoping the
• 33:35
  weather allows my friends a little it kind of maybe, you
• 33:39
  know, inside baseball, but my wife was AU of R for four years.
• 33:44
  She her roommate had the same roommate, ended up being a
• 33:48
  professor at U of R married another professor at U of R.
• 33:53
  He is now the president of Davidson really after, you know,
• 33:57
  going through a few different schools as kind of Provost and,
• 34:01
  and Dean Doug Hicks is taught at the Jepsen school and is now the
• 34:06
  president of Davidson. And so they were talking about
• 34:09
  making the trip. I know we got snow coming in
• 34:11
  this weekend. So I'm not sure that's going to
• 34:13
  happen. We saw them last year.
• 34:15
  The Davidson game was with Spider Brews game a year ago.
• 34:18
  So I saw them at that. But it's always great if they if
• 34:21
  Doug and Catherine are able to make it to town.
• 34:23
  We will see. But it's the only time I
• 34:26
  socialize with Davidson people is when they come here.
• 34:29
  You know, we have a lot of Davidson grads in my church and
• 34:31
  our church is sending a big group to this game as a, as a,
• 34:35
  as a go forward kind of thing. So I'll be, I'll be sitting with
• 34:39
  you, but I will try to go over and talk a little smack with my
• 34:41
  with my church group at some point in time.
• 34:43
  So hopefully we see you out there on Saturday for the
• 34:47
  Davidson game. It's we got it.
• 34:49
  We got to protect homecourt. I was joking with Porter and
• 34:51
  another one of our friends. Like I was very encouraged by
• 34:54
  that comeback at VCU. So, you know, maybe wearing too
• 34:57
  much positive emotions on my sleeve, but it's like I can see
• 35:01
  it's beating Davidson and going on a run and getting hot like
• 35:04
  you've said we need to do or we lose to Davidson.
• 35:07
  Like I think, you know, now we're talking like, are we going
• 35:10
  to be next to last or last? And like, all of a sudden I'm
• 35:12
  like, if we lose to Davidson, like the wheels have totally
• 35:15
  come off and how does this team ever recover?
• 35:17
  So it's, you know, it's. An important game, yeah, no
• 35:20
  pressure, guys, no pressure. Take that big second-half
• 35:23
  against VCU and roll it into a 20 point win.
• 35:25
  Let's go on a run that would be a lot more fun for for spider,
• 35:28
  sound off. That's for.
• 35:29
  Sure. Yeah.
• 35:29
  Can we get the start that the ladies have had the last couple
• 35:32
  of? Games 37.
• 35:33
  Six. Where their first quarters?
• 35:34
  37, we'll take 37, Six guys, if you deliver, I will have two
• 35:37
  Falcon smashes if you deliver that.
• 35:39
  Uh Oh, yes. OK, anything else?
• 35:41
  We want to chat. We good.
• 35:42
  I'm all good, my man. All right.
• 35:43
  Well, thank you everybody for listening this far.
• 35:47
  Kind of like subscribe, share. Tell your friends about us,
• 35:50
  yeah? Let's spread the word.
• 35:51
  Users are coming up, listeners are coming up, which we love,
• 35:54
  so. Thank you guys for listening.
• 35:55
  Thank you guys. We'll open all feedback too so,
• 35:58
  but until next time, this is Tom and this is Porter and this is
• 36:01
  spider sounding.