Latest / Spiders Sound Off / Episode 19: Opening week

Transcript

Episode 19: Opening week · Spiders Sound Off

0:05
Hey everybody, welcome back to Spiders.
0:07
Sound off. This is Tom.
0:08
And this is Porter. And we are in our Henrico
0:11
Studios right after the big home victory against East Carolina.
0:17
So our first podcast right after a game and brings a little more
0:22
energy than the the the normal podcast we've done.
0:24
It does, and I'm telling you, they say don't ever podcast
0:27
after a loss, so we don't have to worry about that tonight,
0:29
'cause we handled East Carolina quite well.
0:31
Yeah, it was a fun game. A good crowd in the Robbins
0:33
Center. Got to see our, I guess our
0:36
third game of the week in the Robbins Center.
0:38
We saw one the home women's opener and then the men's opener
0:44
and then tonight's game. So we've had a few different
0:47
days at the Robin Center, a few different nights at the Robin
0:50
Center, kind of. What's your impression so far,
0:51
the improvements? We'll get into the games in a
0:54
bit, but what's your initial Robin Center take?
0:57
Yeah, some, just some stream of consciousness stuff.
0:59
I mean, I was excited to see the lady crowd on the Tuesday.
1:02
It was election night. We had a pretty good crowd out
1:04
there for the for the home opener, nice win against Mount
1:07
Saint Mary's. I love Falcon Smash and the fact
1:11
that they're serving it at men's games.
1:12
I'm a little unhappy they didn't serve beer at the women's game.
1:15
I don't know quite why that hasn't happened yet, but there's
1:20
definitely demand for it because, you know, that's a
1:22
evening game and there's nothing better than watching basketball
1:25
with a cold beer. So I'd like, like to see that as
1:27
an improvement going forward. And then tonight we we were at
1:32
the game with East Carolina and I noticed that they're serving
1:34
crumble cookies. So that's kind of a nice little
1:36
upgrade. Yeah.
1:37
Yeah, I thought, you know, seeing three games there, I
1:40
think the video boards and all of those improvements, I've seen
1:43
kind of kind of enhancements just over those three games.
1:46
So I think they're getting used to it and finding more, more
1:49
places and more ways to use not just the big four boards that
1:54
we're used to, but the the boards on the sidelines as well
1:59
as kind of the one at the, I don't know what you call it,
2:01
where the speakers are kind of in the in the center up.
2:04
You know, that's where when they were doing team announcements of
2:07
starters, you saw names kind of circling on that.
2:10
That was kind of cool, different.
2:11
I asked communications and they said there's I think 2600 feet
2:15
more of video board than there was was last year.
2:17
So that's a really nice enhancement and I like the way
2:19
that they can put up out of town scoreboards and and rotate the
2:24
information they're giving you. It just gives you a better
2:26
overall kind of experience in the Robinson or regardless of
2:29
where you're sitting. Now I'll give kind of one thumbs
2:33
down was at the women's game. I did have the BBQ sandwich.
2:36
I saw some hype about the barbecue and I tried it and woof
2:40
that. That was not something I would
2:42
recommend again. Actually, it was just one of
2:44
those where it's just too wet and mushy.
2:46
Yeah, you said the flavor was good, but the bun ended up
2:49
absorbing all the liquid and yeah, became a bit.
2:52
Of yeah, the way I described it, it was like like soupy oatmeal
2:54
on a bun. So hopefully there's maybe that
2:58
was just day one kind of a performance.
3:00
I'm going to go back to the BBQ. I'm going to give them another
3:02
month and I'll go back to the barbecue and see if it's
3:05
improved. Yeah, maybe they work out the
3:06
kinks. It looked better in the picture
3:08
I saw today when I was walking around.
3:09
They have a kind of a photo of the barbecue and I'm like,
3:11
that's not what it looked like. So maybe I maybe I got a, a just
3:14
a bad serving. So we'll go back to it.
3:16
But, you know, while the BBQ wasn't very good, it still might
3:20
have been a little bit better than the feeling we had after
3:24
watching that Texas game on Friday night.
3:26
That was the, it was tough game. Yeah, it was a tough game.
3:30
I mean, I think we both went in there when we were doing our
3:32
predictions. We said that was going to be a
3:33
loss. I think we are, you know, as the
3:36
team kind of hoping we'd have a a better showing.
3:38
But you watch that game live. I had to watch a little bit on
3:41
replay 'cause I was, I was out that night.
3:43
But tell me what you're thinking.
3:44
I'll. Tell you my experience.
3:45
So I actually 'cause I don't have SEC Plus as a network at
3:49
the house, I walked up to a a, A nearby bar in this case was
3:53
Palani Dr. which had a really nice a nice beer selection,
3:57
which for us is important that nice happy hour prices too.
4:00
By the way, I'll give him a little plug, but they had
4:02
actually reserved ATV for me. I went in early just said can I
4:04
make sure I get one of the TV's? They said sure.
4:06
So I had AI had a little mini group of.
4:08
People, are you a regular there? Did they?
4:10
I am not actually, but they gave me, they gave me the TV.
4:12
Not yet, but I might be going back more because they get they
4:15
gave me the TV and I took my neighbor up there.
4:17
We had the sound off so I couldn't hear the sound.
4:19
But my experience was we were shot out of cannon.
4:22
We looked really good to start. Alicia Newell was flashing all
4:26
over the place. She stole the ball a couple
4:28
times, had some some transition layups.
4:31
Just she was like stepping into passes basically and stealing
4:34
the past. Absolutely.
4:35
She looked like, you know, the kind of on ball defender we
4:38
talked about when we saw the practice in the all those months
4:41
ago. She just was playing at a
4:43
different level than I've seen her play.
4:45
And I think she would have gone on to have probably the game of
4:47
her of her career had she not been badly injured in the first
4:52
quarter of that game. And that was a low point of the
4:55
game. I think 'cause, you know, you
4:56
win, win or lose, you hate to see a kid with a serious injury.
4:59
She took a elbow directly to the face.
5:01
I read on ESPN that it was a combination of a broken nose and
5:05
a concussion. So we we wish her the best in
5:08
her recovery. The thing that really got under
5:11
my skin, though, was you watch it, you know, the girl from
5:15
Texas, you know, I don't, I mean, she, she threw the elbow
5:18
up to try to fend off the defensive player to, to make
5:21
contact with, you know, our defensive player.
5:24
I got to think you call a flagrant foul on that.
5:26
There's no world in which that's not a flagrant foul.
5:30
The officials went over, they watched the, the, the result on
5:33
the board. They talked about it for a
5:35
while. Then the head official went over
5:37
and talked to the Texas coach. The Texas coach gave him a
5:39
little pat, Little Texas pat on the back and said, hey, I got
5:43
you. Yeah, I understand.
5:44
And then they just called a regular foul and the look on
5:46
Russell's face told me that he didn't agree with it.
5:48
He he was like, what Did you see what happened to my player?
5:53
But I didn't love that call. And that changed the the
5:55
momentum that and I'm not saying we would have beat Texas with
5:57
Newell. I'm not saying that they would
5:59
have beat us either way, but I do think it would have been a
6:01
lot closer of a game and I think that we wouldn't have had to
6:04
have relied on so many people playing their second collegiate
6:09
game against probably what will be one of the top three teams in
6:11
the nation by the time it's all said and done this year.
6:13
Yeah, I mean, the the good thing to take out of that game is
6:15
Maggie was great. Like, you know, she did
6:18
everything she could. She scored a lot.
6:20
She got a team in rebounds. I would say she was good.
6:23
That was not great. Maggie for me.
6:25
She did have 7 turnovers and she was under a lot of pressure.
6:28
I mean, they they knew when she got the ball that she had the
6:30
ability to drive and take him to the hoop.
6:32
So there were a lot of like two people coming off and getting
6:35
hands in her underneath. Yeah, I mean, I think I I put
6:38
her in great because I think there are times where it felt
6:41
like it was one on five. She had to do everything and and
6:44
you know, we're two games in and one against the mount, which I
6:48
don't think we're very good. That team, they were OK.
6:51
And I, I mean, I don't think at the end of the year we're going
6:53
to say, wow, what a great win was again.
6:55
I agree with. That and then we played one of
6:57
the top teams, if not the top team in the country.
6:59
So it's really hard to say I, you know, but two games in and I
7:02
know this is, this isn't a sound bite that I want to stick with
7:05
us, but we've talked a lot about the big three and I'd say two
7:08
games in, it's kind of the big one.
7:09
We just we haven't really seen Rachel or Ali have a great game
7:12
yet. It's coming.
7:13
Ali played a really good game in that first game.
7:16
She was she was 3 for four from three-point land against Mount
7:19
and she she played in control and and ran the offense.
7:21
The problem was, you know, Texas's point guard is one of
7:24
the defensive player of the year candidates and she completely
7:27
contained Ally that game and that and that when you can't get
7:30
your offense flowing, the read and the react system doesn't
7:32
work. Now what I will say is Roussell
7:36
had a game like this two years ago when we played Duke in the
7:39
first game of the season and they rolled us.
7:40
It was like 30 point win for Duke at Richmond or maybe it's
7:44
at Duke, I can't recall. But we lost by 3083 to 53.
7:47
And then we went on to have a good season, make the
7:50
tournament, play Duke again. And then we were leading them by
7:52
9 at halftime. And then it was a close game at
7:54
the end of the third quarter and they edged us out in the fourth.
7:57
And all I'm saying is Russell learns from games like this.
8:01
The players will learn from games like this.
8:04
I think getting the freshman minutes, even though you know,
8:07
sometimes it was it, it could be hard to watch it, it will help
8:11
the freshman's development curve.
8:14
And we need to, we need a freshman to develop because by
8:16
the end of the year we're going to be counting on them to be
8:18
making huge impacts on this team's scoring and rebounding,
8:22
etcetera. Yeah, no, that's right.
8:24
And we saw the freshman play great in the first game against
8:27
the mounts. Persichetti, man, she's she is
8:29
the real deal. She's going to be, I think, the
8:31
next great spider lady player. Which is very different than
8:34
last year, Like last year, I mean, Newell was the one
8:37
freshman who played and she didn't play much after, you
8:41
know, a couple players came. Back from injury.
8:45
This this year's going to be different.
8:46
We're we're going to have fresh and contribute.
8:48
I would say the and I say this with a tongue in cheek, but rain
8:52
Wright put in lots of minutes and all I could notice were her
8:55
like fluorescent yellow shoes the entire time.
8:59
So. You were not a fan of the?
9:00
Yellow I was not a fan of the the the shoes that were just
9:04
basically I, I just I all I could do is follow her shoes the
9:06
entire time because they were just so bright.
9:09
But anyway, so it's a loss the the team got to go on the road
9:14
together, lost together. I'm sure they're licking their
9:17
wounds on the way back and know that they've got a game coming
9:20
up this week against William and Mary.
9:23
So they probably were sad for a day and then got back to work.
9:27
Yeah, given given one of the props, so Persichetti definitely
9:31
in the first game announced herself on the Richmond stage.
9:35
I mean that's she's going to be a great player for us.
9:37
I mean, Maggie 2813 in that first game, the the thing I'll
9:40
tell you about in the second game, I really, I really thought
9:43
Simon gave a solid minutes. She only played 17 minutes, but
9:47
she looked like she belonged against Texas, which was good to
9:50
see because like, you know, you see, you know, in 17 minutes, I
9:53
think she had 7 points and five rebounds.
9:56
She did not look intimidated by the Texas bigs, and the Texas
9:58
bigs are intimidating. Hopefully Newell can come back
10:02
and play this week. You know, we've had players in
10:06
the past with a broken nose and usually they come back with some
10:08
sort of mask or. Probably the concussion that we
10:11
have to worry more about. Yeah.
10:12
So the concussion can keep her out, if that, if it's a bad
10:16
break, we may see her wearing a mask at some point when she does
10:19
come back. Yeah, she's she's going to be,
10:22
we're going to have such a fun time when she gets healthy
10:24
watching her this season because she definitely brings a ton of
10:27
energy on the defensive end. And until the read and react
10:30
system looks like it does. And if you guys watched the end
10:34
of the season last year when we were on that 17 game run, I
10:37
mean, people were just anticipating where people were
10:39
going to be. Until it looks like that, we're
10:41
going to need to rely on defense.
10:43
Newell showed us to win some of these closer games because we're
10:46
going to play some teams like Columbia and Fairfield, Green
10:49
Bay that are going to give us problems.
10:50
So we're going to need that defensive stopper.
10:52
I mean, I know we're only two games in, so there's only so
10:54
much we can conclude, but it would be interesting if Maggie
11:00
throughout this season is averaging 20 plus.
11:03
Like we don't even on the men's side, we don't have a lot of,
11:06
not a lot of times do we have someone scoring 20 + a game and
11:09
she's that good. And she's not always going to
11:11
have to. So I think at Texas, if we had
11:14
any chance, we knew she had to do that and, and, and she plays
11:17
so hard. She's not going to quit.
11:20
It's fun a couple games in where she's scoring 25 + 2 games in a
11:23
row and we'll see what it's like as we get through more of the
11:27
out of conference issue. To keep that level, we haven't,
11:30
I mean, I don't think we've gotten the three-point game
11:33
going to the level that we can. And I think, you know, once we
11:36
get it to the point where the threes are open and they're
11:38
dropping, you know, it'll feel like Richmond women's basketball
11:41
again. We're just not quite there yet,
11:43
but that's OK. There's a lot of new pieces
11:44
we're gelling. I mean, this is a very tough
11:46
team to play the second game of the season on the road in Texas
11:51
with, you know, officials that felt to me like they were they
11:54
were Texas officials, but. Yeah, maybe just wrap that up by
11:57
saying so they we had 19 fouls on us.
11:59
There were 14 on Texas. And if you saw how aggressively
12:02
Texas was playing defense, that's a hard thing for me to
12:05
fathom. So.
12:06
So, so it's a loss kind of expected loss.
12:09
We weren't expected to win, had a great first quarter and just
12:12
it all kind of fell apart after that.
12:14
But let let's let's transition to the great game we had
12:17
tonight. Yes, obviously the men won
12:19
earlier this week against the Division Three team.
12:22
We don't need to go too much into that.
12:24
There's not a lot to kind of pat yourself on the back.
12:26
But the one thing we have seen two games in a row is coaches is
12:30
playing almost everybody. Playing a ton of people.
12:34
I mean, I think we talked about Arga Bright being somebody who
12:37
stood out as making a ton of progress and it was a good game
12:40
for him. Either way, both games were good
12:41
games. He's, I think he's the, he
12:43
scored, you know, double digits his first two games as a spider.
12:46
I don't. That probably hasn't happened
12:47
too many times. Yeah, and he's I mean, he's he's
12:50
just so quick and so confident. Like you just see, I think the
12:55
development of the next great spider guard in in front of us
12:59
happening minute by minute. The other thing that I've been
13:02
super impressed with is just the the two that I think of as our
13:06
power force, Robinson and Daughtry.
13:08
I mean they just are so exciting to watch.
13:11
I was actually at the press conference after the game
13:13
tonight. I got a chance to talk to
13:14
Daughtry and I and I asked him. I said it looks like you just
13:17
you get this idea in your mind when you get the ball that you
13:19
can turn and go through or around your guy to the basket
13:22
and score. It's like, is that the way
13:23
you've always played? Or is that, you know, something
13:25
you've kind of adjusted as you've gotten bigger?
13:27
And he said, you know, it's just kind of his mentality is like,
13:29
I've I got the ball anywhere down low.
13:31
I'm taking it to the hoop. And I love that, by the way, I
13:34
just love that it's that physical play, you know, because
13:37
you either going to have to foul him or you're going to have to,
13:38
you're going to have some sort of contact as he goes to the
13:41
rim. And it's just, it's just fun to
13:43
watch that develop in front of us.
13:44
So I'm I just thought that was a great, great effort tonight by
13:48
Daughtry and and the whole team played great.
13:50
Mooney, give him credit for that coaching job too.
13:53
I mean, he rolled in it a ton of players.
13:56
It worked. I always will tell you when it
13:58
works and it it worked tonight. I mean, there was a lot of guys
14:01
who got a lot of minutes and. What what what I love about what
14:03
Daughtry and Robinson bring is I I think of and Mooney has said
14:07
it many Times Now just in the last couple of weeks.
14:09
I like they're not the typical written spider player and I I
14:15
think of too many times, even when we've been really good,
14:18
there are moments where there's five people around the
14:21
three-point line and the ball's just getting passed around the
14:24
three-point line. And so when you've got guys like
14:26
Daughtry and Robinson, like that's not their, I mean they'll
14:29
shoot the three. I think they both attempted them
14:30
tonight, but that's not their game.
14:32
They want to get inside. So you're going to have two guys
14:34
who aren't just going to be happy passing around the
14:36
three-point line. Like they're going to be wanting
14:39
to post up. They're going to be looking to
14:40
drive and I think that's that's where it's an added dimension to
14:44
some of our kind of, let's say, more traditional Mooney teams.
14:47
Do you know what the starter reserve, starter bench point
14:52
distribution was from tonight? Well, I'm trying to think of who
14:56
started. We know walls didn't do a whole
14:57
lot today, got in foul trouble, the time didn't do a whole lot.
15:01
So I'm guessing it was, you know. 30 points for the
15:04
starters, 57 for the bench. That right there tells you like
15:08
the the substitutions, the the aggressive kind of in and out
15:12
play against this team on this night worked and so.
15:15
Now, the one thing that's interesting, as much as he plays
15:18
everybody and a lot of people got minutes, like Tyne and
15:21
Johnston both had more than 25 minutes, or I think Johnson had
15:25
25 and Tyne at 26. So 2 guys who did play a lot,
15:29
they're kind of the main ball handlers on the team and they're
15:31
one of them was almost out there I think all game to kind of to
15:35
handle the ball. It is something, if we go back
15:37
to kind of when we first looked at Johnston, I think we all
15:40
thought originally that he was kind of a shooting guard type,
15:43
but he's really got the ball in his hands.
15:44
A lot of times it's him and Tyne and Tyne is the off guard.
15:48
Lopez had 21 minutes if he didn't really score a lot, but,
15:51
you know, still playing a lot. Well, let me ask you a question.
15:54
Was this John Beagles? Jonathan Beagles best game as a
15:56
spider. I would think so.
15:59
I mean, I remember all of his stats in front of me, but he
16:02
looked so comfortable this year. Last year was his first year as
16:06
a Spider. There's a lot to learn.
16:08
I mean, he's outplayed Walls two games in.
16:10
Now it's two games, but he looks very fluid in there.
16:13
He can do a lot. I remember when Rob was our our
16:18
guest when you were out of the country, he mentioned that, you
16:23
know, he can see Beagle that can do 80% of what Walls can do.
16:27
I'm not sure that's fair. I look at it now and think he
16:30
can do everything Wallace can do now.
16:32
What he may not, he may not. Better three-point shooter.
16:35
But I would say, you know, you said it to me tonight.
16:38
I think it was an interesting point.
16:39
While we were watching the game, you said, you know, Beagle has a
16:41
bevy of moves going to the basket and that is kind of a
16:45
little bit of a difference maker because you know when you go
16:47
aggressively to the basket like he did tonight, you get fouled
16:51
and he was on the foul line. He had 11 foul shots tonight,
16:53
made nine of them. 82% like that, right?
16:57
There has been something that we've we've had missing for a
17:00
long time, like a big that's like literally taking you to the
17:03
rack every time and getting fouled so.
17:05
Yeah, and I think it's having options.
17:07
So like walls and Beagle, like who's got the hot hand, right?
17:10
Lean on one one night and lean on one the other.
17:13
I don't think either is going to become a 35 minute guy, but it's
17:17
good to have. It's good to have two at that
17:19
spot. The depth is so impressive
17:21
there, right? You got two guys and and Walls.
17:22
I mean, I'll give a credit to he's probably one of the better
17:24
passers on the team passing a three-point shooting.
17:26
He's really, really solid Beagle.
17:28
I love the way he's playing right now.
17:30
Aggressive defense, taking you to the hoop.
17:33
Love the four right now between Robinson and Daughtry.
17:35
Those guys have me really excited.
17:37
Those I mean those guys are going to get more and more
17:38
minutes as the season goes on. And then you have, you know,
17:41
Tanner and Lopez. I think of them as the three and
17:44
and and a little bit of different styles.
17:46
I mean, Lopez, there's a guy who's wants to take you off the
17:48
dribble every time. And I think Tanner is like, I, I
17:51
don't I don't see him it with that kind of mentality, but
17:54
he's, you know, got a nice mid range shot game.
17:56
So I mean it's just you got a lot of depth at each position
17:58
and it's super fun to watch. But I mean, you know, I'm I'm
18:01
just looking at the roster and I'm like between Robinson
18:04
Daughtry and Arga Bright, you know, those guys give us a lot
18:08
of hope for beyond this year too.
18:10
Like those are real players that we're seeing in our second
18:12
Spider game making huge impacts. Yeah, and we've seen through two
18:16
games that Mooney is playing eleven players and maybe even
18:21
more at at times. And I think there's a question
18:25
of is that the plan right? And I know he talked today on
18:31
the radio and in the post game about, you know, getting some
18:34
outside advice from former coach Jamal Brunt and Mike Rhodes,
18:40
both at Penn State now about kind of their experience of
18:43
having kind of very deep rosters and how do you manage those
18:46
minutes. So he's really thinking about
18:48
that for sure. I, I will say, if you look at
18:52
his history and did some of this analysis and he's, so he's
18:56
coached for 20 seasons, not including this year, 19 of those
18:59
20 years, he had four players that averaged 25 or more
19:03
minutes. So that's, that's the way he's
19:05
done it. And the only time he didn't, he
19:07
had three that averaged more than 25 and two of them averaged
19:12
more than 35 minutes a game. So for his twenty seasons he has
19:16
played, you know, 4-3 or most cases 4 for more than 25 minutes
19:22
a game. And, and I'll say in 16 of those
19:25
20, he had at least at least two who had 30 or more minutes per
19:29
game. So I, I commend him that he's
19:31
really investigating what it would be like to play 910 deep
19:37
and to spread out those minutes. And today was a great example of
19:39
that. I will say I don't think that's
19:42
the end game this year. Yeah, you're pretty adamant
19:46
about that, but I actually. I think it's inevitable that
19:48
after or at some point during this out of conference.
19:51
When you're saying when the competition stiffens, we'll go,
19:53
we'll we'll short, we'll shorten.
19:54
That he's going to determine who are the ones that that are
19:56
really contributing more consistently and give them more
20:00
time because the game matters. And it's not.
20:03
I mean, tonight was a blowout. So, you know, you're, you're
20:06
able to rotate and you can say the rotation helped lead to the
20:09
blowout, but it was, you know, we had a good lead at halftime.
20:12
So there was, there was never a OK, this is a tight game or
20:15
we're down by three. So I, I, I think is between now
20:19
and the Atlantic 10. I still hope, my hope is that
20:23
this depth is leading to a lot of competition and a lot of, you
20:27
know, you're only out there for 3 minutes, 4 minutes, you better
20:29
play well, you make a mistake. He's got someone who can come in
20:32
and and he's done that subbing wise.
20:35
So I'm hoping that just leads to our eight man rotation being
20:40
even better than it it it could be I but I but I know he's
20:44
talking to other coaches to how to do this.
20:46
So he's thinking. So he's adjusting for, for
20:48
people who have said that he's rigid and and flexible, I will
20:51
say, you know, I was at the press conference tonight with
20:54
him. I asked him, I said, hey, Chris,
20:55
you led the you led Princeton and then thus the whole Ivy
20:59
conference in minutes for two years in a row.
21:01
So this is new for you too, because you're a, you know,
21:04
player player horses kind of guy.
21:06
And he he acknowledged that. But he also said, you know, we
21:09
have a lot of equality in terms of talent on this team.
21:13
So, like, we go 12 deep and we feel like there's not as huge of
21:15
a difference between 1:00 and 12:00 as there might have been
21:17
in the past years. So I think he's adjusting to the
21:20
talent. The other change that kind of
21:23
works against your statistics, and that's good research by the
21:26
way you pulled is, you know, this is like the first or the
21:28
second year that the NCAA has moved the roster size up to 15
21:32
scholarships. So you have much deeper teams
21:35
than you did in the past. So I think with the depth that
21:39
he's got, he's decided the best way to win with these guys is to
21:43
is to play a lot and run and press.
21:45
And I, I'll tell you what, I love the press in the first half
21:48
tonight, he pressed the heck out of them and it worked.
21:50
It really worked. It, it kind of got them out of
21:52
sorts. It gave us momentum.
21:55
We were, we were, you know, quit doing quick changes, you know, 3
21:58
minutes in, 3 minutes out. But like that, that, that
22:01
intensity I think gave us the momentum that we needed to
22:07
establish that lead in the first half and in the second-half we
22:10
didn't press as much, but the, the substitute, the substituting
22:13
still took took place and. Yeah, what'll be interesting and
22:16
obviously we'll talk about the upcoming games soon.
22:19
I mean, we, our schedule we and we've we've talked about and
22:22
others have that the men's out of conference schedule is not
22:25
that tough. There's a couple tougher games
22:27
coming up, but it's not that tough.
22:29
I what I'm curious to see what happens and how does Mooney do
22:33
this? So let's use tonight as a great
22:35
example. So Argabrite had 14 points in 14
22:38
minutes. Jaden Daughtry had 13 points in
22:41
13 minutes. Like if it only makes sense that
22:45
him and his coaches as they're analyzing or like, well, how do
22:48
we get more time to those guys or how do we challenge them
22:51
more? Like, does Argabrite score 13
22:54
and 20 minutes and starts turning the ball over if he
22:58
plays more? But you look at those two
23:00
players as examples of where I'm hoping over the next few games.
23:04
Like they're and I know Jayden might be on like a minute's
23:07
count as well because of still coming back from so much time
23:11
off this summer. But like, what happens over the
23:14
next three games, if Aiden and Jayden are scoring 15-A game and
23:18
at some point it's like, boy, these are guys that need to be
23:21
playing 20 plus minutes because they're that good.
23:24
And someone's going to lose time because of that.
23:27
And again, this is all speculation, so we'll see.
23:29
But it's it's it's encouraging. And maybe we find out next game
23:33
that AJ Lopez scores 15 and 15 minutes and it's somebody else.
23:38
But I do think Jayden and Aiden, I just realized their names
23:42
rhyme. Jayden and Aiden have potential
23:44
to be kind of the stars of this team and I could see them being
23:49
the 30 minute guys Robinson two months from now.
23:52
Really, really just a future star for us.
23:54
So there's a lot of I mean, it's weird because, you know, here we
23:59
are, we're two games in, we didn't know what to make of the
24:02
Southern Virginia win because it's AD 3 and you just don't
24:05
know anything about that, right? But this is a win that like will
24:08
resonate with people because you beat, you know, a decent team.
24:11
This is not a top, this is not a bottom.
24:12
I. Mean they're from the American
24:14
conference. Yeah, well, it's American
24:15
Conference, but it's like this is not according to all the
24:17
ranking services, this is not a bottom 50 team.
24:19
This is a team squarely in the middle of all college teams.
24:21
And you and you handled them with relative ease tonight.
24:24
And so you know the I when the net comes out, which will be
24:28
later, it's going to look at the defensive efficiency and offense
24:31
efficiency of each game. And you can have a good net
24:34
rating playing bad teams if you're, if you're kind of
24:37
dominating them on an efficiency basis.
24:39
And so wins like this do matter when you have a nice easy win
24:43
and you've played a really good game.
24:45
So if if we keep that going, you know, got William and Mary next,
24:48
then BMI, then Gardner Webb. Like we said, I think we're
24:51
going to get, I believe to five and O and then the game start
24:53
getting a little bit tougher. It's just you know, you got to
24:56
you got you can't win them by one point.
24:57
You've really got to play a game like we did tonight and just
25:00
keep the pressure on the entire game.
25:01
OK, well, let's give credit to the scheduling geniuses at U of
25:05
R because we're headed into William and Mary week.
25:09
Yes, the men's team has a home game on Tuesday and Tuesday.
25:14
I think that's right. And then the women are on the
25:16
road on Wednesday. So this is tribe week,
25:19
everybody. Or are you allowed to say tribe
25:21
week? They still still the tribe.
25:23
So this is tribe week. William and Mary is, I thought
25:28
they were in the Colonial Association, but they aren't.
25:31
They're in the coastal. I forgot about that rename.
25:35
It's I think it's still the CAA. But every I look on ESPN and
25:38
they just call it the coastal. So they're in the coastal.
25:41
William and Mary is a love. You know, Williamsburg is a
25:44
lovely coastal town. I had a daughter go to William
25:48
and Mary, so I do have some William and Mary gear at home.
25:50
Got some blood in the William and Mary.
25:51
I'll put that aside. So want to talk a little bit
25:56
about these games coming up? Yeah, I mean, William and Mary,
25:59
they're not. They're not as good as, at least
26:01
by the men's. Of the win let's talk about.
26:02
Let's talk about the men's since that one's Tuesday.
26:05
So the men coached by Brian Earl, 210 right now in Ken Palm,
26:12
they had a nice win tonight against Norfolk State, kind of a
26:16
close game, 81 to 78, but it was a road game, so that's good.
26:20
Beat a Division Three team of some sort in the first week,
26:23
first game. They were preseason 4th in the
26:26
Coastal. So there's some talent on that
26:30
team. Then I don't know as much about
26:32
William and Mary as I do some of these other teams.
26:34
I mean, they've got, they've got some guys on the team that have
26:38
that are, that are relatively well thought of.
26:40
I I don't know enough about, you know, the size and size like
26:43
looks like the front line is 6967.
26:46
Yeah, let me let me give you some details.
26:47
So Chase Lowe is their senior. He's probably their best player
26:51
who's second team pre season on the the CAA. 66 foot five it
26:58
looks. 65 Yeah, they they're two bigs on their starting line up
27:01
are both 810 cast offs. OK, one from LaSalle, one from
27:06
Saint Louis. I'm gonna butcher these names,
27:08
but from LaSalle it's Tunde, Volberg, Fasasi.
27:11
Fasasi, yeah. And he's from Sweden.
27:13
OK. And the Saint guy from Saint
27:15
Louis they have is Killian Brackenhoff.
27:18
Brockhoff. Brockhoff and he's German, so
27:21
they nineteen 35675. So they both were played for the
27:24
A10 kind of limited minutes, but that's probably why they're
27:28
ended up in the coastal getting more opportunity to play.
27:31
They also have another senior Pullian, I think is a starter.
27:36
He was kind of honorable mention.
27:39
And by the way, the CAA does something really something
27:43
unique with their teams. They have 5 players on their
27:47
first team and five on their second team and five on their
27:50
third versus 6 like the genius A10 has.
27:53
Interesting. But anyway, yeah, so they had a
27:56
nice, the Norfolk State's a nice win.
27:59
They've got some big guys inside, but I think big guys
28:03
that we can. Handle guys are relative when
28:04
your when your frontline is 6967 and we're we're going 611, you
28:09
know, I mean, I know we start a small line up, but we have a lot
28:12
of size we can bring to bear. So we should have a size
28:15
advantage inside on them. They don't look like they, they
28:19
play as many guys as we do. Just looking at their, their
28:21
roster looks like they're playing less guys.
28:23
I, I think we win this game. And I mean, you know, Ken Palm
28:26
says by 10. I don't know if that's if that's
28:29
the right number or not, but I think we'll, I think we'll win
28:31
this game, even though it's, you know, William and Mary's always
28:34
kind of throw out the records and the rankings.
28:36
It's always kind of a personal game with those guys.
28:39
Yep and then we play the women on the road Wednesday.
28:42
They're actually they were pre season 6 in the Coastal William
28:46
Mary if if you don't know, last year had this amazing run.
28:51
They were towards the bottom of the the coastal.
28:55
I think they went six out of the last seven and then went into
28:57
the tournament and won the tournament.
29:00
So they're one of these like under 500 teams that ended up in
29:03
the NCA as and then they played, I think it was high point in the
29:09
first round, kind of in the whatever they call those games
29:13
that are like playing games and they won that.
29:17
So that was the first win in William and Mary's history in
29:21
the NCAA tournament. They're one of those teams that
29:24
hadn't won one. So that was a big win for them.
29:27
They ended up then getting annihilated by Texas.
29:33
We can't really criticize that right now.
29:36
But anyway, so they had this magical run last year, but you
29:39
know they're still expected to be middle of the pack in coastal
29:42
this year. I think their best player is
29:44
Cassidy Geddis. They.
29:46
Lost by 21 to Davidson. We know Davidson really well.
29:49
Davidson has some good players. Yeah, Davidson's a good team.
29:52
But they're picked behind us in the 810.
29:54
So I mean, I think, I think, I think we'll beat Wes.
29:57
My, my fear about the William and Mary game is if Newell's not
30:01
back, 'cause if there's an injury, you know, we, we
30:03
definitely could get caught looking ahead 'cause we have
30:05
Columbia right behind them. That worries me a little bit
30:08
'cause like, you know, William, Mary, you can't overlook them.
30:10
They're, it's on the road #1 never overlook a road game.
30:13
I think we'll get right with William and Mary.
30:15
I think we'll, I think we'll win pretty comfortably.
30:18
I would say we win by 25 points if I'm guessing right.
30:21
Now their best player this Cassidy get us.
30:24
She's 57 shooter, so she's an outside shooter.
30:27
Like if yet if we had Newell, it's like it's an it's a no
30:30
brainer. Cause Newell is going to be.
30:32
On her and not let her shoot. But but Ali plays good defense
30:36
too, and we'll have others that can guard her.
30:38
And she's 57, so you know she's going to have to take steps
30:41
back. From So Be the Game, I think
30:43
Alstrom gets right. Like Alstrom has been OK so far
30:46
her first two games, but like you can't keep her down for long
30:48
I bet. I bet this is a big game for
30:50
Rachel. Yeah, so I think Tribe Week
30:52
should come out with two wins for.
30:56
What's your Richmond? What's your prediction on the
30:57
men's score? Let's start there.
31:00
I I have no idea. We argued over our last scores
31:04
of we was. We were pretty close.
31:06
We were, I think we had 28 and 20.
31:07
Yeah, but then you just, you just, you just go to your
31:09
website services and get answers from.
31:12
That, I mean, hey, we all have our sources, right?
31:14
I mean, I, I, I, I have a pretty, pretty good feeling in
31:17
that we're going to win both games.
31:18
By OK, so let me write these down so we can kind of remember
31:21
them later because I'm just going to randomly pick.
31:23
Because we never listen to ourselves after the fact, yeah.
31:25
OK, OK, so the men are going to win 78 to 61.
31:36
Bold. What do you have for the men?
31:38
I'm going to go with the men. We score 76, they score 68.
31:48
No, let me change that. We score 76, they score 62.
31:52
What's at home? I was thinking it was right.
31:53
You're just like picking the same score idea.
31:55
What did you pick 7861? Oh, shoot.
31:58
You can't. You've changed it twice.
32:00
You can't change. OK, well.
32:02
OK, so double did you win for the?
32:04
We basically have the same score there.
32:06
What do you think is going to happen on the women's side?
32:07
I think women are going to be angry and I think they're going
32:10
to take out a lot of frustration on William and Mary.
32:13
And I don't think William, Mary's going to be prepared for
32:16
that. I think we're going to win that
32:18
game. I'm going to go with 76 to 5051.
32:24
7651 OK, I will say, I mean, we're going to beat them by a
32:28
lot. So I'm going to go with 81 to
32:32
45. That's a bold tag.
32:35
That's a big win. So we're we, we just annihilate
32:37
them. Please don't.
32:40
I recommend no one bets on anything we have to say.
32:43
What is your little service tell you the score of the men's game
32:47
is going to be? We'll win by 10.
32:48
We'll by 10, yeah. Does it have a score or it just
32:51
says by 10? It does hold.
32:52
Please I'll give it to you. It it says and this is just one
32:57
service. This is the Kent Palm, right?
32:58
Yeah, it says actually where it says it has this win by 11 now,
33:01
so 8574. 8574 So it has this under you and I didn't score
33:07
enough points. Right.
33:10
I think our, I think our defence is, is, is like we still foul in
33:13
a lot, but I think the defence looks a lot better to me.
33:16
And I think that's because the intensity these guys are
33:17
bringing in their limited minutes, they're just coming in
33:19
hot and they're just playing really intense.
33:21
I I don't I don't see William and Mary scoring 74 but I could
33:24
be wrong. Well, the Atlantic 10 today went
33:25
six and O, so maybe we've recovered a little bit from the
33:29
Loyola Chicago loss. Oh my gosh.
33:32
That was a rough one. Should we even talk about that?
33:33
That's that's like one of the worst losses in 18 history in my
33:37
book. And we also, before we wrap
33:40
things up, want to thank one of our listeners who saw on was it
33:46
on Twitter where a podcast talked about here.
33:50
All three bid League, which is probably the most well known
33:54
podcast that covers the Atlantic 10 listed all of all of the fan
33:59
based podcasts and there was like 7 or 8 listed, but there
34:02
was no spiders podcast listed. But one of our fans came in and
34:04
and and listed it off. So thanks to thanks to that fan
34:07
for doing that. We appreciate that.
34:09
And if any of those other podcasters happen to listen to
34:12
this, we'd we'd love to interact with some of these other pods.
34:18
We are the second most popular podcast amongst the men's
34:22
players. I you told me.
34:24
That, yeah. And it's in the program, so you
34:25
guys can just look in the program and find where that is
34:28
there. Sound Off listed as one of the
34:30
men's players favorite podcasts. And I I would have to say who
34:33
do? You guess that men who guess
34:34
who? Do you guess that player that
34:35
listens to us or thinks that's his favorite?
34:37
I think it's Mike Walls. I think it's the, I think it's
34:39
the cover Boy I'm. Going with Arga Bride, I think I
34:42
was the first person to say this kid is next level.
34:45
He's going to be the next grade point guard.
34:47
And I think I I got a little bit of larger bright love out of
34:49
that. So that's what I'm.
34:50
Thinking well, that's got to be your question every time we're
34:53
in a press conference with a player.
34:54
Did you vote for Spider? Sound off that's.
34:57
That's a great point. I should have asked Daughtry
34:58
tonight. I didn't think of it.
34:59
Now I, I will say for all, if there are other podcasters
35:04
listening to this, I do think we're the best sounding podcast
35:07
in the A10. This is a professional recorded
35:11
podcast. This, this Enrico Studios took
35:13
years to build. And I hope you all enjoy
35:18
listening to us and our and we clearly have the best music.
35:24
Yeah, the music is is next level.
35:26
I'll I'll say this, give us a like or subscribe that helps us
35:29
out with our metrics. It also helps you get the
35:31
content when we release it. So if we release other episodes,
35:34
which we're still still prognosticating over doing,
35:38
you'll get them pushed to you and you won't have to go find
35:39
them. That that helps us out a lot.
35:42
So if you are interested in sponsoring an episode or two,
35:44
we'd be happy to happy to to have you.
35:46
We've got some. We're building a little bit of a
35:48
good following here in the city of Richmond and also beyond the
35:50
city of Richmond as well. I think we're in 20 countries
35:53
now streaming spider spiders sound off.
35:55
So. That's exciting.
35:57
Well, hope everyone enjoys William and Mary week.
36:01
I know every it's, you know, been circled on our calendars
36:04
since the schedules came out and no one is nothing's more
36:07
exciting than playing William and Mary in basketball.
36:10
I I'm saying that is with a straight face.
36:13
We'll be at the men's game together.
36:14
Any chance one of us makes it down to Williamsburg for the
36:16
women's game? I cannot I my parents are in
36:19
town Wednesday, so we'll not be travelling out to William and
36:22
Mary, but you, you're, you can go do the.
36:24
Road. I don't know if I can.
36:25
I'll take a look at my calendar, but I'd love to to do it.
36:26
I'd love to get down there, see him.
36:28
OK, well, we'll be talking again about those games and maybe
36:31
others. There's been some spider news
36:33
we'll focus on as well, and we'll get some interviews in not
36:37
just of players but of other folks as the season progresses.
36:41
But until then, this is Tom. And this is Porter.
36:45
And this is spider sounding off. See you.